Pre-Application Checklist

Before you apply to an accelerator, make sure you are prepared to join one.

Go through this checklist and ask yourself some questions:

Choose An Accelerator

After going through the checklist, you may decide to apply to an accelerator. Depending on the stage of your company, industry, and timeline, the program you choose should fit your startup needs.

There are several options in Taiwan’s startup ecosystem, some of which you can find here:

To apply to our ikigai Launchpad program, you can find the page here:

Apply Now

How to Answer Application Questions

Accelerators get pitched many interesting startups with a lot of potential. However, if the interviewer reading your application can’t understand the concept based off of your explanation, then they may pass. Knowing how to answer application questions is a valuable skill.

STAR Method

When applying for an accelerator program, or any interview, you will often come across “behavioral-based” or personal questions. These questions ask you to reflect on your own individual experiences and learning. Some common examples may include:

• Can you tell us about a time when you surprised yourself?
• What accomplishment are you most proud of?
• Describe a time when you had to step up and demonstrate leadership skills.

From the interviewer’s perspective, they want to know how you react to your surroundings and what type of founder you are. While still staying genuine, be aware that there are right and wrong ways to answer these type questions. One method we recommend is to follow the STAR method: situation, task, action, and result:

1. Situation — Present the situation or challenge you found yourself in.
1. You don’t need more than 1 sentence.
2. Task — Explain the task or goal you set out to achieve.
1. You don’t need more than 1 sentence.
3. Action — Tell us what actionable steps you took.
1. This is the most important, so you should spend the most time writing about this.
4. Result — What happened? Reflect on how your actions influenced the end result. What did you learn from this?

This simple STAR method can be used for answering application questions that may require you to tell a story or give an example. It also provides an easy-to-understand framework that allows you to organize your thoughts.

Be Straightforward

Another common type of application questions are ones that ask you a simple “what”. Examples may include:

1. What is your target audience?
2. What is your company making?
3. What is your team’s background?

When you encounter questions that ask for a straightforward answer, don’t try to add language filler and “marketing-speak”. You should still add detail; however, the details should be relevant and necessary.

Quantitative Data

When encountering questions that tell you to name data, please be truthful to the best of your knowledge. Examples may include:

1. What is the total market size? Approximately how much of that is serviceable or obtainable?
2. How much runway do you have?
3. How much revenue do you generate? What are your monthly operating expenses?

From experience, many applicants inflate their numbers to seem more impressive. Keep in mind that accelerators have people who do due diligence and check your data. In addition, you may be asked to explain how you calculated these numbers during the interview. It’s more beneficial to be honest.

Competition

There will almost always be a question asking about your company’s competition. This question is poorly answered very often — these the typical mistakes that we see:

1. Some teams claim that they have no competition. This is problematic for 2 reasons:
1. It is likely not true.
2. If there really is no competition, there might be a good reason why no one else wants to get into that business. Having competition isn’t always a bad thing.
2. Other teams claim that their competition lacks qualities that they possess, so they aren’t really competitors.
1. Competition doesn’t mean that they have to be doing exactly what you are doing. Competition could be any alternative or substitution that a consumer could use instead.
2. If you are competing with large market share holders like YouTube or LinkedIn, tell us your plans to hold your own. Even if you have a wonderful idea that works better than these industry giants, it won’t matter if you don’t have a strategy to break through that barrier.

We like to see that your idea has obstacles; all the best ones do. We care more about your plan to overcome them. For this reason, it is more beneficial to be upfront about your startup’s challenges or competition. If we recognize an issue that you haven’t mentioned, we might assume it’s because you haven’t prepared for or considered it yet.

The One-Minute Introduction Video

Many accelerator applications will ask you to submit a short introduction video describing your team and startup. These are some tips to keep in mind when recording your introduction:

For Uploading:

• The video should be one minute long — don’t run over that.
• Upload the video onto YouTube. Allow embedding and don’t mark it as private. If you don’t want other people finding it, then mark it as “unlisted”.
• Make sure the audio quality is clear.

Tips for Filming:

• Try not to read off of a script; It should sound like a face-to-face conversation.
• Make your explanations simple and easy to understand — act like the interviewer has no prior knowledge.
• Make sure all co-founders are included in the video.
• Don’t try to enhance the production with special effects or background music. This isn’t a contest for who can produce the best film.
• These intro videos aren’t meant for you to show a full demo of your product. We want to know about your team’s passion, and why you are pursuing this startup journey. Why this idea? And why you?