What JA looks into whilst selecting startups

Jaarvis Accelerator being a tech accelerator focuses on tech-enabled startups which have to meet few criteria’s before being selected for JA 6-month accelerator program. The rigorous selection process criteria for startups involve: –

1. A complete application form: – A startup needs to submit a complete application form filling all the details mentioned in the form with all the relevant information. An incomplete application form is not a major hassle but shows the lack of  dedication of a founder in explaining his/her startup.

2.Business Model: –

a. Business Plan: – The first thing we look up in the business plan is the market demand i.e the idea is market driven or not. Is the idea solving an actual problem prevailing in the market?

b. Scalability: – The business should have the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Just because others think an idea is cool, that doesn’t mean it is scalable. A scalable idea helps to attract more investors.

c. Uniqueness: – How different is your idea from the rest present in the market? This does not mean that you have to create a new market because creating and holding new market is more difficult than incremental improvement/uniqueness like Facebook was not the first social network.  It was a clone of HouseSYSTEM and myspace.

d. Competitive Landscape: – the Fourth aspect we look for is your edge over competitors. One must have a way to differentiate them from others and should create something which will be difficult for the competitors to replicate, often called barriers to entry.

e. JA Focus Theme: – JA is particularly focussing on domains like Iot, Fintech, AI, Big Data and SAAS but this doesn’t mean we ignore other startups domain, if you have an out of the box tech-enabled idea it is also considered. In addition to this more preference is given to startups operating in the B2B segment.

3. Founders: – First and the foremost thing is the educational background of the founders. Then the previous successful experience of the founders matters a lot because If a startup has experienced founders who have worked for a long time will boost a spin-out’s ability to start quickly and operate smoothly. They will be able to really hit the ground running. A diverse team with a tech founder gives an edge to the startup over others.

4. Revenue Model: – What are the strategies for a startup to manage revenue streams. We want to know what does the time horizon looks like, when there is going to be money to be seen, what the next major milestones are—bottom line…when a startup is going to start making revenue? A revenue forecast no further than 12-24 months with burn rate. If they want to raise funds, then how much and at what valuation.