The Tampa Bay Innovation Center is now accepting applications for Tampa Bay’s B2B Startup Accelerator Program. The program, in its 5th year already, helps company founders launch and grow scalable businesses destined to succeed.
The accelerator program is the longest-running program in the Tampa Bay area. It’s geared toward entrepreneurs and emerging technologies. The new program begins in March and runs through June and will focus on tech ventures.
Ken Evans, managing director of the B2B accelerator, said the program helps entrepreneurs build credibility. It also gives them the confidence to launch their new businesses.
“A startup’s journey to find a sustainable product-market fit is one that is achieved by understanding the user’s job, their ideal outcome, and points of friction that impede them from meeting their objectives,” Evans said. “Startups that focus only on the technology often fail to achieve the traction they need to turn their ideas and efforts into a sustainable flow of paying customers. This program helps founders build the credibility and confidence they need to launch and grow scalable products based on that user insight and real market demand.”
The Pinellas-based startup accelerator program is seeking high-impact tech startups from a wide range of industries. It will focus on serving small to medium-sized businesses. Most importantly, founders will learn everything from design thinking, to user research. They will also receive coaching from industry professionals. The program also just broke ground on a 45,000 square-foot incubator. They will complete the facility in 2023.
Accelerator success stories
Already, the accelerator program has produced many success stories.
eNotary Log
“One success out of the fall 2019 accelerator is eNotary Log. They’ve had some very good growth, raised capital and hired many people. The pandemic helped their business tremendously because they are a fully online notary service,” Evans said. “It was from a very personal need where they needed a notary. They built a product and a company. It’s very impressive for a young startup. They are building a very necessary service for consumers and for businesses.”
Block Spaces
Block Spaces, a blockchain integration company, went through the accelerator and has had some outstanding success. “They are a blockchain service in building applications to connect businesses to the blockchain. If you have a legacy IT structure, they have services and building products to connect it. It is a very successful business model.”
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Cope Notes
And there is Cope Notes, a service that sends out text messages daily to help boost people’s mental health. Evans said the owner has had tremendous success with companies and especially in the government market. “People are realizing employee mental health is an extension to your benefits, not an exception. It is a very interesting success story and has gotten a lot of good press for what it is doing.”
Cognosketch
“There are a couple of others on the cusp of success,” Evans said. One is Cognosketch. It tests young kids from home to identify learning difficulties related to visual processing. “It is getting good traction and has done very well through the program and is in ed-tech space for early childhood assessments,” Evans said. “Every kid learns at a different rate and figures out how to put words into meaning. You have kids tested on an iPad, instead of having a school psychologist do it. You give a kid an iPad they are comfortable with, and it does the testing for you. It eliminates anxiety, tester bias, gender bias. It’s just the kid and the tool taking the test.”
More about the Tampa Bay’s B2B startup accelerator training
Accelerator training begins March 23 and runs through June 8. It will take place in person at the Tampa Bay Innovation Center’s downtown St. Petersburg office. It’s located at 501 1st Ave. N., Suite 901.
The program includes:
- 12-weekly group workshops plus weekly 1-on-1 coaching
- A focus on preparing founders to build revenue-ready tech ventures
- Startup operators and industry experts with a history of shipping products mentoring participants
- Participation from up to 10 companies per cohort
- A program-ending celebration with a demo/pitch event open to the entire Tampa Bay community
And finally, the program is free, and requires no equity.
A network of over 75 mentors and advisors works with the accelerator. Moreover, a total of 26 companies have taken part since 2019. At the end of the training, each business completes a final showcase presentation. People can also view this presentation on the Tampa Bay Innovation Center’s YouTube channel.
They are accepting applications until March 4.
