The journey from scientist to founder is a well-trodden path, but it's not without its challenges. To address these hurdles, several programs have emerged over the past decade to support technical founders. In a significant development, two prominent programs, Activate and The Engine Accelerator, have decided to join forces to give founders an even bigger advantage.
According to Emily Knight, CEO of The Engine Accelerator, the partnership is driven by the realization that the two programs can achieve more by working together. "It felt like the closer we could get, the more work we could do together, the more we can feed into each other's programs, and ultimately, see more throughput from these proto-founders to entrepreneurs," Knight explained to TechCrunch.
The Engine Accelerator and Activate are complementary in many ways. The Engine works with scientists and engineers who are just beginning to explore commercializing their research, while Activate steps in when founders have refined their ideas further and offers them two-year fellowships to get them ready for fundraising. This synergy is already yielding results, with a significant number of proto-founders who completed The Engine's recent Blueprint program going on to receive Activate fellowships.
Cyrus Wadia, CEO of Activate, highlighted the benefits of this partnership, stating, "It's not a universal truth, but what we see is Blueprint participants are better prepared for Activate." Wadia added, "My team was kind of like, can we get more of that?" The partnership remains in its earliest phases, with no financial transactions or merger discussions underway. "It's too early to talk about that," Knight emphasized.
For now, the two programs are focused on sharing knowledge and best practices to identify areas for improvement. They will maintain separate application and admissions processes, although the possibility of a unified application platform, similar to the college "common app," is being explored.
The ultimate goal of this alliance is to accelerate the pace of innovation, particularly in areas like climate change. As Wadia noted, "We've normalized a pace that's too slow, especially when you're talking about climate." By streamlining the path to entrepreneurship, Activate and The Engine Accelerator aim to empower technical founders to make a meaningful impact sooner rather than later.
This partnership has significant implications for the startup ecosystem, as it demonstrates a willingness to collaborate and address the unique challenges faced by technical founders. As the partnership evolves, it will be interesting to see how it influences the broader innovation landscape and the pace of progress in critical areas like climate change.