About Starve Ups
In October 2000, thirteen first-time startup founders, from seven Oregon-based companies, banded together to create Starve Ups, Oregon’s first startup accelerator, and its only scalerator (an end-to-end accelerator).
From day one, all Starve Ups membership companies and their founders, provide one another their peer mentorship, their resources, their experience, their ideas, their expertise, their investment sources, their expansive networks, and collectively function as equity free co-founders. Starve Ups was founded by founders, is run by founders, and is solely for founders.
This highly focused and committed peer-to-peer mentoring approach of the scalerator led to positive exits for six of the seven original companies: AssetExchange (acquired), CoolerEmail (acquired), Rumblefish (acquired), Versation (acquired), VIA (acquired) and wired.MD (acquired). The final other founding company, eROI (now Thesis), is still experiencing very strong profitable growth as a privately held companies.
It was a statistical impossibility that all 7 founding membership companies would survive, and even exponentially more so, that all 7 would reach profitability, and many degrees of magnitude less likely that 6 of the 7 would exit positively to the tune of nearly $60M for shareholders. It was clear to the original founding membership companies that an end-to-end startup accelerator, created from day one by founders, was the difference in their suceess.
After 22 years, and 222 companies across three chapters, Starve Ups has taken the end-to-end accelerator and its refined peer-to-peer mentoring model to an even higher level. It now scales startup companies from 20 industries, as membership companies, through all three stages of their growth, from Survive, to Strive, to Thrive, all for no equity and no fees.
SURVIVE
SURVIVE the first 18 to 36 months where as many as 2/3 of all startups fail, and where the greatest mistakes are made, and the most time is wasted. This is the stage of the startup lifecycle where a good portion of founders seek out an accelerator and seed capital to launch their dream.
This is the stage where Starve Ups helps founders select their corporate structure, build prototypes and MVPs, recruit advisory boards, initially raise funds and/or run crowd funding campaigns, garner early stage vendors, make initial hires, build go to market strategies, etc.
STRIVE
STRIVE into greater sustainability, profitability and expansion, when interest, investment and support tend to slow down and the models take hold. This stage of the startup lifecycle is generally in years 3 through 7, where the majority of founders raise significant rounds & build suitor relationships.
This is the stage where Starve Ups helps founders build upon their marketing strategies, sales processes and sales cycle management, VAR and partnership development, team building efforts, ongoing fundraising rounds, suitor relationship building efforts, advanced strategic development, etc.
THRIVE
THRIVE for their positive exit, IPO or existence strategy, and when our members turn into active investors, seasoned mentors, and close the startup circle. This is the stage of the startup lifecycle generally in years 7 through 12, and is where startups become brands & acquisition candidates.
This is the stage where Starve Ups helps membership companies build their overall exit strategy options, identify buyers, build investment banker relationships, build their value prop for being acquired/merged, and complete their transactions. Then, they work to become angel investors and support the next generation.
