accelerator

Come meet our 9 Exceptional B2B Technology Startups on Nov 20

What is a startup accelerator and how can it help launch a technology idea into a market-ready business? Who is developing some of the best B2B and cloud-services technologies in the Pacific Northwest? Why is our region one of the best in the country for cloud and B2B startups? Our latest Milestone9 event will answer these questions, and introduce the 9 companies graduating from our program. Join us Thursday, November 20, from 2:00-6:00 p.m. at the Washington State Convention Center by registering at http://m9.9MileLabs.com. The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the top enterprise and cloud services companies in the world, and should be a beacon to any enterprise startup. Concur is one such remarkable success story, and we’re excited to have its co-founder, COO and Chairman Rajeev Singh keynote the event. He’ll help welcome hundreds of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, friends and family for great content, discussions, networking and demonstrations of some of the hottest technologies launching today!

This marks the third successful cohort of companies from the 9Mile Labs program and we can’t wait to help launch them into the community. And if you’re entrepreneurs interested in joining a B2B startup accelerator, our next program kicks off in January 2015 – application deadline December 4. Whether launching a startup out of college, from of an established career, or developing an idea on the side, entrepreneurs can apply to our program at any time here.

Register soon and we’ll see you there!

Meet the Accelerator —9Mile Labs partners presenting, judging and hosting this month

It’s October. Wow, already? But it’s a busy month with Cohort III at the midway point and serious work ahead! It’s also one of our favorite months at 9Mile Labs because of the bustle of B2B tech activity in the Northwest, much of which we look forward to participating in. Here’s a snapshot of where to find our team this month… B2B Startup Meetup October 8, 6:00-7:30 pm, 9Mile Labs Offices, 999 3rd Ave., Suite 700, Seattle

The Northwest's first B2B tech startup Meetup kicks off October 8 in our offices. Sponsored by Altus Alliance, Summit Law Group and 9Mile Labs, the Meetup will launch important discussions about the most fundamental, yet essential tool every B2B company needs to know and understand: a winning B2B sales process. Effectively designed and executed, the sales funnel will determine your marketing needs, headcount, forecast, product roadmap, bottlenecks to close, how you compare to others in your industry, and a lot more. RSVP here.

DreamForce

October 15, 5:30-6:45 pm, The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square

9Mile Labs Partner Sanjay Puri will present on the panel “Meet the Catalysts - Advice from the Hottest Enterprise Accelerators." Come to hear from the directors of some of the hottest enterprise Accelerators around, and find out if an Accelerator program is right for your business startup.

Startup Next

October 14 through November 12, Startup Hall, 1100 NE Campus Parkway University of Washington

9Mile Labs Partners Kevin Croy and Sanjay Puri are judging and advising young entrepreneurs at this awesome month-long event. Startup Next is the #1 startup pre-accelerator in the world, helping graduates get accepted into 9Mile Labs, Techstars, 500 Startups and many other top accelerators.

DubHacks

October 17-18, The Hub, University of Washington

DubHacks hosts the top college hackers in the northwest, and Kevin Croy will help judge the next generation of innovative software and hardware tech. This is a killer event for seeing the latest innovations coming out of UW, and every demo, app and idea reveal seems more impressive than the next.

 

And looking ahead to November, you’ll want to save the date for:

B2B Startup Weekend

November 7-9

After sponsoring the world’s first B2B Startup Weekend, the 9Mile Labs team is excited to sponsor another edition of this event. Sanjay and Kevin will judge and mentor another hot new pool of entrepreneurial talent at this year’s Startup Weekend. Don’t miss the event that is the drumroll to one of our biggest events of the year: Milestone9!

Milestone9

November 20, 2:00-6:00 pm, Washington State Convention Center

Our bi-annual event features the graduating companies from the current 4-month 9Mile program. We’re planning incredible speakers, content, technology demonstrations and an opportunity for startups and entrepreneurs — whether out of college or out of Microsoft and Amazon — to meet the investors, mentors and advisors that can help build their companies into hot market performers! Email us if you’d like an invite to this event.

Does Seattle really need yet another accelerator in 9Mile Labs?

Few people have asked us this question directly, others by implication. So we thought we'd share our point-of-view. We all know Seattle is rapidly becoming an attractive startup destination (#4 in the world according to the Startup Genome report) not just for WA state but also for the Pacific Northwest. An organization that helps nurture and grow early stage startups may not be a bad thing for our startup community. We certainly hear it all the time how the early stage startup ecosystem could use more support. Not just that, the Seattle area has been relatively sheltered from the economic crash of 2008 and as things begin to look up in the economy, we believe that the startup activity will intensify.

And how is 9Mile Labs different from the dozens of other incubators and accelerators in town? First off, we believe lumping incubators and accelerators together is like comparing apples and oranges, they are fundamentally very different business models. For a lot more on this topic, and which one is more appropriate for you as a startup, see this short YouTube video from Brad Feld or the discussion thread on Quora. So just focusing on the oranges (just go with it people!) while TechStars and Fledge.co are doing a great job with their startups, this region could certainly benefit from another early-stage accelerator. With all the technology talent and aspiring entrepreneurs in this region (rated #2 in the world in the Startup Genome report), there’s surely more than 10-20 competitive startup ideas that can use help from an accelerator.

One other way that 9Mile Labs is slightly different is our exclusive focus on B2B startups. All of us founders are career B2B software guys and the mentor network we are recruiting are all B2B-focused superstars. While we acknowledge that we end up narrowing the applicant pool with the B2B-only strategy, we believe we improve the chances of success for our startups with the laser focus.

So do we have what it takes to compete and succeed? You bet we do! We are entrepreneurs / executives ourselves and understand that our success is tied to the success of our startups. We continue to expand our slate of mentors, will have our program closely hew to Steve Blank’s customer development methodology, are creating customer panels to provide critical customer input, and offer great support to improve the success of our startups. There’s a lot more that goes into it, but you get the idea!

So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to www.9MileLabs.com and apply today!

9Mile Labs has opened the application process!

9Mile Labs (www.9MileLabs.com), a Seattle high-tech accelerator focused on B2B software and cloud technologies, is now accepting applications for its program starting April 2013. 9Mile Labs invites startups from Washington state, Oregon state, and the Vancouver B.C. region to apply. 9Mile Labs will run two 3-month programs every year, each with a group of 9 startups. During this 3-month period, 9Mile Labs will invest $20k in each of the companies joining the program in exchange for equity. Startups receive access to our wide network of mentors and advisors who have extensive startup, technology, business, and functional experience. Startups also get great perks such as free workspace, internet access, and hosting.

At the end of the 3-month program, the startups in the program have the opportunity to pitch their businesses to angel investors, venture capitalists, industry influencers, and executives during the 9Mile Labs Demo Day.

Perhaps one of the greatest value startups will get from the 9Mile Labs programs is the mentor network. The 9Mile Labs mentors come from a cross-section of the high-tech industry. A majority of the mentors are successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business veterans from the startup world. Many are executives from the high-tech business world who have excelled in an executive or functional capacity. Yet others are VCs and angel investors who have worked extensively with startups.

The 9Mile Labs website provides many more details. Application deadline is Feb 22, 2013, so don’t wait, APPLY NOW!