Andrew Ackerman :: DreamIt :: 062
To accelerate or not to accelerate a business, that is the question. Back in 2008, a hot new term for growing and investing in businesses was developed, Accelerator. DreamIt was established by several angel investors looking to grow their portfolio and wallets. They did so by pooling their cash into a fund and investing in a handful of businesses while pushing them through a rigorous hands on business school, cohort style. http://www.dreamit.com/ Today, they focused on three sectors of business, urban tech, ed tech and health. Andrew Ackerman joined early on and is the Managing Director of the Urban Tech vertical. Andrew is recovering consultant turned serial entrepreneur, startup mentor and angel investor. He is the Managing Director at Dreamit, currently in charge of the urban tech accelerator program. Andrew is also a contributing writer to Fortune, AlleyWatch, The 74 Million, et. al. http://www.dreamit.com/team/ In this episode: What is an accelerator? What are cities doing wrong when launching an accelerator? Why the pressure of a deadline is critical in business? Are remote businesses the future? When should a new business talk with their prospective customers? The 4C’s of business Entrepreneurial Ecosystems need at least eight years to develop