After launching his business My Student Venture at The University of Leeds, Tim Brazier was thrilled to be accepted onto Entrepreneurial Spark, Europe's most active accelerator. Here he explains what daily life is like at Entrepreneurial Spark and offers some tips to those looking to enter an accelerator programme after their studies.

Most people finish university in the hope of moving straight into a job and having the security, stability, money and all the perks that come with it. Well I’ve just finished studying and have moved straight into an accelerator with all the insecurity, instability and lack of money that comes with starting your own business. It’s different but brilliant and I hope to give you an insight into what life in an accelerator is like.

Applying

The particular accelerator I have been lucky enough to be accepted onto is called Entrepreneurial Spark (based in Leeds, although they now have 10 Hatcheries (offices) across the UK!). Apart from being Europe’s most active accelerator, is is also flipping the stat of four out of five startups failing on its head. At E-Spark four out of five startups are still trading after 2 years of being in the hatchery. E-Spark is a People Accelerator... What that means is they don’t just care about what your business or idea is or what stage it is at, they care about who you are and what drives you. And this can be seen throughout the application process, from the online application form, through to the interview where questions such as “What gets you up in the morning” and “What makes you angry?” are not uncommon. Pitching is another key aspect that carries forward into the program, it’s not just for the interview, so you may as well spend the time getting your 60 second pitch about your business (and yourself) down to a tee. However if you show you have energy, drive and a willingness to be open, learn and develop then you are on the right track. (Admittedly if you have started your business or have some early validation then this will be a bonus.) #GoDoBootCamp If accepted the journey starts with a two day boot camp where you are introduced to their theories, mechanisms, various terminologies and how things are going to run over the next six months. It’s also the first time you get to see the hatchery (accelerator space/office) and meet the other chiclets (entrepreneurs/start-ups). The first thing you notice when you walk in is the energy. It’s everywhere, the staff, the other chiclets, everyone is talking and getting stuck in and we haven’t even started. This is a room full of passionate and energetic people that love their start-up or idea. And so they and you should be, this is a great opportunity you have to take advantage of! (If you’re nervous, then don’t worry, as energetic as it may all seem, everyone is really friendly and happy to talk and to get to know you. After all you are going to be sharing the space for the next 6 months and it’s a new experience for everyone in there) Make sure you’ve had your Weetabix! Boot camps are two long days where you meet more people, hear more ideas and learn more business concepts than you would in a years' worth of working in a normal graduate job. But it’s not all listening and death by power point, as you will continually be reminded, E-Spark is all about #GoDo, and as part of the boot camp, you form teams and follow through the processes of starting a business via a problem statement that E-Spark give you. This includes validation, (another recurring theme), which means going out into the city and talking to people about ‘your amazing new start-up idea’ and pitching it to a panel of judges for a prize at the end of the two days.

Induction

You’ve had the weekend to process everything that was crammed into you during boot camp and the Monday comes with your induction and the first opportunity to start using and working in the space. A word on the space, it’s awesome! Fatboy bean bags, the world’s fanciest coffee machine and white ideation walls (floor to ceiling whiteboards) all come as standard as well as spaces for social working or desks with telephones where you can get your head down and #GoDo. The induction reinforces much of the principles mentioned at boot camp, in essence to take advantage of the opportunity, take action, get involved, and support each other, as well as your enablers (Espark staff). (There is also some fun admin like getting setup with the printers, yay!) After that the space is yours to use and care for as your own office and your first milestone will be your ideation with one of the enablers. This is where they get down to the core of your business and what you are trying to do or solve. These are challenging but reveal things about your business or idea that you never knew and you leave with a million and one ideas and decisions to mull over. To ensure you keep up your accelerated journey and are moving forward, fortnightly temperature checks (catch-up meetings) are arranged with your enabler to update them on your progress and discuss your findings from the previous two weeks before challenging you again and producing a new set of ideas and decisions. It’s very different from a standard job as you’re meeting and talking with new people, in and outside the accelerator every day and making a huge range of decisions from the colour of the header on your emails through to your key financials. It’s challenging and there may be times when you won’t know what to do, but the beauty of an accelerator is that you’re never more than a desk away from someone brilliant to talk through the problem and who could even have had the same challenge and found the solution. Tim Brazier is a graduate from The University of Leeds, a NACUE Advanced Member institution. Learn more about NACUE Advanced Membership here.