STARTUP ASSIST
New ABQid accelerator front and center in metro’s entrepreneurial upsurge
C arol Wiggins had a “Eureka!” moment last fall while talking with managers at a home furniture store in Albuquerque.
The 35-year-old, stay-athome mom had developed a new app to help shoppers stay on budget as they planned home projects and events. But while talking with the furniture store management, she discovered that shoppers weren’t necessarily her best target customers. Rather, the professionals who help shoppers plan their projects might be the most interested in using her product.
“I went in to learn more about how customers shop, and I realized that the manager and lead designer were immediately excited,” Wiggins said. “They brought us to meet with others who might also be interested in using the app with their clients.”
That’s when Wiggins and her husband, co-founder of their startup company Itsums Inc., did a strategic “pivot” in their business strategy to focus less on shoppers, and more on professional planners, organizers and designers who could use the app to better serve their own clients. That’s now a key marketing strategy as they build a customer base to move their business to the next level. And they’re developing partnerships with some professional groups to help show their app to more potential users.
“We changed our strategy,” Wiggins said. “We knew from the start that we had something, but we didn’t have a lot of focus and we didn’t know who would use our product or what for. But through that visit to the furniture store and other experiences with potential customers, we learned that we had an opportunity to develop a professional-level product and that wasn’t even part of our strategy before.”
‘Lean startup’ strategy
Wiggins’ furniture store visit was part of an intensive, three-month program in which she participated last fall through the new ABQid business accelerator, which
helps startup companies find the most rapid and efficient paths to market for new products.
The program, modeled on an emerging “lean startup” strategy, teaches entrepreneurs to immediately test their ideas in the real world from day one to get critical feedback on whether their product or service is really of use, whom it would most benefit and how best to reach those customers. Through constant feedback from potential customers — and from mentors, coaches, professionals and peers in the ABQid program — entrepreneurs such as Wiggins learn to make fundamental changes, or strategic pivots, to blaze the straightest path possible to market.
They also build new connections with professional networks of people who can help them navigate the often-complex process of creating a new business, such as managing legal, accounting and marketing issues.
For first-time entrepreneurs like Wiggins, that process can change their entire outlook and set them on an accelerated path to success.
“This is definitely my first time at this rodeo, so I want any advice I can get, and opportunities to excel my business and build new strategies,” Wiggins said. “I learned that entrepreneurship is like raising children — it takes a village. It’s so much easier when you get help from others, being part of a community where everyone wants you to succeed.”
In that sense, ABQid is at the heart of an entrepreneurial upsurge taking root in Albuquerque, where the city, private sector and public institutions like the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College are working together to build an innovation district Downtown that encourages entrepreneurs to embrace risk and take the business leap. ABQid is located in the historic Verge Building near the Convention Center.
Albuquerque Economic Development Director Gary Oppedahl called it “democratizing entrepreneurship.”
“We want to take people with great ideas and surround them with people they can draw on to help move forward,” Oppedahl said.
A new local economy
The city and its partners are hoping to sow the seeds of a new local economy that is less dependent on federal investment or out-of-state corporations and based more on grass-roots economic growth.
“We want to create a community that actually believes in itself to build its own jobs without waiting for the next Intel, Tesla or Sandia,” Oppedahl said. “We have the assets here to do it. We want to create a new future economy here in Albuquerque.”
Partners in the innovation district are creating a broad array of infrastructure and programs to support entrepreneurial development. New incubators and institutes are rising, including UNM’s planned Innovate ABQ research and development zone at Broadway and Central, CNM’s STEMulus Center at First Galeria Plaza and the FatPipe ABQ incubator for information tech startups, located next to the Innovate ABQ property.
Initiatives that are underway or in the works include: startup weekends where people with business ideas come together to sew the first stitches of potential new businesses; frequent “pitch” events where aspiring entrepreneurs present ideas to experienced businesspeople and investors; and 1 Million Cups, a weekly meeting at FatPipe ABQ where businesspeople and innovators can share ideas and talk about challenges faced by startups.
And, apart from ABQid, two more business accelerators have launched in the city: Creative Startups, which aims to boost businesses focused on things such as film, music and design, and the STEMulus Center’s new IGNITE Community Accelerator, which in January launched its first three-month program for a cohort of 10 new companies.
ABQid has financial backing from the city, which approved a $1.8 million grant to help fund operations until the program becomes selfsustaining.
And, as part of the ABQid program, free short workshops, or “boot camps,” are held around the city for anyone interested in bringing something to market. About 200 people so far have attended the workshops, where people learn about the “lean startup” strategies of constantly evaluating one’s idea through feedback from potential customers and others.
The entire ABQid program curriculum is based on that strategy, developed by experts from Stanford University. It offers an alternative to the age-old business model of writing a business plan first and then raising money before going to market.
Reducing risks, fueling success
By testing and revising through continual customer feedback, startups can
reduce risks and increase the likelihood of success, said Kathleen Gardenswartz, ABQid marketing and curriculum director.
“It all starts with assumptions that startups have about their business idea,” Gardenswartz said. “The entire process is about validating those premises, or best guesses, through customer discovery.”
Entrepreneurs spend three months talking daily to potential customers and industry professionals to get feedback, along with critical insight from mentors, coaches and peers in the ABQid program. The next step is to integrate the comments into the business model, and go out again to test the plan with customers and professionals in a continual cycle.
The first ABQid program, held from August-October, included 11 startups chosen from among 85 firms that applied, said ABQid Chairman Bill Bice.
Participants included first-time entrepreneurs like Wiggins, plus businesspeople who successfully led startups in the past. Most said the ABQid experience was transformative.
“It represents a new way to think about a startup business,” said David Franklin, a serial entrepreneur and now CEO of attachedapps, which is marketing new software for small businesses to manage sales. “It completely changed my opinion about what needs to be done and in what order, with rapid prototyping and testing the marketplace as top priorities. I’ll never do another venture that doesn’t have those fundamental precepts.”
Some of the companies in the first cohort may now receive seed investments from a fund set up by ABQid to help the most promising program graduates. ABQid directors are currently evaluating funding prospects, which can range from $50,000 to $200,000 per company.
Each program participant already received a $20,000 grant as an award for selection in ABQid. Program directors are now preparing to open the next selection process for a new cohort of startup entrepreneurs scheduled for the spring.