Rachna Chandrashekhar, Accelerator & Impact Manager
Upaya’s annual accelerator program is a key component of our mission to support early-stage social enterprises. Through the program, we are able to provide customised, innovative support to a group of entrepreneurs who share our mission of creating jobs for people in extreme poverty.
Last month, nine early stage social businesses completed Upaya’s 2022 Accelerator that we ran in partnership with Yunus Social Business. This was Upaya’s sixth accelerator program, and the second one with a strategic program partner. Year after year, we work to fine-tune our approach to the program with the goal of offering the best support to meet the needs of these social entrepreneurs. We continue to deepen our knowledge and evolve!
“Excellent program designed for budding social entrepreneurs. From the beginning the methodical mixed with practical sessions, helped us to analyse the business from multiple facets such as finance, marketing, sales, operations. It also helped us understand how an impact-led business could be scaled up profitably.” - Rahul Prakash, founder of AmalFarm
The focus of our accelerator program is to build investment readiness capacity. As an impact investor we are in a unique position to provide valuable insights and work closely with enterprises on their fundraising journey. The program also becomes a platform for entrepreneurs to access other investors and experts in our network.
Given the pandemic context, the focus of this year’s program was on building business resilience while doubling down on our focus on job / livelihood creation. The partnership with YSB was in perfect alignment with this mission. While designing the investment readiness program, we looked at answering two key questions: “What type of program support would be most valuable to the entrepreneurs at this stage?” and “What is critical for them to ensure sustainability in the long run?”
Collaboration and careful curated partnerships
I strongly believe that the right kind of collaboration can lead to highly effective outcomes. In 2021, we partnered with MIT D-lab to run a program focused on women-led business. This collaboration brought in a gender lens perspective that helped the cohort navigate gender biases in their fundraising journey while building their technical capacity.
Our partnership with YSB this year was mission-aligned to create jobs and livelihoods by deepening the investment readiness support to social businesses. The collaboration between Upaya and YSB ensured that the entrepreneurs had access to more customised support, access to a larger network of experts and mentors, and an opportunity to raise funding from both Upaya and YSB at different stages of their business.
In addition to strategic program partnerships, we work with a pool of experts and facilitators that bring in varied perspectives and value to the cohort. These have been carefully cultivated partnerships over the years (and we’re always adding more to the list) to ensure a high quality program experience for the founders.
Hybrid programs are the way forward
Having run our accelerator program for the past five years — with two of those being virtual programs — we believe that building a strong peer network is extremely beneficial to entrepreneurs at this early stage. That’s why fostering these relationships is a key aspect of our program, whether in-person or virtual.
When the Omicron wave came in the way of our plan to host an in-person workshop in January to kick off the 2021 Accelerator, we re-designed it for a series of virtual workshops and peer sessions that broke the ice and introduced the cohort to each other. Finally, after two years of virtual sessions, we held an in-person workshop in April. The workshop further built on these relationships, bringing them to life from the zoom screen boxes. We now see the entrepreneurs building business partnerships and continuously engaging with each other, leaning on each other for support.
Looking forward to future accelerator programs, we intend to keep a portion of the program virtual, creating a hybrid approach to our program. For the entrepreneurs, there are two key benefits. It enables them to be part of the program from their base / remote location and still have access to sessions and engage with peers and experts, without having to take days off from their business operations. Our sessions are typically designed for a couple of hours and at certain intervals (taking care of ‘zoom fatigue!’), which gives them time to process information, reflect and work on tools, framework or any other actionables.
A hybrid approach also helped us design for deeper engagement at the individual entrepreneur level and optimise program costs in the most effective manner, i.e. ensuring a better quality program and additional support for the cohort.
Selecting a mission and outcome aligned cohort
Our selection process is rigorous but critical - both for the success of the program and more importantly, for the experience of the selected entrepreneurs. We must have a really good understanding of the business — its mission alignment, intent to impact, and potential to scale. Most importantly, we want to know about the entrepreneur to see if the program can be of value to them.
Focus on business fundamentals to build resilience
While our accelerator is focused on investment readiness for early-stage social businesses, this year’s program centred around the theme of business resilience. Before understanding fundraising fundamentals and investor expectations, it is important for entrepreneurs to have a business building mindset.
The program enabled entrepreneurs to think through the fundamentals of their business in a structured framework, incorporating feedback and input from experts. We focused on the building blocks — the core business and revenue model, impact frameworks, levers and strategy for growth. This was then supported by modules on finance, fundraising and storytelling to tailor the program specifically to these early-stage enterprises.
Field visits are fun, but more importantly provide valuable insights
Prior to the pandemic, we would conduct field visits with each of the companies participating in our accelerator program. We were so glad to have been able to do that again this year! And we noticed a difference in the support we were able to provide. The field visits enable us to meet the entrepreneurs on their home ground, see their operations up close and meet important stakeholders. This gives us a deeper understanding and insight into the current stage of the business, objectively view areas of improvement and accordingly work with the founders to build out a roadmap.
Feedback and an adaptable program design
We love receiving feedback. Continuous feedback — formal or informal — is important to ensure that the cohort is receiving the value as envisioned. Starting with a baseline needs and status assessment and periodic check-ins has helped us adapt the program, customise support areas and add workshops / sessions that were relevant but not initially planned.
Even after six accelerator programs, we are still constantly learning from our experiences and working towards driving tangible outcomes for the social businesses that we work with. We intend to push ourselves in this endeavour, and we are open to feedback, suggestions and conversations with ecosystem peers.
