The local startup scene seems to be booming these days, with various contests, accelerators, and incubators (Arch Grants, T-REx, Capital Innovators, etc.) providing cash and/or support to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into profitable businesses.
Last month, the folks from local marketing agency goBRANDgo! launched the go!-celerator, a startup resource whose concept is as original as its name. (Requisite editor's note: We neither condone nor pass judgment upon this total disregard for proper punctuation and capitalization.)
Generally, these incubators work like so: Startups compete to be chosen for the program; winners receive a chunk of funding and possibly office space in exchange for a certain percentage of equity in the company.
The go!-celerator also started with a contest. Applicants sent a 60-second video explaining the ideas behind their companies. Six semifinalists expanded on their goals, challenges, and business plans is a five-minute video, and then three finalists earned the right to make their pitches in person. As with Arch Grants, the winner had to either be local or willing to relocate here. The inaugural winner of the go!-celerator competition is HCP United, a business that provides "e-dispensary" solutions for healthcare companies, which has moved to St. Louis from Boston participate in the year-long program.
So what makes the go!-celerator unique? HCP United is giving up zero equity, and in return, it's receiving zero direct funding. Instead, the startup will be given free office space, a fully furnished apartment, and even gift certificates to local restaurants (you can sign up to donate a home-cooked meal on the feed-a-founder page). By removing the incidental expenses of room and board, the go!-celerator allows its entrepreneurs to focus on their businesses, rather than having to work a part-time job to pay the bills while they get their concepts off the ground. As goBRANDgo! President Derek Weber puts it, he wanted to help entrepreneurs avoid a "sleeping-on-their-parents'-couch-type situation."
"What we really wanted to focus on was how can we remove the distractions that get in the way of a young entrepreneur trying to accomplish their goals?" Weber says.
Another hurdle faced by young entrepreneurs (the competition was open only to those 30 and younger) is making connections with established professionals. So the go!-celerator hooks them up with mentors and "service providers" with expertise in banking, accounting, law, and so on. goBRANDgo! is kicking in $2,000 per month of its marketing services.
"Traditionally, entrepreneurs, as they’ve been in their field for a while, they build up those contacts and those relationships," Weber says. "But when you’re first starting out, you don’t have those things. So we wanted to make sure we could get them plugged in."
And in addition to the grand prize won by HCP, a company called Remarkable, which makes perpetual dry-erase markers (every entrepreneur's dream), received a second-place package.
That's another unique characteristic of the go!-celerator: Rather than going after splashy tech startups—social-media or app-based businesses that tend to draw a lot of buzz but sometimes fizzle—it targeted "the everyday entrepreneur," Weber says, "the ones who are trying to grow their businesses steadily and organically over time and really add jobs year over year over year."
By this time next year, we should know if that's working. In the meantime, if you're a 20-something with a burgeoning business, the eligibility requirements for the 2014-2015 go!-celerator class are already online.
