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Growth Stage Startup
Business Coaching Program in Los Angeles
Apply to get accepted!
We have put together a group of proven, highly sought-after consultants and startup growth hacking experts who you will have direct access to throughout the program. In this way, we guarantee that this startup accelerator will be innovative and insightful and teach you the valuable leadership, startup management and communication skills you need for rapid growth.
Our Coaches include:
Professional Scott C. Hindell, business consultant and lead instructor at M-ACCELERATOR, who has over 30 years of experience in planning and teaching entrepreneurship courses at the University of California.
Our pitch coach Lizzy Wallace has worked at Shark Tank with Marc Cuban and Chris Sacca. She is the founder of “PitchPolish” a consulting practice focused on helping people improve their public speaking and communication skills.
Over the last 25 years Alessandro Marianantoni has researched, launched, bootstrapped numerous projects in many fields, raising vast public and private funds. He’s the founder of M Accelerator and MEDIARS LLC (mediars.la)
Mediars (our organization) has over a decade of experience in multi-faceted startup training projects that has resulted in a highly effective, hands-on learning curriculum for all attendees. You will learn how to overcome all of the biggest challenges and obstacles that prevent startup founders from reaching the next level.
STRATEGIC THINKING
Learn the strategic thinking that you need to accelerate your startup’s growth beyond expectations
MENTORSHIP
Mentorship is a key to your startup’s development and a must – learn from some of the most proven mentors around.
PROVEN METHODS
M-ACCELERATOR has helped many of our former participants achieve incredible results with their startups.
STARTUP COMMUNITY
With a premier location in downtown LA, there are other startups and networking opportunities everywhere.
This Growth Startup Program is not for everyone. We are looking for participants with a solid startups, at the growth stage, who need coaching on practical and proven ways to grow their business.
This program is for participants that already have:
- Idea/Business Model, somewhat tested, some revenue, and do not need help with building their idea.
- Name/logo
- Market Opportunity
- Is for CEO and there are already team-members
- Working Minimum Viable Product/Prototype
- Investors/Funding: For startup typically looking for seed-stage/first round funding, looking for anywhere from $100,000-$500,000.
- Effectively pitch to investors, with solid pitch deck and presentation.
- Connections to Corporations and Business Partners
- Team-Building: As the startup develops, part-time/contractors may not work, because need people that are committed for the long-term. Developers, marketers, finance experts, etc.
- Knowledge about venture deal legalities (for future funding), how to structure their equity/incorporate. Startups don’t want to have to pay tons of money for lawyers.
- Traction/Sales/Business Development: Whatever the startups are producing, they need help going to market, building a sales pipeline. If they build a good product, but not a good way to sell it, they don’t have a good business.
- Solutions
- Go to market/ Digital Marketing strategy
- Customized program
- Marketing: Comes with value proposition.
- Mentorship: Access to real, strong mentors--people who are entrepreneurs and have been through similar processes, and are willing to meet at least monthly to sit down (or weekly during the program), and provide effective guidance.
- Board of Advisors, using our network.
Last but not least, are you an international participant who wants to attend the program? This program is catered for your needs and will guarantee that you can succeed, network and obtain funding even if English is your second language. Learn all of the above and even more with special courses and training to help you get up to speed with the startup economy in the U.S.
- Do you want to pitch your idea or raise capital in the United States? We’ll show you how.
- Not feeling confident in your English quite yet? There is a detailed business English program integrated.
Scott Hindell is the Lead instructor at M Accelerator, with over three decades of experience in entrepreneurship training at the University of California in Los Angeles and in many other settings. Professor Hindell has held many workshops in the United States and abroad including at several Chinese universities, TEDx-UCLA, and the California Restaurant Industry Conference. See Scott’s Full Bio
Professor Hindell will be training you directly during several of the workshops, where you’ll be able to rely on his extensive expertise in nearly every aspect of startup creation and growth. With an unrivaled ability to facilitate objectivity and recognize bias, he provides a refreshing and illuminating perspective on your startup idea and the ideas you will uncover.
Lizzy Wallace is a highly experienced pitch coach who has worked with the likes of Marc Cuban and Chris Sacca at ABC’s Shark Tank. She is an instructor at General Assembly and the founder of “PitchPolish” a consulting practice that helps startup founders communicate their unique story and business benefits to investors and other key stakeholders. See Lizzy’s Full Bio
Lizzy will be training you on how to effectively communicate your idea to potential investors during the pitch related workshops. You’ll get amazing guidance from someone who is unquestionably one of the world’s leading experts on pitching in the most competitive environments to help guarantee your chances of a successful pitch.
Alessandro Marianantoni has over 20 years of experience researching, launching and bootstrapping projects in many fields, raising both public and private funds. He’s the founder of M-ACCELERATOR and MEDIARS LLC (mediars.la). See Alessandro’s Full Bio.
Along with overseeing and organizing the program, Alessandro will also be participating in several of the workshops as an instructor, helping you learn the power of creative thinking as an approach to your business among other hard and soft skills. Alessandro will work with you directly throughout the entire workshop to ensure your personal growth and that it turns out to be a truly transformative experience.
Winter | Feb - Mar | 8 weeks
Spring | May - Jun | 8 weeks
Summer | August | 4 weeks
Fall | Nov - Dec | 8 weeks
What is included:
- Pitch opportunities / Investor Introductions
- Partnership / Customer acquisition opportunities
- up to 100hr group coaching, 3-4 weekly sessions
- 12hr, Individual coaching
- co-working space for 3 months
- Server/Hosting for your website
- Enter our portfolio companies
- For ESL participants there is a 36-hour Business English course included with personalized feedback, initial and final test and CEFR certification.
- Follow up and support on specific issues of your stage
Submit your application today to be considered.
If you need to relocate to Los Angeles, our staff will help you with accommodation and trip. Our network also includes immigration lawyers and experts that will be able to support you.
Join Our Growth Program in Los Angeles for Later Stage Startup
Apply now, spots for each cohort are limited!
- Language functions for discussions, presentations, and short monologues to learn about the dynamic delivery of ideas.
- Fluency in listening, reading, and speaking in English 3 areas that are specifically useful in the business context.
- Communication strategies & soft-skills for building trust, presenting ideas, summarizing, participating in discussions, managing Q&A, etc. to establish credibility and clarity in communication.
- Cross-cultural elements of the American business and social culture to understand how to target your communication to the audience.
This workshop also includes the following:
- Pre-test - to understand the participant’s current general communication ability in English and to create a customized learning design.
- Ongoing assessments and feedback - conducted in sprints throughout the program in connection with other tasks that the participants fulfill in the accelerator program.
- Final assessment - to evaluate the application of skills learned during the course (can be integrated with the final projects)
- Final test - At the end, students can opt to test their English level and obtain a CEFR certification.
FAQ
Yes, share your struggles with us; we’ve been there!
We can help you no matter which stage your project is in because we have 3 different tracks: students/early stage and growth stage customized for you. We tailor our training to focus on the many steps that happen before the development of your first Minimum Viable Product (MPV). In general we work with startups in several different stages and cover the following and more:
- Business strategy design, bootstrapping, growth hacking,
- Business strategy validation and MVP design approach
- New market discovery -- such as the case of a startup in a second phase of international expansion.
- Go To Market Strategy and Growth
- Digital Marketing Automation optimized for your business
As long as you’re looking to improve and implement your strategy, our program is a good fit.
Beside digital marketing solutions for your bootstrap and growth, we can also provide guidance on technology solutions. MEDIARS LLC has vast experience in designing and developing proprietary and customized technology solutions.
Yes! This program is tailored for international participants.
The fact that you are away from home, out of your comfort zone, will encourage you to see the world a little differently, be inspired and think outside the box. We include a 36-hour English Business Workshop just for you to hone your crucial English communication skills, along with all of the other workshops.
If that’s the case congratulations!
We can help you grow it even faster and also help you find opportunities for investor funding if that is something you are seeking. If you have noticed that you aren’t reaching your revenue goals as quickly or need to do a bit more to prepare for an investor pitch, this program is exactly what you need.
Yes, we do! We can assist you with every step of finding comfortable and reasonably priced accommodations near our studio loft with convenient transportation access to each event. Feel free to apply today and we will meet with you to discuss this and the other logistics of your stay.
Our team has more than a decade of experience in the organization of international exchange programs. Many of our students come to the United States for the first time. Before your departure, you will have the opportunity to attend a series of meetings and webminars to prepare you for your American experience. We will also send you our Guidelines for Departure. We strive to help make your experience as worthwhile and enjoyable as possible.
Even if you are simply at the stage where you have an idea, we can help you validate it and translate it into a real business strategy and plan with the Early Stage Program.
Los Angeles is home to more than 2300 startups.
Thanks to the technology convergence created in the entertainment industry, Los Angeles is the most creative city of the United States.
These are the key benefits Los Angeles offers:
- LA Managers with extensive experience in entertainment, especially in the audiovisual field.
- Engineers and scientists who are highly-qualified graduates of local universities, which are always at the top of world rankings.
- The cost of living is lower compared to that in the Bay Area and The Silicon Valley.
- A growing ecosystem of accelerators, incubators, and angel investors defines the LA business landscape.
All these elements make Los Angeles the most interesting environment for innovative startups.
Our course aims to leverage these favorable conditions by offering revolutionary business training to young creatives internationally. Many of our participants select LA as their no.1 choice to embark on an accelerator program due to the incredible opportunities for growth.
Take our Student/Early Stage Startup Program. Some participants in our Student track don’t need to have a business idea prior to arriving in LA. As long as you’re willing to work hard and develop an idea throughout the course. Especially the ones that are taking our program with no entrepreneurial experiences should create a team. If this is your case we'll work with you before the program and will find the best match to assemble a team to complete the program successfully.
Submit your application, demonstrate your motivation, you could be eligible for M Accelerator.
We need to know a bit from you, your stage and your business goals, based on that we'll create a customized program. Here are several possible outcomes:
- A structured business plan to be presented to Investors/Partners
- Understanding of investors’ expectations and requirements
- An effective pitch for investors
- Knowledge of building and managing a digital marketing campaigns
- For ESL: Improved English language skills and business English
- Extension of your business network.
- Pitch Opportunities
If you are simply seeking venture capital, send us you business deck we can evaluate if you're ready to pitch in front of investors. We do much more than connecting you with VC opportunities. We want to help both you and your business grow through mentorship, coaching lessons, and assistance with your strategic thinking.
Although this program will put you in touch with venture capital pitch opportunities and help you make connections there, we are primarily focused on helping you transition into an effective leader and refining your business into something much more scalable.
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