Which Accelerator? w/ Andrea White-Kjoss, Managing Director, Long Beach Accelerator

Q. What is the problem you’re trying to solve?

That is exactly the question I asked the board of directors when they approached me for this position. We have countless accelerators in the world, so why do we need another one? What is our secret sauce? 

It comes down to a couple of things, we have a rich fertile ground to grow an accelerator in Long Beach California, we are right in the heart of Southern California between Los Angeles and Orange Counties. We have some extremely tech heavy industries with a long history of innovation and entrepreneurship and the city pulled together a dense ecosystem, public and private sectors to help tech start ups. The resources we had from the get go were really important. 

Public, private, and university partnerships are really important to be able to come out and reach to the tech industry and academia to provide both a pipeline to the accelerator and also outlets for our cohort companies to thrive. 

Long Beach is in majority a minority city, and we are building the ecosystem there. We want our accelerator to reflect the diversity of our city from mentors to start ups to staff. So these are some aspects that make our accelerator unique!

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey leading up to this

Everything I have done in the past led me to this point. What we want to be when we grow up is not always clear until we base it in our choices and pathway, at least it wasn’t clear to me. 

I started out in investment and corporate finance in emerging markets.  Relatively early I cofounded my startup, a smart mobility company (an IoT) before it was even a thing. This all happened from 2004 till 2012. We were building smart hubs at transit centers to enable shared solutions such as bikeshare, careshare etc. with transit smart cards. Before turning that over to start a family, we raised money from angel investors and some institutions. It was a soft exit not a huge one, but it was a relatively successful nine years run for me. 

Then I was back into corporate finance, and chasing an executive MBA at USC in 2020. During that process, I was approached by a founder of a startup company in early stages called ExtraVallis. This turned into a platform to connect globally with investors. Shortly after, the board of directors of the LBA approached me. I have lived in Long Beach for 17 years and because I launched my first tech company here, I experienced first hand how open to innovation this city is, which impressed me the most about Long Beach. It is big enough to matter and small enough to get things done. Innovation does not thrive in an overly bureaucratic place.

Q. What is an accelerator and what is the difference between it and an incubator?

There is no commonly accepted terminology, it is really fluid and somehow like the wild west and an early stage realm to explore. In the future there will be more accurate definitions but now people use these terms interchangeably. An incubator comes in at the idea stage. Next the accelerator for PMF and early revenue. Wee are a boutique accelerator where we only accept a handful, around 10 companies to work with so that we can keep really hands-on with each company and founder to work with them and their needs. A kind of hybrid studio model. 

Q. Why do you think future founders should join an accelerator?

I think they should ask an LBA alumnus. There are certain founders that don’t need accelerators. They are serial founders or exited founders that have built a resource list and networks that wouldn’t require accelerators. But often founders come up with an idea but don't have a business background of building a company from the ground up, or the networks or runway. 

This is where training is required, specifically hyper growth training which is a bit different than an organic path and there is the network which is almost an as important of a reason to enter an accelerator because there is a reason why underrepresented founders are underrepresented and that is because they don’t have traditional access to some of the networks that others to do. As cliche as it is, your network is your net worth. It is impossible to state how important it is for a group of people to change your life as a founder. It provides a kind of a stamp of approval for you and the networks the business is building, being challenged in the best possible way, having a community on a hard and lonely journey.  

Q. What criteria do you look for in founders or startups in general and in LB?

We accept startups in any sector, but especially sectors that cater to long beach such as aerospace, green tech, blue tech, ed tech and cyber security as well as several other really important industries. We look at it as how can we add significant value beyond the $100,000 investment. 

The company needs to be post MVP, it needs to be at least ready to beta if not in beta already. Some of our companies are already in revenue stages which can be kind of surprising when it comes to how mature they are when applying. It proves the need for accelerators even at later stages in some cases.

Q. How about the difference in business models, a new trend is the Minimum Viable Community, what do you think about it?

It is interesting, it could be measured in a lot of ways and can be different for different start ups. B2C is different from B2B, the network is critical and the faster you can build that, the faster you can grow. There are customers, mentors, networks, it is important to grow, to figure out how you’re building your community. 

Q. What are your tips for building communities?

Put yourself out there and take every opportunity to get exposed, and expand your network for example in events. Many busy founders meet new people but do not cultivate the relationship. There is a playbook for this and it is hard work. 

Q. What is the most important to you regarding the entrepreneur’s characteristics and background? 

I think a lot about resilience. I like that term, it is an important quality in entrepreneurship. In our application interview process, we ask our founders for a story regarding adversity, and it is good when it is related to the companies they are pitching to us because it includes pivot stories. This shows that they do not hold on to bad approaches, they’re adaptable and resilient and that is an important signal. 

Q. How do you come up with differentiating between noise and signal important to invest?

VC is growing exponentially but benefits are going to fewer and fewer people, there are progressive VCs and so many positive changes happening right now but the disparity is still sort of atrocious, it is still the wild west. There is still no fixed definition of a quality accelerator, start up or VC. The LBA has some specific numbers that we always measure and will continue to measure. Our founder's success is our success. We acknowledge that we are in very early stages, needing to grow and learn more. Another thing we distinctively measure is job growth, which is an important indicator for us, and we also measure our diversity. Especially female founders and underrepresented founders which make up to 50% which is very different from the majority of the VC world. 

Minorities need to work twice as hard to actually get recognized. 

 - End.

Interview by Shayan Mashatian (@shayanrm) and Khash Nejad (@digvan)