I interviewed the Voice.com CEO, David Ciccarelli, in order to learn about the twists and turns of the company’s journey, which includes pitstops at two tech accelerators: The Canadian Technology Accelerator program in San Francisco for four months in 2013, and the CTA Digital NYC in New York in 2015 for a five-month program. Read more about emerging marketplace With this preliminary information in hand, dive deeper by finding data to support why this specific accelerator is relevant to your business. For instance, when we applied to an accelerator in New York City that we knew placed an emphasis on business development, we stated why NYC was our #1 market. We quantified the opportunity by stating how many registered users we had in New York as well as how many active customers. Stating the opportunity and projecting how much revenue we believed we could generate during the program went a long way into gaining acceptance.” In fact, I prepared for each mentoring session with a pitch deck with screenshots from Salesforce to visually demonstrate the progress we were making towards the goals I set at the outset of the program. During mentoring sessions, ask for advice and write it down. Then, at your next session tell your mentor how you implemented the advice, what worked and what didn’t. This positive feedback loop will encourage your mentor to continue supporting you. Then, when you make the big ask, such as a referral into their organization, they’ll have the confidence that you’ll deliver.” Recently, we participated in another accelerator in New York City. During this program, we focused our efforts on business development and sales. We generated over $250,000 of new business. These new accounts are critical to our expansion in the advertising industry. We’re pleased with the results from both of these experiences.”
