Startup Accelerator

Meet Seoul-based accelerator SparkLabs’ 19th batch of startups • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Apps, demo day, early-stage startups, Seoul, SparkLabs Korea, Startup Accelerator, Startups, VentureNo Comments

SparkLabs Korea, a Seoul-based seed to early-stage accelerator, held a demo Day on Thursday for its 19th cohort of companies. The latest demo day marks its tenth year after SparkLabs launched its accelerator program in December 2012. The accelerator has backed more than 270 startups since its inception in 2012, co-founder and partner of SparkLabs Eugene Kim told ZebethMedia. The program has two cohorts a year — one starting in January and the other in June — Kim said, adding that the program is 16 weeks long. SparkLabs admits 10 to 15 companies per cohort and invests up to $100,000 into each startup in exchange for 6% equity. Kim noted that the investment is made either with a SAFE (simple agreement for future equity) or stock purchase agreement — a decision that is up to the startup to make. During its program, SparkLabs provides funding, mentorship and access to administrative and legal advisory support for startups. In addition, participating startups get co-working space, will attend weekly classes and have access to four to six mentors who have expertise in various industries, not just in South Korea but global regions. SparkLabs, a member of the global accelerator network (GAN), has been using international best practices for accelerators from the beginning, Kim said. He added that its partners and mentors are all former entrepreneurs and have global business experience in both the U.S. and Asia. The accelerator also operates other government-supported programs like TIPS, a tech incubator program for startups in South Korea, and manages later-stage investment funds, Kim noted. SparkLabs began in Korea to find and help local Korean startups in their seed stage and help them go global. Though the majority are based in Korea, the accelerator gets applicants from other countries looking or planning to enter Korea or Asia, according to Kim. When asked if SparkLabs Korea is a subsidiary of SparkLabs Group, Kim said it’s not a group structure. Each accelerator entity, such as SparkLabs Korea, SparkLabs Taiwan and SparkLabs Cultiv8, is a separate entity with its own accelerator fund. Kim said in an interview with ZebethMedia that as the program focuses on early-stage seed startups, some teams pivot or change their business focus as they try to find product market fit (PMF). “Not all teams end up pitching at demo day. If the teams feel they want to focus on building their traction or PMF, they can choose to pitch at a later demo day,” Kim said. Here’s the list of nine companies in the most recent cohort at SparkLabs. The 19th cohort ends with a demo day on November 3. Vetflux: A telehealth veterinary platform that provides an artificial intelligence-based chatbot for vet clinics and pet owners. It offers two apps connecting vets with their pet patients. The Vetflux app is for pet owners to get the latest information about pet care, while the other, called Vetflux +, is for vets to organize workflows. Amondycare: Amondycare’s app lets mental health therapists manage their workflows and administrative work from patient appointments to sales. YKring: A social app, Kevin’s Club, helps college students make the most of their college life outside the library or dorms. YKring says it enables users to find out what’s going on in the community to find clubs or a group of people with similar interests to do activities together. YKring, which launched its service in January, claims that it has more than 2,500 users with $35,000 in sales as of October 2022. Its monthly subscription fee is ~$20. DataBean: This startup develops a cooling system for data centers. Its service SmartBox allows for thermal management. Fasket: Fasket is a quick commerce startup that operates an instant grocery delivery business in South Korea. Gyverse: Gyverse develops a fridge for dry-aged meat using IoT and AI. Users can dry age beef at home by interconnecting Gyverse’s smart devices to its app to monitor the temperature and humidity. Moverse: A 3D motion marketplace that allows users to access and buy 3D motion data sources for the use of metaverse, games, movies, animation and augmented reality. R-Materials: R-Material’s platform, called the Hybrid-generator system, enables solar and wind to convert power sources. MyShop Cloud: An online to offline (O2O) platform that wants to digitize the value chain of dried fish, from wholesale to the retail market. Its service Dasiwoorida, which analyzes the dried fish price and transactions, recommends products for customers. SparkLabs is currently open to applications for its 20th batch program until November 11. The accelerator will finalize its selections in December and looks to start the 20th batch in January. South Korea, which attracts the third largest amount of venture capital funding in Asia — about $6.45 billion annually — following China and India, currently has 16 unicorns to date.

2022 R&D tax prep, social media for founders, managing remote teams • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in EC roundup, Enterprise, Startup Accelerator, Startups, Tax law, tech layoffs, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments

As director of Techstars’ startup pipeline, Saba Karim spends much of his time touting the ways entrepreneurs can benefit by joining an accelerator. But is it the right choice for every founder? After he posted a thread on Twitter offering several rationales explaining why some should definitely avoid them, I invited him to adapt it for a TC+ guest post we published yesterday. “Keep in mind that funding will solve your money problems, but it won’t solve everything else,” he writes. Full ZebethMedia+ articles are only available to membersUse discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription “You’ll still need to figure out how to acquire customers, find the best talent, build an incredible product, assemble a great advisory board and get to product-market fit.” His article confirms a suspicion I’ve long harbored: many entrepreneurs pursue accelerators so they can gain access to investors, score free publicity, or receive positive reinforcement for their idea. But none of those are determining factors for success. “If you’re not living and breathing your startup, you’re going to struggle anyway,” says Karim. If you have information, knowledge or experience to share that could help early-stage startup founders, investors and workers make better decisions, please review our submission guidelines and drop us a line. Thanks very much for reading, Walter ThompsonEditorial Manager, ZebethMedia+@yourprotagonist These founders landed early checks by being savvy about social media (L-R) Connie Loizos, Silicon Valley Editor, ZebethMedia, Nik Milanović, Founder, This Week in Fintech; General Partner, The Fintech Fund, Joshua Ogundu, CEO, Campfire and Gefen Skolnick, Founder, Couplet Coffee. Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for ZebethMedia Is there a correlation between being extremely online and a founder’s ability to fundraise? According to three entrepreneurs Connie Loizos spoke with at ZebethMedia Disrupt, a social media presence that blends aspects of your business and personal lives can “make it easier to connect with investors and customers.” Nik Milanović (founder, This Week in Fintech), Gefen Skolnick (founder, Couplet Coffee) and Josh Ogundu (CEO, Campfire) talked about the benefits and downsides of using TikTok, Twitter and other platforms to build authentic personal and business brands. “I even tweeted yesterday that it was kind of not a good day as a founder, and it was really nice and people engaged with that,” said Skolnick. “I don’t believe in constantly showing that things are good. Some days things are just not good.” How to effectively manage a remote team during wartime Image Credits: Anna Fedorenko / Getty Images “There are a lot of studies about crisis management on the web, but none of them tell us how to manage a company during times of war,” according to Alex Fedorov, CEO and founder of Ukrainian startup OBRIO. Prior to Russia’s invasion, “our company had never seen a real crisis,” he writes in a post that presents the six methods his company used to maintain continuity while protecting workers. “Training to manage stress, anxiety and personal finances will help your employees build the needed knowledge and respond to tough situations.” 3 founders discuss how to navigate the nuances of early-stage fundraising Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images Founders who have raised funds for early-stage startups in the last year have generally had an easier time than people seeking Series A money (or later). Then again, “easy” is such a relative term. At ZebethMedia Disrupt, Rebecca Szkutak spoke to three entrepreneurs to learn more about how they adjusted their expectations and tactics as they approach investors during a downturn: Amanda DoAmaral, co-founder and CEO, Fiveable Arman Hezarkhani, founder, Parthean Sarah Du, co-founder, Alloy Automation Prepare to amortize: Inflation may spell doom for R&D tax expensing Image Credits: Fancy/Veer/Corbis (opens in a new window) / Getty Images The U.S. federal government has made R&D tax credits available for decades, but a major change set to take place this year will impact startups across the board. Previously, R&D expenditures could be expensed upfront, but now, “those expenses will need to be amortized over 5 years in the case of domestic research, and 15 years for foreign research,” according to tax attorney Andrew Leahey. Because so many startups “incur the bulk of their R&D costs in their first year of operation,” many could wait “the equivalent of a lifetime” to recover those expenses. High inflation has stalled efforts to repeal the amortization requirement, so Leahey shares several tactics companies can use “to prepare for the possibility of the rule coming into effect.” Remote work is here to stay. Here’s how to manage your staff from afar Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images Before the pandemic, most startup workers had the same experience on their first day: set up a new laptop, fill out some onboarding paperwork, then start gathering intel on the best places to grab lunch near the office. Now that so many teams are hybrid or fully remote, companies are learning the importance of fostering company culture and community from day one, a topic Rebecca Bellan delved into at ZebethMedia Disrupt with three experienced managers: Adriana Roche, chief people officer, Mural Deidre Paknad, CEO and co-founder, WorkBoard Allison Barr Allen, angel investor, Trail Run Capital “The biggest learning for us over the last three years was that it’s very difficult to really build expertise in a domain or a subject through Zoom,” said Paknad. How our startup made it through 2 recessions without relying on layoffs Image Credits: Aaron Black (opens in a new window) / Getty Images So far this year, about 45,000 tech workers have been laid off. If that’s hard to visualize, imagine a sold-out Mets game at Citi Field in New York City. Cutting staff is standard operating procedure during a downturn, but Sachin Gupta, who leads sales, marketing and general operations for HackerEarth, says his company has weathered two recessions without resorting to mass firings. “At any given time, our staff portfolio operates at about 90% of what we consider ideal,” he says. “Think of this like the distance

Asset management firm Stone Ridge launches Bitcoin-focused accelerator program • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 26, 2022Posted in accelerators, Bitcoin, Crypto, Startup Accelerator, web3No Comments

Asset management firm Stone Ridge has launched a startup accelerator, In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), that will be dedicated to growing Bitcoin-focused applications, the team exclusively told ZebethMedia. The program will bring four cohorts per year, each consisting of about eight to 12 teams, or about 30 to 50 founders, to New York City from around the world for eight weeks at a time to focus on building on the Bitcoin-centric Lightning Network and Taro protocol, Kelly Brewster, CEO of Wolf, said to ZebethMedia. The Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment system built on top of Bitcoin that aims to enable faster payment transactions. Separately, Taro is a protocol that launched in April of this year to help issue digital assets on Bitcoin’s blockchain that can then be transferred to Lightning Network instantly in low-fee transactions. “They’re both generic and usable enough in such a wide range of applications that it’s like saying you’re starting an accelerator focused on HTTP,” Brewster said. “It’s a specific technology but the business use cases can be incredibly broad ranging. The fact that we’re very focused is a big part of the leg up and can be a big draw for founders.” Teams in the accelerator will range from small startup teams to early-stage companies. They will receive individual investments of $250,000, while one winner of the cohort will get an additional $500,000 for a total of $750,000, Brewster said. Some themes Brewster is interested in seeing startups expand upon include micropayments and tipping through Lightning and Taro. NYDIG, a subsidiary of Stone Ridge, is also supporting the accelerator, alongside mentorship and investments from Bitcoin-focused venture capital firms and operating companies. The names of companies providing outside capital will not be released, Brewster said. However, he added that all investors and mentors are already working with Bitcoin and Lightning. “That ranges from specialized VCs dedicated to Lightning up through public companies in fintech and banking.” Prior to this role, Brewster was NYDIG’s chief marketing officer and he has worked for Stone Ridge for about six years. Before that, Brewster spent almost 10 years at Goldman Sachs “in a variety of roles,” he said. “Over the past six years, I’ve had the opportunity to help start a number of businesses and I’ve fallen in love with the process of taking an idea and turning it into a real thing.” Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin that aims to provide instant payments and scalability at a low cost for the blockchain. It allows users to send or receive Bitcoin quickly by making transactions off the main blockchain network or, as Coinbase said, “like an HOV lane on a highway.” “At Stone Ridge, we’ve been watching Lightning for quite a while now,” Brewster said. “The network has hit critical mass over the last 12 months and there’s enough capacity now you can do real-world things pretty robustly on the network.” In the past, the network has been implemented by Twitter for users to send and receive Bitcoin “tips” through Lightning Network-focused payments app Strike. It has also been implemented in the El Salvador government-created wallet, Chivo, so citizens can complete cross-border transactions. “The growth in Lightning over the past year has been extraordinary,” Brewster said. “In some ways, it’s the perfect moment to step back and see where there is signal or just noise. Some of the clearest signals are coming from Lightning. The growth and network capacity has been hockey-sticking.” The news comes at an interesting time for NYDIG, which recently laid off about 33% of its staff, according to a Wall Street Journal report last week. In December 2021, NYDIG raised $1 billion, which valued the company at over $7 billion it said. Brewster declined to comment on the layoffs, but said, “The launch of Wolf should be a clear signal of Stone Ridge’s long-term belief and investment in Bitcoin. It’s obviously a difficult environment out there, but this is the time to make investments looking a couple years out.” There are a number of crypto accelerator programs budding across the ecosystem. Some range from layer-2 blockchain-specific accelerators like Polygon’s to general web3-focused programs like Alliance DAO. While some offer capital like Wolf plans to, others invite investors to demo days in hopes that they invest in the startups’ projects. “In times like this, the companies that get built will capture these secular trends and really take hold as they accelerate,” Brewster said. “So we think this is the perfect moment to build rather than try to do something ourselves at Stone Ridge — we want to help and empower hundreds of other founders.”