By Ryoko Hirano, Director of Market and Business Acceleration, NEC X
Let’s face it: Launching your startup is no easy task. Behind every great startup is an even greater team of founders. At NEC X, we do everything we can to make sure the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) going through our Corporate Accelerator Program (CAP) have access to the best resources needed for success.
After an intensive six to nine months of Customer Discovery and Customer Validation, the NEC X journey ends with graduation. There are multiple paths NEC X EIRs can take when it finally comes time to publicly launch the business! Below we describe two basic paths your startup can launch through NEC X’s accelerator program.
Spin-Out: The main and the most common launch path for our EIRs is to spin out. NEC X will guide you through a successful Seed or Series A round as a standalone startup in six to nine months of Customer Discovery and Customer Validation. This might be very fast-paced and much more intense than other incubator or accelerator programs. However, our goals are to help you get to that stage as quickly as possible using the least amount of resources.
This path gives EIRs full responsibility and autonomy with their investors, including NEC X, to do what they would like with the business. The sky’s the limit for the startup’s leadership and investors.
On some occasions, NEC X might also recommend our startups apply for external accelerator programs to help them accelerate their business launch and growth. Programs such as our partners at Alchemist Accelerator open their door to startups at precisely the same phase as our graduating spin-outs. This works very well for startups that went through the entire NEC X incubation process and achieved external funding because Alchemist has a strong investor network, giving EIRs additional growth opportunities and mentorship.
Spin-In: There is a small chance for our startups to spin into NEC Corporation. For the spin-in situations, an EIR venture becomes an entity owned by one of NEC’s business units. This is an excellent option for EIRs who want to continue working with the NEC team and would like to leverage our world-renowned technology and reputation.
To better understand the entire NEC X CAP process, we invite you to review our infographic here. If you’re ready to explore EIR opportunities with NEC X, be sure to check our “Application” page!