Thanks! All good points. You're not alone: I think most teams apply to accelerators for some blend of validation, cash, and credibility. In my mind, however,

Thanks! All good points. You're not alone: I think most teams apply to accelerators for some blend of validation, cash, and credibility. In my mind, however, none of those facets is as important as education. If a seed stage startup only has 2-3 people, they're certainly missing some competencies, contacts, and personality types that could greatly increase their chances at success. Nothing beats having the engaged mentorship of super smart people, people who have seen the world from other angles and can pinch-hit to help round out the team. In our case, we're three capable software engineers, and we're building something really cool... but had we not gotten exposure to TechStars, our deficits in areas like go-to-market strategy (we had thought, "But it's applicable to every vertical!"), varied communication ("Our customers are excited about it, so of course investors will be!"), plus a million things to come, would've been much more encumbering at best, fatal at worst.