Canada’s Only B2B SaaS Accelerator Opens Applications to Third Session
Call for Applications Comes as 13 Portfolio Companies Prepare for Graduation
Ottawa, Ontario, May 5, 2016 – L-SPARK has opened applications for their third Accelerator session, seeking enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) startups who are looking to grow revenues and prepare for Series A financing in 9 months. The call for applications comes as 13 SaaS companies in L-SPARK’s second cohort prepare to graduate from both the Incubator and Accelerator.
L-SPARK companies are matched one to one with a mentor. Embedded for two days a week within one company, mentors are hands on with the founders they’re matched with. Mentors draw on their years of experience to help founders strengthen business fundamentals, create new growth opportunities, and leverage L-SPARK’s corporate partners and investor pitch sessions.
“At the end of the day, you’re getting a C-level executive working for your company. You’re never going to get more value than having someone with those resources and that much pedigree and knowledge,” says CareerJSM co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Doucet.
The L-SPARK UnProgram promises a high energy environment where at any moment a company will collide with a variety of Enterprise SaaS experts. Founders, in conjunction with their mentors, develop and execute on a custom nine-month plan.
‘Weekly scrums’ with the L-SPARK team of Directors are held to assess progress and how founders can reach both immediate objectives and overarching goals.
Through a number of targeted B2B SaaS workshops and one on one working sessions SaaS startups will form repeatable sales strategies, refine their product and user experience and tap into support to help with hiring and operations.
At the onset of the program, startups participate in positioning and differentiation workshops with L-SPARK’s branding advisor Andrew Jackson. The workshop was foundational for FileFacets, which transitioned from a services to a SaaS company before they entered the program.
“Andrew’s messaging methodology and his marketing workshop were transformational. Because of it, we saw a 10x increase in MRR in 4 months,” says Chris Perram, FileFacets founder and CEO.
The Business Development Team will effectively prepare the startups for late seed or Series A investment from Angels and/or early stage Venture Capital and facilitate guided meetings with early stage angel, venture capital and institutional investors.
Anthony Mar, co-founder and CEO of Cliniconex has been able to solidify his startup’s path to investment with the help of his mentor, former IBM executive Rob White.
“Rob, in particular, has previously executed mergers and acquisitions with IBM and he’s currently an angel investor. He knows what the different phases of investment are and he was able to put forward a plan for us,” says Mar.
Founders are also connected to investment partners in the US. The Better Software Company has raised an aggregate total of $3.7 million in funding to date. New York-based ff Venture Capital acted as the lead investor of their seed round.
L-SPARK’s singular focus on growing SaaS companies has generated a new centre of excellence for SaaS in Canada. L-SPARK’s network of mentors, advisors and corporate partners are best of breed in Canada with specific domain expertise in enterprise SaaS. Founders work directly with a supporting group of champion partners such as Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, OpenText, Shopify, Citrix, Mitel and more.
Up to six startups will be selected for the Accelerator program. Entrepreneurs with a commercial product and at least 10-30K MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) that are disrupting a rapidly growing market should apply.
Applications to the second Incubator Session will remain open until July 24, 2016 via the L-SPARK website: https://www.l-spark.com/programs/accelerator/
About L-SPARK
L-SPARK is the only Canadian Incubator and Accelerator that focuses exclusively on Enterprise SaaS and cloud start-ups. With established relationships with key venture capital firms, angel investors, and the investment community at large, the goal is to support a deal flow of fundable Enterprise SaaS startup companies in Canada. Visit us at www.l-spark.com, connect with us on linkedin.com/l-spark or follow us on Twitter @LSPARKGlobal.