Had a nice conversation about incubators with Csanád Udvardy, based on my experiences I wish for more doing and coaching less lecturing.
Most startup incubators focus too much on theory, less on actions and networking.
To make first time founders succeed make them all do:
- Cold outreach - LinkedIn, calls, emails
- Have 10 conversations in your target market
- Talk to 100 users about their problems
- Create 3 pieces of content about problem of focus
- Active networking in target communities
If you teach cold outreach then there aren’t any valid excuses for not doing the rest. I think every cofounder should do these 5 things even if they are technical.
I have seen a lot of class based passive learning in incubators. Less lessons more active coaching and peer based learning is needed.
For example do an hour of cold LI outreach with your cohort. Afterwards run a feedback session with the cohort praising the good ones and fixing the poor ones.
Originally written: 06 Jan 2023