As you might imagine, I get hundreds of random inbound emails each week. Many of them are seeking funding for their startup. Recently I got one such email from Matt, and as I often do I responded by directing him to learn more about the Techstars accelerators.
Matt responded as follows.
Your accelerator programs aren’t an option for [me]. Thank you for responding and your time.
My response:
No problem. if your’e game to provide feedback on why they’re not an option in your case, we’d love to learn from it.
I suppose I was expecting an immigration problem, or that he wasn’t able to temporarily relocate, or that perhaps he thought his company was too far along for an accelerator (a common misconception).
Here’s part of what Matt said next:
To be honest, I am disabled. Mobility is an issue. …Making it to your location on a regular basis would be difficult. If participating in your.accelerator programs without being on-site very much or at all is permissible/possible I will reconsider applying.
I wondered if this might be possible. Perhaps Matt could be some kind of virtual attendee of an accelerator program? I asked my team to dig into it and see what might be possible.
A week or so later, I got this note from one of my teammates at Techstars, Karina Costa.
David thank you for introducing us to Matt. [We] talked to him last week. This was an unexpectedly hard experience for me. Matt is disabled and he also doesn’t speak, [we] asked him questions and he answered slowly over the chat.
As I was listening to the silence of this call I started feeling small. there are so many resources and opportunities available to build or work for a tech company today but I couldn’t think of one single way in or outside Techstars that could truly make a difference for a person like Matt. it’s ironic because working in tech is probably one of the best options for Matt.
I don’t have anything actionable in mind but maybe there are actually organizations that can help disabled people in tech and we can get involved through the Techstars Foundation? Or a start could be a Startup Weekend.
This made me become aware so I wanted to share.
This prompted us to do some more research on groups or services that might help Matt be successful as an entrepreneur. We were surprised to find only a few things such as Kaleidoscope Investments and The Abilities Fund. We shared these with Matt and asked him if he was aware of more. He wasn’t.
One reason for writing this blog post is to ask you for your ideas on how we might assist Matt. Are there other resources or ideas you have?
Another reason I wanted to share it was to get you thinking about how your company, product, or service can help others that might be in the same boat as Matt.
I’d welcome your thoughts in the comments.
Sounds like a need for eye tracking, AI, & autocorrect experts to address the “speed” of communication issue…
Hey Matt,
It sounds like you may be interested creating your own business. I don’t know your goals, but a lot of value can be earned by playing to your strengths. Here is one example – my team works in software, but most of our distribution is done through manual phone calls, and we don’t have the time nor energy to focus on any other channels today.
Conversely, you can use the web – written text, SEO, social or any other online medium to push into a channel that some other teams can’t or won’t invest in getting expertise in. It’s important to remember which channel may have more value for some companies than others (big brands, mainstream products, etc). Social / influence / web tools are probably going to get the most traction with developers, internet natives, and others that use the web for their job. Similarly, having a remote team, and building something with others that are comfortable having a text relationship could be a big benefit.
A lot of modern design and creative work is being done on fiverrr and other mediums that break out work into specific jobs and reward people who are good at specific work, while allowing people to collaborate on projects that focus on their strengths.
If you haven’t been a CEO or built a team before, it could be really hard to join an accelerator. Accelerators are looking for metrics as a part of business that is already attacking a market, and has customers or a product that has a high likelihood to return a certain profit. I don’t know where you are in the process, but it’s probably best to start at step 1 – which is building something or finding a way to collaborate with someone building something that provides value to others that they will pay for.
It’s important for business owners or creators of any type to understand if what they are building fits an accelerator model or doesn’t. If you have a scalable idea and a plan to execute it, maybe you’re in a good spot (though odds are still pretty terrible for everyone). If you’re interested, but not to that point yet, consider what you can do to pursue that plan, and how that plan works for you.
Give yourself some realistic goals. If you aren’t reaching a customer and making a profit of any type in x months, it would be good to go back to the drawing board. Some folks go into startups with an illusion that it’s a great place to get rich, but in reality that happens to few people, and failure can be pretty hard. Just living without the income from the job you otherwise would be doing and the career progression in another area is a shock to people when they have the time to consider it. (Trust me!)
If you’re at the beginning and just wondering where you could potentially get your feet wet, maybe you can get word out to someone at Amazon working on the Merch project. https://merch.amazon.com/landing. It’d be a way of being your own boss, doing something creative, and understanding business fundamentals, while having fulfillment and other activities done through web services. https://represent.com/ndt/neil-degrasse-tyson-lets-make-america-smart-again-the-cosmic-perspective?store=startalk looks like another example.
If you’re past the stage of getting off the ground, or have other interests, I understand, but I thought I’d share a few experiences I’ve had so far, and wish you the best of luck!
David, you struck a chord with me. My sister is disabled and I have often asked this question. One idea I had was to create roles where Matt is the expert. For example, are there sw companies that build products for people with different disabilities and do they need testers? Or are there companies that do accessibility consulting and need experts to really test out a location. While I have started my own company, I think of how a “dis-ability” can be an asset and how we can create roles that use their uniqueness as a strength. Maybe it will be my next startup 🙂
totally agree, but that doesn’t necessarily help matt get his own startup idea off the ground via mentorship, etc. unless i’m not tracking?
Hey David and Matt –
Based on the post, its not clear what the actual barrier is keeping Matt from participating in the program. I know Matt said mobility is a problem, but not sure what that means. Is it not having transportation issue getting there? Is it the need for a better wheelchair/scooter/etc.? Or is it a health issue? There are probably solutions is the barrier is resources. Every state is different, but depending on Matt’s assets — or lack of assets — he may be eligible for some benefits. There are also vocational training and placement programs for people with disabilities, SBA loans, etc.
I don’t want to get too down in the weeds here. And I don’t want to be so smug as to assume Matt hasn’t tried this and more already. Programs everywhere are stretched, so there may be few resources to be had even if Matt was able to identify a solution. But the bottom line here is that the answers may well be beyond just the tech/innovation ecosystem and in the mundane world of social services and government programs….
Cheers!
mark
i was hoping matt would reply, perhaps he still will. it’s mobility and communication, i believe.
David, the question is that if a founder has some physical disability, would that reduce his chances of getting selected at Techstars or any other accelerator? Whats your experience so far?
i don’t think his chances would be reduced at Techstars, per se. However, I do think (per the email conversation) that he’s less likely to apply in the first place because we don’t seem to have any specific ways to support him. It’s a challenging problem and the reason I wrote this post – to look for ideas.
https://www.essentialaccessibility.com/
Hey Matt!
My husband and I reached out to David about you and he suggested we get in touch with you through the comment section.
We’d love to be in touch with you and see how we could help! Please write to
caroline.denaes @ gmail.com
Caroline