Welcome To The Accelerator with Michael Conniff

For everyone in the startup world from founders and entrepreneurs to the myriad money people—Angels, VCs, syndicates, family offices, and investment firms.

I am completely innocent of any premeditation when it comes to launching The Accelerator, a global knowledge network where entrepreneurs, founders, and startups meet Angels, Venture Capitalists, family offices, and investors under the best of circumstances.

Even without knowledge aforethought I am already two months in with a podcast, a YouTube channel, and this Substack newsletter displaying on a screen of your choice. And more LinkedIn connections than I know what to do with.

It all started when Newchip Accelerator in Austin, Texas, asked me to be a mentor to founders. Then Holt Xchange asked me to help out as an advisor on the media, sports, and entertainment fund they’re putting together. Then three accelerators at universities in Iran asked me to put together a workshop on storytelling for entrepreneurs and startups.

So what does it mean you and yours?

Let me start with the purpose of all this work. The Accelerator will treat startups and investors like a self-contained beat, the kind journalists used to covet when they covered cops or the courthouse. (As you will see, the journalism DNA runs deep within me… for three generations.) The idea is to treat founders, companies, and investors as breaking news, and not the fake breaking news you see on television. Above all we want to know stuff about things related to startups and the venture financing beat before they are generally known—and to share that knowledge with those who need it most: startups and investors of all kinds.

Though a reporter at heart, I will not be a neutral observer, because I’ve also been a participant in all things new media since 1981 and even co-founded the Isaacson School for New Media in Aspen a few years ago. My successes and many failures as a founder will inform every word I write and everything I say. I will not only be reporting the news but analyzing same based on all the knowledge and expertise I can bring to bear on the subjects in question.

My analysis will of course be flawed. You can count on that. Sometimes I will be flat out wrong—something you should never forget. But in all cases I will bring the full force of my journalistic and analytic tech media chops to bear on everything you see, read, or watch in The Accelerator podcast, newsletter, and/or videos.

In other words, The Accelerator will provide analysis and opinion to go with breaking news. We will strive to help accelerate deals for startups and investors. As the late, famous Silicon Valley coach Bill Campbell used to tell all his mentees: “Pick up the fuckin’ pace!” No joke: that’s our motto and our credo.

I will never make a recommendation to buy, invest, or even divest. Every one of you should do you own research and make your own decisions, with The Accelerator nothing more than a drop, a soupcon of information, in that big bowl of soup. It is your responsibility, dear reader, to make these judgments for yourself well before you sup.

I take no responsibility for your decisions, but I will tell you all about mine. In particular, I have started The Accelerator Watch List covering companies I really like for any number of reasons that usually include the founders and the ideas and the traction driving the enterprise. I will try to avoid companies and industries beyond my ken but when I see my sweet spots—media, social media, sports, content, platforms, advertising, apps—I will fire away.

Above all I will focus on storytelling: the fine art of getting a company’s story right. As a writer of you-name-it—novels, short, stories, scripts, screenplays, blogs, columns, news, press releases, marketing content—the story for a startup matters almost above all else.

Most of all I hope to introduce you to the amazing people I’m already meeting through The Accelerator: Takahisa Karita of Unify Platform in Zug, Switzerland; Sarah White of Little Bridge in the United Kingdom; Anna Federova of Unicorn Events in the Ukraine; Mukhtar Kuanyshbaiuly of Connected Home in Kazakhastan; Majid Mokhtarnia at Harkat Aval in Iran; Soerinder Dataram and Maria Mackenzie at the video compression startup WAUWTEC in The Netherlands and Germany; Travis Briggs at Ligo Partners in London; Jeremy Baksht, director of investments at Azafran Capital Parters in New York; and Casey Van Maanen, the dogged venture analyst destined for great things from his base in Canada. To name but a few.

Above all I want make it clear I am a fan of the entrepreneurs and I will always be on their side. They have the vision and they may get a payday but they also risk their livelihoods in the name of something that does not yet exist. That’s amazing when you think about it. We will do what we can to help. Buckle up, Mr. Musk, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.