Accelerators Are The Rage in the Alley

Why are accelerators so hot right now here in NYC?

The simple answer is "time compression".   Accelerators speed up the entire process of startup incubation by offering "mentors" who can school the young entrepreneurs, based on their own expertise and wisdom. 

The best accelerator around, in my opinion, is Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.  Tomorrow, ERA 2, the second class to "graduate" will demo at the ERA Demo Day.  BRUNI PR, a mentor for last year's ERA 1 class, will be on hand. 

I'll be keeping on eye on STYLYT, which has already received some nice coverage in AdAge.  Basically, it's way for young female shoppers to create their own "collections" in collaboration with designers/brands.

LocalBonus and Dibsie are also interesting and could disrupt shopping. And, Appy Couple is founded by a couple vets of Web development and offers a do-it-yourself app kit.

Here's an overview of the ERA 2 class (from TNW News):


ERA’s new class includes startups from a diverse cross-section of industries, ranging from mobile and payments to fashion tech and e-commerce. But regardless of genre, all of these startups are looking to create disruptive companies in New York. Here’s the full 2012 winter class that will greatly benefit from the accelerator’s mentorship, $25,000 investment, free co-working space and more:

Appy Couple

Appy Couple lets you quickly, easily, and affordably create a gorgeous mobile app to share all the excitement of your wedding with invited guests. The Appy platform populates a mobile app in real-time, and includes features like picture uploads, virtual champagne, countdown, and geolocation.

Cinchifieds

Cinchifieds is the world’s simplest marketplace. Users catalog what they’re interested in buying or selling, and Cinchifieds does all the work, delivering matches directly to you. Cinchifieds makes buying and selling a cinch.

Dibsie

Dibsie makes it easy to find, organize and discover products online by integrating social networking with powerful search capability. Dibsie streamlines the process for discovering and sharing products by allowing users to search thousands of retailers and brands, then bookmark favorites for sharing through a mutually-curated catalog.

LocalBonus

LocalBonus allows consumers to use their existing credit and debit cards as their loyalty card at local merchants and gives merchants an easy way to deploy a rewards program to build customer loyalty.

Pictorious

Pictorious is a photo-sharing game that creates a fun way to explore the world, meet new people and earn awesome rewards and prizes. Pictorious also helps brands and merchants engage with and attract customers.

ShareRebate

ShareRebate is a referral tool that helps mobile app developers get more downloads. The referral tool seamlessly integrates into any mobile app and starts to offer users of the app rewards for recommending the app to friends and family.

Stray Boots

Stray Boots turns the walking tour on its head through its cell phone-guided, interactive urban games in cities throughout the U.S. Stray Boots curates the games and delivers them to customers’ phones via its proprietary software, taking urban explorers on an adventure that’s more fun, engaging and flexible than other ways to explore the city.

STYLYT

STYLYT is redefining the way fashion brands acquire loyal fans. Partnering with contemporary and boutique brands, Stylyt launches collaborative fashion design campaigns that allow any user to customize an item in a collection, vote on user entries and even choose the winning design entry to be manufactured and sold.

Wizpert

Wizpert is a real-time platform that instantly matches people who need advice with experts who are qualified to provide it on a wide range of topics from parenting to relationships and nutrition. Wizpert offers immediate access to a simple, helpful form of human communication. Talking.

WowWombat

WowWombat is an event sponsorship marketplace that provides an easy way for businesses to find and interact with their target audience. A business selects events to sponsor based on the demographics they want to reach and scale they can afford – while event organizers post event details to receive sponsorship.