Watching Startup Trends Develop

One of the interesting things about sitting on the receiving end of lots of Amplify applications and pitches is that I get to see trends unfold in real-time, on a micro level. Looking across the 100+ applications we’ve reviewed thus far, I’ve seen a handful of commonalities among companies; many oft them trying to solve the same problem with a different approach. I think YC and others probably already realize this, but the data that we accelerators collect on market trends is pretty valuable.

Earlier this month, TechStars released a new “unified” application platform called Accelerato.rs, you can read David Cohen’s post about it here. Personally, I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not. From the entrepreneurs standpoint there are some obvious benefits; one place to see compare the programs and of course a single submission process; ala ‘one application to rule them all’. But on the flip-side, it’s somewhat commoditizing the whole process; like a loan or college application. I think that works when everyone has the same criteria for evaluating companies, but the reality is they don’t. At least we don’t. In fact, I expect I’ll change the application questions at least 10 times over the next two years as I learn what makes for a better submission.

Moreover, I’m not sure who owns the data with this thing. If an entrepreneur goes to Accelerato.rs and submits an application for Brandery but opts not to submit to Techstars directly, does Techstars get to analyze that data?

Well knowing the Techstars and Kauffman philosophy, and as transparent as are, I’d probably say it’s all above board. But, I think there is some really valuable data about trends there. And when I put my entrepreneurial hat on, I love the idea of being able consolidate thousands of businesses nationwide, find similarities and overlap, and extrapolate the best business solution for a given problem.

Maybe if they made Accelerato.rs a free to use analytics platform for entrepreneurs and investors that might be something. I’ll be watching to see what happens here before we jump in.