Ep. 225 - Erin Stadler, Managing Director of Boomtown Accelerators on Evolution of Accelerators, Corporate Partnerships, and COVID's Impact

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with Erin Stadler. She's the managing partner at Boomtown Accelerators. Erin and I talk about the evolution of accelerators, how corporations are tackling the space, and how the impact of COVID is impacting innovation. Let's get started.

Inside Outside Innovation is the podcast that brings you the best and the brightest in the world of startups and innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger, founder of insideoutside.io, a provider of research, events, and consulting services that help innovators and entrepreneurs build better products, launch new ideas, and compete in a world of change and disruption. Each week we'll give you a front row seat to the latest thinking, tools, tactics, and trends, in collaborative innovation. Let's get started. 

Interview with Erin Stadler, Boomtown

Brian Ardinger:  Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger, and as always, we have another amazing guest. Today we have Erin Stadler. She is the managing partner at Boomtown accelerators. Welcome Erin. 

Erin Stadler: Thank you. 

Brian Ardinger: Hey, I'm excited to have you on the show. You and I have crossed paths a couple different times in the accelerator space. Let's talk a little bit about what is Boomtown accelerators. 

Erin Stadler: That is a great question, because we're actually going through a phase where we're just seeing so many things shift out in the industry. There's a lot of questions about what is an accelerator and where do we want to go with the industry. But right now, Boomtown at its core, we're a company that's been focusing on entrepreneurship and how to elevate the entrepreneur to get their idea out there. And right now, we're doing that by partnering with some really amazing corporate partners. The main one right now being Comcast and the sports tech accelerator that we're about to create. 

Brian Ardinger: I wanted to have you on the show, because again, you've been in the space of accelerators. You and I both started early days, eight plus years ago, I guess, in this space and accelerators have changed quite a bit. And so, I wanted to have you on the show, partly to talk about that evolution of accelerators and what have you seen that's been good, bad, and indifferent, and where you see it going. Let's start with the history of how Boomtown accelerators got started and what you've seen over the last decade or so of how accelerators have changed.

Erin Stadler: Boomtown got started like a lot of companies in a new emerging marketplace, so we're actually almost eight years old now. So, we were one of the first accelerators in Colorado. We actually did start in the backyard of some other famous accelerators. But at the time, it was definitely during that stage where a lot of people were starting accelerators. There was a bit of a me too, if you could build a mentor community, and you could get some investors, and could attract some startups., Tada! You had your accelerator. But what we've learned over the last few years and many iterations, one of my founders will say we are probably the biggest skeptics when it comes to accelerators, which makes us want to just continually to evolve and adapt.

And we've gone through a lot of different stages with the help of some amazing partners. Along that journey, we realized that it has a lot more to do with helping the founder be prepared in launching that startup. While connections are important and they're great. What can you do that is really impactful? And frankly, that is a much, much harder job than setting up a demo day and setting up some mentor meetings. I hope we see other accelerators do that, but it's the thing we've tried to do is challenge what truly is impactful for a company at its early stage. And we found that there's just a very different model to make that successful.

Brian Ardinger: Let's unpack that a little bit. I think back in the days when accelerators got started, it was more of a deal flow thing for VCs or the community to kind of see what was out there and invest at early stages at a low valuation and kind of see what happens from that perspective. And like you said, it probably wasn't always, or at least depending on the accelerator, wasn't always set up to support the founder. What did you learn in that early stage that made you think, okay, well, we can do this differently or support founders in a different way? 

Erin Stadler: You know, it was the founders themselves. So, a little bit of like the customer doesn't know what they want. So, and this is still true today, you know, when we're talking to startups, you know, startups are attracted by the names of the partners. They're attracted by the names of people in your mentor pool. Right? It's all about if I can just meet that right person, right?  Unfortunately, it's a little bit how the social construct or the myths around what basis successful startup has been formed, but what's really happened is at the end of working with us, we'll go back to the startups and say, Hey, what was actually the most impactful?

And that's actually where we got most of our learnings and our insights from, and the sort of things we heard, it was sitting down with someone, working through them with the strategy, helping them understand if they have the right mindset. As a friend of ours would say, how to unlearn some bad habits. And set them up for success. And while that included great connections, it was less about the star power we'll say, and a lot more about how, and that continues to evolve into, like I said, for the sports tech accelerator, instead of just having a name stamped on there, you know, Hey, you know, you'll get an intro to the CTO at XYZ company.

We've worked very closely with each of the partners and each of the people involved in our accelerator to go, Hey, if you're involved in this, this isn't just for fun. Like this is about making an impact and let's get serious about caring and honest about the time that we have and be transparent about whether we're on board to make an impact, and then let's actually do that. So, everyone leaves feeling like, Oh, people were authentic and honest, and we're here to do great businesses, you know, not just make an investment and make a bet. 

Brian Ardinger: Let's talk a little bit about that pivot from, and we've saw the evolution of accelerators being primarily designed to help create early stage companies. And then you saw this wave of corporations kind of raising their hand and saying, Hey, this is interesting. We want to get involved in this. And I think he saw a lot of bad habits in that stage, too. A lot of corporations seem to look at it more as innovation theater, as a way to pretend they are involved in the startup scene and that, but not necessarily really understanding how to impact both the founders as well as the company themselves with this. So, talk about that evolution to the corporate accelerator side of the world. And what have you seen there? 

Erin Stadler: The first evolution, like you said, it was a bit of me too, again, I think it was fashionable, may still be in some places to have your own health tech accelerator or your own financial one or something powered by this group. The problem with that is one, the corporation only has so much time to work and partner with a startup. It's like how many FinTech companies can you really help, or can you really impact? And...