Joining an accelerator can be a transformative experience for a startup.

Over the course of a few intense months, young companies are introduced to mentors, customers and investors who could help them achieve exponential growth.

Our company, LendingStandard, has been fortunate to take part in not one, but two such programs. Though each had a different focus, both accelerators were incredibly beneficial. They enabled us to refine our team, product, sales and execution.

Access to Resources

We started a little more than a year ago with the Kansas City-based SparkLabKC, when our company was just past the idea stage. We’ve built an online platform where commercial real estate lenders can manage the loan process, the participants involved and the documents needed. Basically, we make it easier for lenders to start and complete loan transactions.

Like many accelerators, SparkLabKC provided some early cash during a three-month period of grueling work. This gave us the opportunity to step back and work on the business instead of working for the business.

We were able to attract key talent such as Jan Valencia, who has 30 years of experience in our industry and was at the top floor of Commerce Bank. We pulled in key advisers and mentors who provided us with expertise and connections as we needed them, and to this day, they continue providing us support with talent and introductions.

They also were instrumental in connecting us to a later-stage accelerator, SixThirty of St. Louis.

Opening Doors to Potential Customers

SixThirty, which is supported by Square co-founder Jim McKelvey and Cultivation Capital, was a different kind of accelerator in that it specializes in finance technology firms. It will work only with firms that have completed products that can be sold.

Thanks to SixThirty, we received a professional term sheet and a respectable amount of cash that helped us close up the majority of our early capital needs. The cost on our part was significant, as we had to get apartments in St. Louis and spend considerable time away from home. The payoff was well worth it.

In St. Louis, our investors and mentors introduced us to a number of customers, went on sales calls, coached us on pricing and discussed our marketing needs. They helped refine our focus and early growth strategy of targeting multifamily lenders.

Fortunately, three of the top 20 multifamily lenders have a presence in St. Louis. During the summer, we closed a deal with the 16th largest multifamily lender, Gershman Mortgage, and are in the process of closing the third and eighth largest in the United States. The credibility we brought with us in these negotiations—again, thanks to our relationship with SixThirty—was significant. These are large, conservative firms that normally don’t waste a second talking to an early-stage business.

Each accelerator had a different focus, but both were instrumental in us achieving the next stage in our business. SparkLabKC helped us get our product, market and fit right while SixThirty helped us get significant customer validation. Our future now is all about scale and growth by bringing innovation to an industry that has not seen it in 30 years.

Are Accelerators Right for Your Startup?

If you have a business idea or an existing business that has the ability to grow into something huge, you may want to look at accelerators. There are a few things you should consider before jumping in.

First, could your business turn into something huge in the next five years? // Accelerators are making an investment decision in your team and gauging the likelihood that your venture will grow to a size that it could be sold or IPO’d. It is difficult to start a company and succeed, and it is brutal to grow a fast-moving company that can provide investors a 10x return on their investment.

Do your diligence on accelerators. // Talk to companies that have graduated from that program. Graduates are a wealth of information on how well the accelerator executed on its promise. Did the accelerator’s team make good connections for you? Were they able to refine your pitch for investment? What was the dynamic of other mentors and startups in the program? What stage of business do they accept? Do they have notable successes? Does the accelerator have a focus or a program goal, and does it match the needs of your startup?

Be mindful of mentor whiplash. // Different mentors can tell you completely different things. Be coachable and listen. But it is ultimately up to you to make a decision.

It is a team effort. // Don’t do it alone. You need a rock-star group of at least a few people. It is impossible to execute on a scalable company without key employees who can wear multiple hats. Set your business culture early because this is a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs that will test your sanity. Your energies need to be focused on the goals of the business and not dealing with office drama.

Set a goal and track your progress. // Know where you want the business to be at the end of the program. Align your goals to the focus of the accelerator. Keep track of your progress toward these goals, and every week, update everyone (this includes your team, advisers, investors and mentors) on how things are going. This will help focus the team on achieving your goals, with a bonus of keeping a growing number of mentors and advisers engaged in your future.

Understand investment terms, business formation and general business operation. // You’ll face a dizzying amount of new information, from financials to legal issues to startup jargon. You definitely need a crash course on startup investment before joining an accelerator. Thankfully, Kansas City has some wonderful early-stage programs from the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Center, UMKC’s E-Scholars group, the Enterprise Center of Johnson County and Kauffman FastTrac.

You get what you put into it. // Having a successful accelerator experience requires serious dedication. You are competing with other startups for traction, growth and validation, and those things are only earned by the effort you put into leveraging the tools the accelerator provides.