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Karim, Iftekhar U: An explorative study on business accelerators In the context of
Bangladesh, Hamburg, Anchor Academic Publishing 2015
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Printed in Germany
Wageningen UR
An explorative
study on business
accelerators
In the context of Bangladesh
Iftekhar Ul Karim
M.Sc. Internship paper submitted to the Marketing and Consumer Behaviour (MCB) group in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the
Master of Science in Management, Economics and Consumer Studies (MME) at Wageningen University
An explorative study on
business accelerators
In the context of Bangladesh
Academic Supervisor
On-site Supervisor
Dr. Paul Ingenbleek
Asst. Professor
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group
Faculty of Social Sciences
Wageningen University and Research Centre
Mr. Thierry Sanders
Founder and Director
BiD Network Foundation and bidX
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Prepared by
Iftekhar Ul Karim
Reg. no. 891226-422-060
M.Sc. Student
Management, Economics and Consumer Studies
Wageningen University and Research Centre
iftekhar.karim@wur.nl
;
iftekhar.karim@bidnetwork.org
March, 2013
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Table of Contents
Chapter One:
Background and Problem description ...02
Chapter Two:
Methodology ...05
Chapter Three:
Analysis and Results ...06
Chapter Four:
Discussion and Conclusion ...15
Reference
...17
Annexure
...19
Self-reflection Report
... A
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Chapter One: Background and Problem Description
About the company: BiD Network
With the business motto of "Preparing emerging market entrepreneurs for investors", BiD Network
(BiDN) contributes to sustainable economic growth in emerging countries through entrepreneurship.
Basically, BiD Network is interested in one simple thing: to get businesses started, growing and
financed in emerging markets, given the fact that the web-platform "Bidnetwork.org" (bidX) is the
world's largest online community for entrepreneurs from emerging markets. Professionally, BiD
Network provides corporate services to entrepreneurs, coaches, investors, business angels and
business support centres. In this context, "business angel" is a person with enough disposable income
and interest to invest capital in business, while the benefit of a business angel investment over more
formal forms of finance is that they also tend to fulfil an advisory role toward the entrepreneur
(Sanders and Jong, 2010). An international network of partners operating in 16 countries helps make it
possible through facilitating local connections between local entrepreneurs, coaches and financiers.
International partners of BiD Network include business support centres, business incubators (i.e.
organizations providing initial supports to initial businesses), universities/ business schools, NGOs and
angel networks (association of business angel groups often run through a central secretariat). In
summary, the key method and services of BiD Network are pointed out in the following figure,
-which will be studied in details during the next phase of the research as a separate section of a
prospective M.Sc. thesis.
What is a business accelerator? What is a business incubator?
Both the accelerators and incubators are capacity development organizations (CDOs) that provide
critical inputs a combination of business development assistances to the business start-ups (newly
created/started businesses). Distinctively, "business accelerators" are for-profit business
organizations designed to support business start-ups through various resources, e.g. seed financing
(initial funding to start and grow the business), business networking with investors and other
stakeholders, business experts' advice/coaching etc. Whereas, "business incubators" are business
support centres which are principally designed to support business start-ups through basic
infrastructure needs (e.g. office space, internet etc.) and business advise only (Bairdet al., 2012;
Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012; Christiansen, 2009; Price, 2004). Again in terms of funding
sources, incubators are mostly run and sponsored by GOs/NGOs, universities, business schools and
local economic agencies, whereas accelerators are mostly privately invested and also charge equity
stake of 6-8% from the participating ventures in exchange of their service and provided resources (Liet
al., 2012). As a part of the study itself, the key characteristics of the accelerator are researched and
hence appear under the results section of the report.
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For a preliminary understanding, business accelerator is an evolved version of business incubator
designed to support business start-ups more constructively than incubators; and accelerating them
towards marketable products (Li et al., 2012). For instance, Techstars and Y-combinator are two
famous business accelerators in US, providing a combination of business assistances, e.g. an
intensive mentorship-driven accelerator program, office space with internet facilities, business
coaching to help participating entrepreneurs develop their business concepts, and further
opportunities to present their ideas to business angels (Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012). The
current study concerns the issue of business accelerators only, and considers the accelerators distinct
from incubators as appeared in the contemporary literatures discussed under the theoretical appendix
section.
In search of the key characteristics/functions of a business accelerator model
In this study, "business accelerator model" denotes the model or system following which the
business accelerator runs its accelerator program and deals or interacts with the participating
entrepreneurs. Lately, World Bank in one of its research has termed BiD Network as a "virtual
accelerator" (World Bank, 2011), which resourcefully supports emerging market business start-ups
virtually through facilitating local connections between local entrepreneurs, coaches and financiers.
Apart from that, BiD Network itself is determined to support the entrepreneurs in developing
economies through various innovative means and schemes, both locally and remotely. In this regard
to follow-up its own services to a broader developing community, BiD Network is interested to look into
the key characteristics of a business accelerator model which identifies how the business accelerator
runs and deals with the entrepreneurs. In this context, the first research objective is to find out these
key characteristics/functions of a business accelerator model by studying both the developed and
developing country accelerators.
Helping Bangladeshi entrepreneurs with BiD Network services
To date over 75 business accelerators have been found out to be working in emerging markets
providing critical inputs to emerging market entrepreneurs (Baird et al., 2012). Notwithstanding the
global emergence of business accelerators, Bangladesh currently is devoid of a business accelerator
service for its start-up entrepreneurs. Contextually for BiD Network, Bangladesh is an interesting zone
which is enlisted under Least Developed Countries (LDCs) with the Development Assistance
Committee (DAC) list of Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipients (OECD, 2013), and ODA
enlisted countries are priorities for BiD Network. Hence, uplifting the existing business
incubators/entrepreneurship support centres in Bangladesh to become financially sustainable
business accelerators have become a challenge for BiD Network, given a pool of promising business
entrepreneurs in Bangladesh already detected through the online platform of BiDx start-up database
and research. Therefore, the second research objective is to find out how the selected incubators
and/or entrepreneurship support centres in Bangladesh could be upgraded into business accelerators
with key accelerator services to the Bangladeshi start-up entrepreneurs.
Aim of the Study
The aim of this study is two-fold, firstly to find out the key characteristics/functions of a business
accelerator model by studying both the developed and developing country accelerators. Secondly, to
find out how the selected incubators in Bangladesh could be upgraded into business accelerators with
basic accelerator services to the Bangladeshi start-up entrepreneurs.
Research Questions [General Research Question (GRQ) and Specific Research Questions (SRQs)]
GRQ (1): What are the key characteristics/functions of a business accelerator model?
SRQ1: How does the accelerator think?
SRQ2: How does the accelerator behave?
SRQ3: How does the accelerator survive?
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Chapter One:
Background &
Problem Description
Chapter Two:
Methodology
Chapter
Three:
Analysis and
Results
Chapter Four:
Discussion and
Conclusion
As the concept of business accelerators is considered a recent phenomenon for entrepreneurship
(Bairdet al., 2012; Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012) with inadequate theoretical studies, the
broad domain regarding the key characteristics/functions here has been limited to the fundamental
aspects of a business accelerator model, terming simply and plainly as its `thinking', `behaving' and
`surviving' functions or characteristics. Further to that, the basic understanding of its rationality
(thinking/planning aspects), alongside behavioural and survivability aspects are also instrumental in
the context of BiD Network in order to understand the key functions/characteristics of a business
accelerator model through which it runs its accelerator program and deals or interacts with the
participating entrepreneurs.
GRQ
(2): How could incubators in Bangladesh be up-scaled to accelerators via BiDN?
SRQ1: What are the prospective business incubators in Bangladesh (to be up-scaled)?
SRQ2: Supposedly, how could BiDN help the selected incubators become accelerators?
In the next chapter, the methodical steps adopted in this study have been discussed, alongside how
the aforementioned research questions were explored. For a bird's eye view, the whole structure of
the report is depicted as follows:
Chapter One is designated for background concepts and the problem description on the problem in
the context of BiD Network that underlies the internship tenure. This subsequently and logically leads
to the research questions of the study.
Chapter Two denotes the step-wise approach constituting the methodical structure of the research
and explaining the steps answering the research questions.
Chapter Three reflects the analysis and results section of the accelerator research. It also briefly
explains the actual process in the research prior to putting forth the findings.
Chapter Four stands for the underlying discussion by getting back to the research questions and key
findings, and culminating in a final model of the research.
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Chapter Two: Methodology
Chronological Steps in the Research
The following steps have been pursued to answer the research questions of the study:
Step 1: Studying selected accelerator models to gain insights of business accelerators
Step 2: Literature review of the contemporary accelerator research
How Step 1 and 2 lead to answer the RQ1 (characteristics/functions of an accelerator model)?
In order to study the successful business accelerator models from both the developed and developing
countries- the following seven existing accelerators (A1 A7) were comparatively studied under an
MS-Excel spread-sheet design:
(Here accelerators are termed as `A' with numbers from 1 to 7)
These accelerators were adopted based on the initial suggestions of BiD Network for the balance
between developed countries (e.g. from US, EU) and developing countries (e.g. from Latin America,
Africa) accelerator models to understand the holistic nature of business accelerators. As the
accelerators were compared under an MS-Excel spread-sheet design based on the key concerns of
the study, the overall comparison eventually leads to answer the basic functions/characteristics of the
business accelerators. Moreover, in the contemporary accelerator research, few renowned accelerator
cases of US (i.e. Y Combionator and TechStars) already appeared as a preliminary discussion, which
also assisted the analysis of the basic functions of the business accelerator.
Step 3: Selecting and studying three prospective business incubators in Bangladesh
Step 4: Laddering research with a prospective Bangladeshi (start-up) entrepreneur
Step 5: Perceptual mapping of the studied incubators to understand the scope for BiDN
Step 6: Simulation study for BiDN helping the incubators become accelerators (Donor Proposal)
How Step 3, 4, 5 and 6 lead to answer the RQ2 (up-scaling incubators in BD to accelerators)?
Three incubators in Bangladesh (i.e. Business Innovation & Incubation Centre (BIIC), Future Start-up
and Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC)) were chosen for a practical
laddering research with a prospective Bangladeshi young entrepreneur and a perceptual mapping with
selected service attributes from the constructed accelerator based on laddering. Here, the laddering
research found out the desiring attributes of the accelerator in the perspective of a prospective
Bangladeshi (start-up) entrepreneur, and the perceptual mapping based on the desiring attributes
provided BiD Network an initial guideline how to proceed with up-scaling the incubators to become
successful business accelerators. Hence, the outcome of both the laddering research and perceptual
mapping ultimately indicate the apparent understanding of the market position and consumer
perception in the course of upgrading incubators in Bangladesh to become successful accelerators.
This becomes an initial guideline for BiD Network to plan for serving the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs.
Finally, as a supportive action plan for BiD Network, a simulation study appeared in the form of a
donor proposal of BiD Network in the context of Bangladesh to start this project.
As currently there is no business accelerator present in Bangladesh, both the laddering research to
find out the desiring attributes of a business accelerator in the eye of a prospective entrepreneur, and
the perceptual map to find out the scope for BiD Network have become suitable for this study.
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Chapter Three: Analysis and Results
Key findings regarding the characteristics/functions of an accelerator
Accelerators are considered as catalysts (Wiggins and Gibson, 2003; Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley,
2012) to reform the ventures; and capacity development institutes (CDIs) (Bairdet al., 2012) to support
the ventures. In this context, they enhance the capacity of the start-up ventures. Given the role of
business in poverty alleviation (Viswanathan and Rosa, 2010), business accelerators have a better
room to support the start-up ventures in the emerging and developing economies, especially when
there is an absence of facilitating business intermediaries and formal institutions at emerging
economies for the ventures (Kistruck et al., 2013). According to Liet al. (2012), business accelerators
position themselves in three key dimensions, firstly by their company goals, secondly by their
program structures and thirdly by their funding sources. In terms of company goals, accelerators are
aimed at supporting functional prototypes of business products or services with a market positioning
and/or revenue generation need of the start-ups. After company goals, comes the program structure,
where accelerators run boot-camping and speeding-up programs (3-6 months) with highly
competitively selected start-ups. In this context, "boot-camp" is an intensive program for founders/co-
founders of start-up companies where participants learn from experienced business practitioners and
skilled coaches about the trends in venture financing, how to prepare and present a professional
investment-grade business plan, and develop an actionable plan for growing their business.
Underlying the program structure, accelerators are designed to serve the start-ups through seed-
funding (usually $20 - 50K) in combination with mentorship and also networking with venture
capitalists and/or angel investors. Finally, in terms of funding sources for themselves, accelerators are
mostly privately invested and also hold a financial norm of securing equity stake of 6-8% from the
undergone ventures in exchange of their services/resources for start-ups (Liet al., 2012).
For simplicity of the analysis, the results have been put forth through an anatomic structure of a
business accelerator categorizing into the upper chamber and lower chamber as depicted in the figure
above. Upper chamber implies the thinking/ planning tank of business accelerator and lower chamber
implies its behavioural and survival tanks. Both of them correspond to the research concerns of the
study and interact with the findings of the research.
Thinking/ planning tank of the Accelerator
Business accelerator thinks and hence accordingly plans for effectiveness, both in terms of its own
success and also growth of its undergone start-ups. It thinks of several means of financial sources
both for the sustainability of the self and the ventures, and keeps on planning for new and innovative
channels of funding, involving more and more private entities, e.g. local banks, local investors, venture
How accelerator thinks?
How accelerator survives?
How accelerator behaves?
Accelerator
Upper
chamber
Lower
chamber
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capitalists and interested stakeholders. Creating a network of angel investors for further networking of
the business start-ups remains a fundamental strategy and asset of the accelerators. Apart from local
investors and financiers, accelerator also engages local consultants for coordinating the local
entrepreneurs, local financiers and experienced local business coaches. Often a monitoring and
evaluation scheme is followed to understand the customized needs and later on the progress of the
ventures. Business accelerator also seeks to enhance the local entrepreneurial climate by retaining
and encouraging local business more and more, and hence endeavours at diminishing the brain drain.
By adopting and nurturing multifaceted and multi-sectorial business ideas from participating start-ups
that solve a real-world problem in a creative and scalable way, business accelerators also aim at
diversifying local economies partaking in creating direct jobs and income streams.
The brain depicted in the figure above resembles the upper chamber of the business accelerator
summarizing its key thinking/ planning functions as discussed above.
Behavioural tank of the Accelerator
The program structure of the accelerator constitutes its behavioural functions. Even though every
single business accelerator necessarily not renders the identical service, but more or less all provide a
structured and compact combination of useful start-up services. Speed and intensity being
fundamental parts of a business accelerator model, the services got disseminated usually during a 3-6
months of intensive program structure comprising of workshops, seminars, consulting, mentoring, and
a final idea-pitching session with investors. To maintain the intensity, the selection process of the
accelerator program remains highly competitive and low-volumed. In this compact and intensive
accelerator program, accelerators support the participating venture teams (which are mostly consisting
of three persons, e.g. founders/co-founders) through perfecting their business idea, and guiding the
business from prototype to strategic market positioning through necessary product or service
improvement. This is regarded as the `boot-camp' training or sometimes a `mentoring
program/networking' comprising few weeks of the program, involving peer learning scopes, expert
advice and entrepreneurial success stories. It also provides growth time, space and tailor-made
capacity development for the start-up founders/co-founders to tweak their prototypes and train on
trends in venture financing. Later on (after the boot-camp part), opportunities to pitch their ideas,
business models and actionable plans to angel investors occur through a final `pitch-fest' or `demo-
day', given a greater funding exposure to investors.
Growth and Efficacy of
both self and start-ups
Innovative channels of
funding the both
Retaining local business
& avoiding brain drain
Pitch-fest
(Part two)
Boot-camp
(Part one)
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The dissection depicted in the figure above resembles the behavioural tank of the business
accelerator pinpointing the basic two phases, (a) boot-camp and (b) pitch-fest as discussed above.
Survival tank of the Accelerator
Apart from the behavioural tank of the business accelerator as elucidated above, its survival tank has
also been found out interesting. Most accelerators are established by experienced entrepreneurs that
initially produce the initial funding through their network of reliable financiers and associates. In the
course of time, accelerators are found out to be financially sustainable business entities, while they
generate revenues and operate accelerator business more or less based on several financial
activities, e.g. income from paid services, equity/share in the venture itself, grants from third parties or
other stakeholders, and strategic alliances for better resources. Firstly, the service package and
mentoring offered by the accelerators for the start-up entrepreneurs are sometimes in exchange of
service fees and/or subsidised office space rents. Secondly, accelerators secure equity stake of 6-8%
from the participating start-up ventures in exchange of their services, seed-funding, start-up resources
and network facilitations. Thirdly, third party grants, e.g. bursaries from alumni associations,
government or private sponsorships, foundation funding etc. constitute a funding source for the
accelerators intermittently. Fourthly, strategic partners with a specialty or expertise coordinate with
the accelerators, which become a financial subsidy and comparative advantage for them, accelerators
being an avenue were experienced players with expertise gather together to train new ventures in
their respective fields.
The heart dissection depicted in the figure above resembles the survival tank of the business
accelerator pinpointing its key survival and sustenance parts as discussed above.
Survival of the participating start-ups
The survival tank of the business accelerators subsequently lays the foundation of the survival of the
graduate start-ups tailored and channelled through these accelerators after the boot-camping and
pitch-fest. It is due to the financially sustainable accelerators that the participating start-ups also tend
to survive. Further to an opening seed funding of about $20-50k, accelerators also provide the start-
ups with business coaching, relevant feedback, sustainability lessons, networking breakthroughs with
angel investors and future follow-up investments to ultimately become self-sustainable, as well as
general business, management and legal support, for a 6-8% equity stake in the venture. Moreover,
this accelerator service turns out to be a lifelong valuable link for the start-ups those afterwards also
undergo a monitoring and evaluation of the accelerators to showcase their expected growth and
survival over the period of time.
Service charges
Equity stakes
3
rd
party Grants
Strategic
partnerships
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Key findings of the laddering research and prospective incubators
The findings of the laddering research beset with corresponding chain analysis, and selection of the
prospective incubators are delineated under this section. This analysis is to explore the consumer
perception on the desirable attributes of the business accelerator based on the contribution it has in
his/her value system (Grunert and Grunert, 1995; Gutman, 1982). Based on the conveniently selected
three business incubators in Bangladesh (which are subject to be upgraded through desirable
attributes of accelerator) and information from interviewing with one prospective Bangladeshi
entrepreneur- designated ladder, implication matrix and hierarchical value map are constructed and
analyzed.
Selection of the business incubators (sample frame)
Based on a convenience sampling, three prospective business incubators in Bangladesh, i.e.
Business Innovation & Incubation Centre (BIIC), Future Start-up (FS) and Bangladesh Small and
Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) were selected. To find out and select the incubators, a
thorough web search was performed and it appeared that these three incubators are currently
somewhat dealing with the start-up entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
Incubator Attributes and Elicitation
Designated incubators are taken for eliciting the desired attributes of business accelerator in the
context of the consumer- a prospective Bangladeshi entrepreneur (respondent's characteristics are
mentioned in the following paragraph). The coding and attributes of the incubators are given as
follows:
Incubator code
Incubator name
Attributes
1
Business Innovation & Incubation
Centre (BIIC)
Î First private business incubator
(founded in 2011) of Bangladesh
Î Supported and mentored by business
conglomerates & professionals
Î Provides skills and entrepreneurship
development coaching and assistance
Î Sector-agnostic (support start-ups
from all sectors, not caring for one)
Î Possibilities of seed funding through
private resources/investments
2
Future Start-up (FS)
Î Young and Small entrepreneurship
centric business incubator
Î Focused on youth unemployment and
wide spread poverty in Bangladesh
Î Mentored by business teachers
Î Provides right direction and
consultation for entrepreneurs
Î Sector-agnostic (support start-ups
from all sectors, not caring for one)
Î No funding possibilities, only business
coaching and advice
3
Bangladesh Small and Cottage
Industries Corporation (BSCIC)
Î Government business incubator,
affiliated to Ministry of Industries
Î Country wide networking
Î Provides skills and entrepreneurship
development coaching and assistance
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