After reading an article from Paul Graham which  inspired me, I started looking for Start-up accelerators which we should know of. After some browsing, I have managed to put together a short list focusing on what, when, where and why. Hope you all find it prety entertaining and useful too.

One important aspect which should be made clear from the beginning is: can my business be sustainable? Of course, in the first phase of the process, almost all entrepreneurs will resort to mum, dad and friends to find their starting funds, but what happens when their patience, finance and understanding runs dry?

If you’re looking for an investment, then some of these programs can benefit you. If you’re in Romania, you also have great possibilities: VentureConnect would be one of them.

TechStars

This US based mentorship-driven program helps seed stage businesses develop. TechStars is highly selective, only the best of the best arrive there, though it has hunders of applications each year. It actually only chooses ten companies per city and gives these companies probably the most important thing – top-notch mentoring and funding. The accelerator does not leave out opportunities to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists. If you’re in US, then you’re truly lucky to be there.

500 Startups

As opposed to the first example, this startup accelerator has a different voice to it and communicates a “new kind” of seed fund and startup accelerators. It involves 120+ experienced startup mentors internationally and seek to assists startup companies to succeed in ways other venture firms do not.

Y Combinator

This is something which most of us are familiar with: Y Combinator. Founded in 2005, Y Combinator has a great history of funding 250+ startups.Their main goal is to assist companies in developing through the most difficult phase – ‘first phase’ or the crucial first months with seed funding. This actually results in raising money on a larger scale and introduces companies to later potential venture investors. They are sure to become an exit.

European Startup Accelerators

Startup Bootcamp (Europe)

Startup Bootcamp is the most prominent accelerator network in Europe. Important to mention are co-founders Alex Farcet (Rainmaking) and Luis Rivera (Okuri Ventures and Tetuan Valley). The two have built open space incubator environments in Copenhagen, Denmark and Madrid and are looking to expand in to Berlin, Germany, London and the UK in 2012. The most important characteristics of Startup Bootcamp are a close interactive environments between startup companies and serial entrepeneurs and the business projects and plans which have been brought forward in the mentoring sessions.

Springboard (UK)

The Difference Engine (UK)

What this accelerator has in mind to achieve is the mentality of Y Combinator and TechStarts to the European entrepreneurial market. Based in the north-east of the UK, TDE has £200,000 of public funds to invest in 10 start ups from anywhere in Europe. What the accelerator aims to gain is a full time program to grow early stage digital start-ups from the concept stage to a product/service stage during a 16 week long program. If you wish to know more, you can watch TDE video which explains things a little bit better.

The Open Fund (Greece)

The program is started by George Tziralis, a greek entrepreneur, researcher as well as teacher who decided to turn venture capitalist. The people behind the Open Fund will provide €20-30k in exchange for 20% of the shares. For more info, this is an interesting presentation which you can access.

Australian Startup Accelerators

PushStart (Australia)

PushStart (launching March 2011) is a startup accelerator focussed on Australian businesses. The PushStart Accelerator, which will be run in Sydney, will offer seed capital, focused mentoring from great industry people and a location for entrepreneurs and the other successful applicants to work on their startups for 3 months.