edegan.com - User contributions [en]

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2018-03-29T20:46:43Z

Shrey: /* Current Work */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu, Veeral Shah,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=Current Work=
Google Master Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ikuxYwp9JIRrjz4qQcbdwTpbHOne-q2PterYTjzofjw/edit?ts=5aa2f1f9#gid=0
*Cross-reference sheet with data from Peter's old accelerator consolidation file ("accelerator_data_noflag" and "accelerator_data" in "All Relevant Files") and fill in missing data
*Variables that are 100% NOT in these 2 files:
**Cohort Breakout?
**Subtype
**Designed for Students?
**Campuses
**Stage
**Software Tech
**What stage do they look for?

TODO:
McNair/Projects/Accelerators/Fall 2017/unfound_founders.txt
A 0 means we don't have founder data for that accelerator.
Specs: A tab delimited text file with the following fields:
Accelerator First Name Last Name LinkedInURL(if possible)
Getting the LinkedInURL will ensure accuracy, but will work without it.

*Shrey: Find "demo day" keywords, so that we can search AcceleratorName Year Keyword and get back potential demo day pages

==Accelerator Type project==

File to edit is called "Accelerator type list". Located in the folder E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2018\Grouping project of ListOfAccs. More systematic information and instructions are in"Instructions for Accelerator type project" in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2018\Grouping project of ListOfAccs.

NOTE: until we get through all 270 accelerators, we will just categorize each accelerator into the following three categories as quickly as possible with short notes in teh "other info" column for these; once we have this, we will go back through the ones that aren't categorized and add notes to the "other info" column.

Type list:
*Private
*Corporate
*Academic
Note: if DEAD, noted here.

Other info:
*nonprofit? (y/n)

*Subtype abbreviations:
**S: for if a social entrepreneurship initiative
**I: for if an incubator
**A: for an angel group
**F: for foreign
**C: for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V: for if part of venture fund
**G: for if government funded/partnered
**T: for international

Note: subtypes (from individual text files in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data) were only found for 23 of the 270 accelerators. These accelerators were initially intended to be removed from the master list. Remaining subtypes are currently being added.

other info:

international offices, founders, industries, org type, program duration, or other interesting, easily accessed variables. Additional information is especially important for accelerators that have no other subtype abbreviation listed.

===Steps to research an accelerator===

1. Copy/paste URL listed in Accelerator type list file into google. If website is insufficient, try googling:
the name of the accelerator
the name of the accelerator + "crunchbase"
the name of the accelerator + "nonprofit"

the above steps sometimes lead to other helpful databases/news articles

2. Note whether:
1) Academic/Corporate/Private
2) For Profit/Nonprofit. Sometimes this isn't directly stated but can be inferred through their description of, say their investment process. If they don't address this at all it's probably For Profit.
3) subtype (S, I, A, F, C, V, G, T).
4) Additional, easily-accessed info. Number 4 is really important if there's no subtype.

All 270 need to be done by the end of the semester.

Type list file saved as
"Accelerator type list" in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs.
The list of ListofAccs, from which we drew Accelerator type list, should have no matches with any of the flagged accelerators in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data. There are 23 matches though. So all subtypes must be searched and entered manually. Whether some were a nonprofit was listed in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs, called "whether nonprofit...". Accelerators with no info there on whether nonprofit need to have info entered manually.

=Funded By Accelerators=

Reference the like-named portion in [[Crunchbase Data#Funded by Accelerators|Crunchbase Data]]

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC-backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==MATCHING==

The files we used to match are located in the E drive. We used the matcher to match our portfolio company names from the cohort file located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators.
*The files used to matching are located E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Matcher
*Portco is the name of the companies pulled from the cohort file
*AccCo includes both the cohort company name, along with the name of the accelerator itself
*In the matcher, the inputs are the PortCo names, as well as the VC data from our pull in SDC
*The outputs include the AccCo_VC data located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators which give a lot of information on the matches, including:
:*name of the match itself
:*number of investments
:*dates that the company received its investments

==SDC Pull==

We accessed SDC platinum and pulled information on round-based funding that all registered companies received from between the years 1999 to 2017.

The receipt is as follows:

Session Details
---------------
Request Hits Request Description
0 - DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
1 96155 Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
2 79572 Round Date: 1/1/1999 to 3/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
3 Custom Report: VC Data (Columnar) - Save As:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\VC Data.txt
�
Billing Ref # : 2054025
Capture File : riceuniv.2054025
Session Name :

The VC data pull includes the following variables:

Company Name Date Company Date Company Company Company City Company Street Address, Line 1 Company Street Address, Line 2 Total Known Company Industry Sub-Group 3 Company Industry Major Group Round Company Stage Level 3 Round Amt, Round Amt,

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/ (Does not work anymore)

https://data.crunchbase.com/v3/docs/using-the-api (Has new instructions for application)

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4 (Does not work - seems to be replaced by https://angel.co/companies?company_types[]=Incubator )

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/

===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

=Kauffman Foundation Incubator Proposal Information=

==Institutions==
Summary: F6S, Crunchbase, seed-db

Tools: Matcher - used to match lists of potential accelerators with our current list to identify duplicates/new matches (E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators)

===F6S===
F6S WebCrawler and F6S Parser - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

===CrunchBase===

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(All Organizations)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.xls

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(Potential Accelerators)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.accdb under "Potential Accelerators query"

*Obtained using keyword matches in the descriptions of the potential accelerators.

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(New Verified Accelerators)''' - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\New CrunchBase Accelerators.xls

We have the Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot which provided lots of new data on accelerators and incubators but we would love to use the Crunchbase API to get a current database snapshot that we could use to cross reference companies and add newly formed accelerator and incubator companies.

===AngelList===

===seed-db===

Obtained through www.seed.db/accelerators

===Global Accelerator Network (GAN)===

GAN Parser- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\scrapeaccel.py

GAN Data- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\GAN Accelerator Data
*Contains: Company Name, # of Companies Range, % of Companies Funded, Funding Raised by Companies, Employee Range, Exit Funding, Exit Date, Total Company Funding Raised, # of Mentors Range, % Equity, Location, Minimum Seed Capital Investment

==Cohorts==

*Cohorts obtained manually
*All Cohort txt files are saved under "E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*cohort file name = (accelerator name).cohort
*Most updated Accelerator cohort data: E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Cleaned Cohort Data.xls

Automation for obtaining cohorts??

==Other Information==
Summary: Whois Parser, Geocode, Tools to determine industry, etc

===Whois Parser===

*Retrieves and parses Whois information. Specifically, takes a file with a column of domain names and populates the corresponding columns with information from the WhoIs API.

*Often used to obtain locations.

===Geocode===

Input: Company Address
Output: Directional Coordinates

*Used to obtain the locations of different Accelerators and Cohort companies.

===SDC Platinum Pull===

Used to obtain funding information and match companies that have gotten funding with companies that are Accelerator cohorts.

===Desired Information/Variables===

*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)

==Desired Tools/Information==

===Automating the Process of Obtaining Cohorts===
*Automating this process would save a lot of time and really progress the project.

===Obtaining More Details on Accelerators===

*Having the kind of thorough information on industry, companies, funding, location, exits, mentors, leadership, that we got for the GAN companies would be fantastic.

===List of Alive/Dead Accelerators===

This is a dream but would be very helpful

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2018-02-27T22:40:37Z

Shrey:

===Spring 2018===
<onlyinclude>

[[Shrey Agarwal]] [[Work Logs]] [[Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)|(log page)]]

1/23/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Became reacclimatized with the project, spoke with Ed about the direction for the rest of the semester
1/25/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Began examining the data on pulled webpages relating to demo days
1/26/18 13:00 - 17:00
*Began categorizing demo day pages based on: 1) relevance to accelerators, 2) relevance to the particular accelerator (got to 200)
1/30/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued working through the demo day pages, spoke with Ed about using the data to work a better set (got to 450)
2/01/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the match and created pivot tables to count the number of repetitions (companies going through more than one accelerator)
2/06/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Discussed with Matthew the best way to collect the VC data from the repetitions. We tried different matches through our SDC data to no avail
2/08/18 15:00 - 18:00
*Continued attempting to match with SDC the different columns. Didn't work without separating the data into individual files, a very tedious process.
2/13/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Spoke with Ed about incubators project, will begin as soon as we can time the accelerator startup investments. Ed is expecting us to begin sometime in the next two months, using a similar process as we did for incubators. The process should be handled by a new worker.
2/15/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Talked to Ed about next steps for the project. Practiced accessing the CrunchBase database on SQL and brushed up on SQL code.
2/16/18 13:00 - 17:00
*Sifted through the database for Crunchbase investment information.
2/20/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Pulled the funding rounds table from SQL and matched it with the companies that have received VC funding in order to gather round dates.
2/22/18 15:00 - 18:00
*Went through the matched data. Brainstormed ways to get the dates for cohort companies going through accelerators.
2/27/18 15:00 - 17:00
*Looked into using the WhoIs Parser in order to find when the companies went through their accelerators.

</onlyinclude>

===Fall 2017===

<onlyinclude>

9/19/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Became reacclimatized with the project, spoke with Ed about the direction for the rest of the semester
9/20/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked on setting up a new pull for the updated SDC data
9/21/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the pull and sorted the data from the updated accelerator list
9/22/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Tried to set up the matcher with Matthew; ran into some difficulties on Power Shell, returning a blank file in the output
9/26/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the match and created pivot tables to count the number of repetitions (companies going through more than one accelerator)
9/27/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Discussed with Matthew the best way to collect the VC data from the repetitions. We tried different matches through our SDC data to no avail
9/28/17 16:00 - 17:00
*Continued attempting to match with SDC the different columns. Didn't work without separating the data into individual files, a very tedious process.
9/29/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Spoke with Ed about incubators project, will begin as soon as we can time the accelerator startup investments. Ed is expecting us to begin sometime in the next two months, using a similar process as we did for incubators. The process should be handled by a new worker.
10/02/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Talked to Ed about next steps for the project. Practiced accessing the CrunchBase database on SQL and brushed up on SQL code.
10/03/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Sifted through the database for Crunchbase investment information.
10/04/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Pulled the funding rounds table from SQL and matched it with the companies that have received VC funding in order to gather round dates.
10/06/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Went through the matched data. Brainstormed ways to get the dates for cohort companies going through accelerators.
10/11/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Looked into using the WhoIs Parser in order to find when the companies went through their accelerators.
10/12/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Discovered that the Wayback Machine will not be a good option for identifying the time when a company went through the accelerator. Created a list of VC Companies and their earliest round date. Included a column for the date they went through their accelerators and will fill it in when we find a good method of finding this date.
10/16/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on sorting VCCompanies by their earliest round date.
10/17/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ben to find a solution to our problem of data acquisition. Finalized earliest round date for VCCompanies.
10/18/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Updated our VC data with Ed's help in order to increase the accuracy and completion of our data.
10/19/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Organized all of our matched data and updated it in order to reflect the most recent SDC pull with Ed. Matched Crunchbase data with our cohort companies.
10/20/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Generated the new list of VCCompanies as well as their earliest round dates.
10/23/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked on sorting out the discrepancies in our matched data.
10/24/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Went through list of VCCompanies and began adding respective accelerators in order to proceed with VCPercentage table.
10/25/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued going through list of VCCompanies and adding accelerators.
10/26/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued going through list of VCCompanies and adding accelerators. Will have this completed on Monday.
10/30/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished adding all of the accelerators to the list of VCCompanies. Added a column indicating whether or not the company went through two or more accelerators.
10/31/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Began compiling data in the column for the dates that a specific company went through an Accelerator.
11/01/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finalized entering dates for Y Combinator cohort companies.
11/02/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued entering cohort company dates into Excel file.
11/06/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Began looking at keywords for identifying the cohort class dates for each company
11/07/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Received list from Peter with the accelerator founders matched from the Crunchbase LinkedIn URLs and proceeded to find the links for those founders without a match on Crunchbase. Data found in "Unfound Founders List" in the Fall 2017 folder

</onlyinclude>

===Spring 2017===

01/17/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up "accelerating" from [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], numbers 341-351
1/18/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished accelerating for sure, went back and began an overview of the work done for quality control.
01/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Mandatory meeting, then worked through 2 of Ed's unfinished accelerators
1/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to go over about 70 items in the accelerator list and ensure that they follow a uniform structure and show correct information
1/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Peter to fix the problem with results not coming through on the new spreadsheet by renaming the file and including more symbols in the searches. Spreadsheet should be up to date now.
*Got to number 144 on the list while going through files.
1/25/17 14:00 - 16;00
*Continued looking through the list and fixing wrong entries or reporting them
1/26/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Talked with Ed about project going forward and tried to access the Crunchbase API with Peter to crawl for start-up companies.
*Continued working through the accelerator list, stopped at number 186.
1/27/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through accelerator list and fixing any entries with error. Got to number 261.
1/30/17 14:30 - 16:30
*Got through about 425
1/31/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Got to number 502
2/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished looking through the initial list of accelerators and writing down which ones needed to be modified or completed (through 551)
2/03/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Finished about 30 entries for the accelerator entries that still needed to be completed. Worked out of the "NOT DONE" file in the server (which is now blank because everything is finished)
2/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Developed a standardized format for the text files with Matthew. Instructions are under "standardized format" in the accelerator seed list portion. I started at number 226 and standardized formats up until 370.
2/07/17 14:00-16:00
*Continued work from yesterday, completed up to number 488 from the list. Will likely need one more day to finish.
2/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished standardizing the txt files for use on the excel spreadsheet, compiled the data and examined the resultant tables. Realized we needed to fix some categories in the cohort files.
2/09/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ed on a side project trying to gather information on climate change thanks to Baker's article on the Wall Street Journal
*Gathered information on climate change in relation to high-growth, high-risk innovation and organizations that deal with things such as carbon credits
2/10/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Realized that blog post was ambitious because we could not really find a clear purpose from the information we gathered, nor could we find a unique angle. Held off on the idea
*Went back to organizing the new columns and headers on the text file by identifying areas of error in the excel spreadsheet
2/15/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Spoke with Ed about free enterprise while he lectured all of us. It took about an hour.
*Looked at plans for project going forward including using linkedin to search the founders
2/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found our first source for expanding the project into incubators, from angel.co. Seems similar to f6s in that we can crawl it and obtain a list of incubators and their various counterparts.
2/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found more sources for incubators by reading through quora discussions and masters theses. Bookmarked these pages so that I could put them into text files after.
2/23/17 14:00 - 18:00
*Converted incubator files to text-pad and saved them (4 total), then cleaned them up through regex
*Took the cohort text file, put it into excel, and proceeded to clean up all of the mistakes in the excel document, particularly bad data or mistakes with organizations. Got through Y-Combinator.
2/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up cleaning the cohort data for the names and the descriptions, but there still needs to be work done on the other stuff like dates and programs
2/28/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Created page [[Hub-Based Venture Firms]] and proceeded to research VC in Hubs listed on under E:\McNair\Projects\Hubs\summer 2016\Hubs Variables - Ariel.xls
*Looked at details such as whether they have in-house funds, whether they co-invest, focuses, and amounts invested.
3/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben and Matthew to pull data from SDC for all VC funded companies and normalized it to put it in an Excel document.
3/02/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Tried to repeat the VC data pull without it crashing from pulling too many entries. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish it
3/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to put final touches on the cohort data to prep it for matching with our VC data
3/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finally finished working on the cohort files, will match on the 8th
3/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Matched the VC Data with the list of Cohort Companies and got one list of all cohort companies that have received VC funding.
3/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Participated in a SQL training session with Ed, learned how to create a database and to pull tab delimited information from text files onto a table
3/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Met with Ed and arrived at the conclusion of finishing the draft for a report by the end of the semester. Put the initial report information on the accelerator page using the variables that we currently have
3/22/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to compile tables in our database of the matched VC-portfolio company lists and the overall accelerator cohort information. Found multiple errors in the cohort file which needed to be fixed before finishing the tables and analyzing the data
3/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished cleaning the cohort file once again.
3/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued practicing my SQL and creating the code for compiling the tables
3/29/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked on the matched data with Matthew. Will run the RegEx code that will filter the URLs, and I will look through the duplicates where two different VC-backed company names matched to one cohort company name
3/30/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Examined the Regex code for the URLs and attempted to filter them out
4/03/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued learning some SQL from Ed
4/04/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Began examining the Crunchbase data; looked through the 2013 snapshot
*Created a new Crunchbase account with McNair center and examined the basic access, which does not give us much information
4/05/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Made the final VC percentage table from our database and previous code with Ed; realized we were missing many accelerators as well as a lot of important cohort data so need to reexamine our previous data.
4/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through Crunchbase to see how we can pull accelerators up until 2013; most likely will use objects to sort the data into accelerators, perhaps keywords from "accelerators"
4/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Examined SARP and attempted to match their accelerators with the ones from our data, realized that a few of our cohorts were missing as well as a few of the actual accelerators so we need to fix the data in our excel file
*Began compiling a list of missing accelerators on textpad to later insert into our excel.
4/10/17 13:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben to find missing accelerators from the Crunchbase data using the keywords. Also, began recording information from some of the big accelerators we were missing
*Found 228 matches for accelerators, will match from our list to find the similarities
4/11/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished compiling the accelerator and cohort information for the few we found from SARP, will consult Ed to figure out how to approach the missing accelerators and what to do for the preliminary report

===Fall 2016===

09/27/2016 14:00 - 17:00:
*Set up personal and work log pages, accessed Remote Desktop.
*Compiled list of accelerators from Wiki
09/29/2016 14:00 - 16:15; 16:45 - 17:30:
*Created new project: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] and worked with Dr. Egan to create schematic for data entry.
*Evaluated 3 sources and logged data. Sources were taken from [[List of Accelerators]]. Logged each step onto project page and identified categories that would be suitable for web crawling sometime in the future.
10/11/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Explored how to use regular expressions in TextPad to aid with data sorting (need to review expressions with Dr. Egan in future)
*Continued evaluating sources from [[List of Accelerators]] and recorded steps onto project page, as before. Finished evaluating the six sources from initial list. (All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]])
10/13/2016 14:00 - 17:00;
*All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Talked to Dr. Egan about project going forward. Need to pick out 10-15 accelerators from the sources listed on my project page and identify a reliable method for obtaining cohort information, as well as other variables
*Used google searches to identify more sources, and evaluated three databases with the help of TextPad
*Began working on more generic google searches. Was able to go through "Location+accelerator"-type searches today. Will continue next time.
10/18/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Took a sample size of 10 accelerators and detailed how to extract cohort information, as well as what other information is readily available from accelerator URLs.
*Brought Matthew up to speed on accelerator project, added summaries to each section so they became easier to follow, and worked with him to finish up extracting cohort information
10/20/16 14:30 - 17:30:
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Finished up the list of instructions for finding the cohort. Continued compiling the list of variables for each of the accelerators within the sample size.
*Consulted Peter on prospects of creating a web crawler with the information we currently have compiled. Determined it was possible, although beyond the scope of Peter's knowledge.
10/25/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Consulted Ed with next step for project.
*Began listing the E-R diagram onto the accelerator database page where entities were potential categories and each entity had its associated attributes
10/27/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working with Matthew to identify elements in the E-R diagram for pulling information on accelerators.
*Found sources to obtain/cross-reference information (ie. Angel List)
11/08/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Identified possible keywords to filter results through for accelerators
*Began compiling a comprehensive list of accelerators based on the data we have already sifted through.
*Learned how to use regular expressions from Ben to sort names individually and alphabetically.
11/10/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Began sorting through accelerator list and removing duplicates, as well as identifying more places to pull names from.
*Worked with Peter to create a crawl for f6s because the website does not return only accelerators.
11/15/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Took a break from f6s to locate more lists based on individual google searches such as "city+accelerator+list"
*Put Seed DB information into an excel file on the remote desktop
11/17/16 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued filling out information for the random Google Searches
*Organized TextPad files on the RDP into coherent excel spreadsheets with proper headers on the table
*Noticed problem with f6s: it seems although all of the html coding was protected by a captcha so the crawler did not actually extract any information; it was all blocked.
11/22/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked to fix f6s crawler with Peter
*Finished and compiled master list of accelerators
12/01/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Caught up on project with Ed and Carlin
*Took 20 accelerators (241-260) from the list and filled out text.html files for them; finished the 20
12/05/16 13:00 - 16:00
*After finishing first 20 accelerators, continued working down the list, beginning at 321
*Work noted in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], but mostly stored on McNair RDP
12/06/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Continued "Accelerating" down the list in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], finished up until 340
12/08/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on accelerator list on the same page.

[[Category:Work Log]]

Talk:Accelerator Data

2017-11-15T22:27:03Z

Shrey:

LinkedIn Founders:

Most founders can be found with a combination of 1 of these 3 searches within the first 5 hits:
*"accelerator name" + founder + LinkedIn
*"accelerator name" + executive director + LinkedIn
*"accelerator name" + CEO + LinkedIn

However, some companies do not appear regardless of these three searches. For these, it is sometimes valuable to search the company name on LinkedIn and then if their list of employees is public, find the director from the list and search their description on Google to find the actual LinkedIn url.

Demo Day hits:

It appears that counts are inflated by the presence of startup names such as "tio" appearing in other words on the webpage, such as "innova-tio-n". To remove these, we suggest:
*removing all punctuation
*condensing all of the text in one line
*running the match for " startup_name " with spaces before and after the name, as well as for the startup name at the beginning or the end of the line

Talk:Accelerator Data

2017-11-15T22:17:55Z

Shrey: Created page with "LinkedIn Founders: Most founders can be found with a combination of 1 of these 3 searches within the first 5 hits: "accelerator name" + founder + LinkedIn "accelerator name"..."

LinkedIn Founders:

Most founders can be found with a combination of 1 of these 3 searches within the first 5 hits:
"accelerator name" + founder + LinkedIn
"accelerator name" + executive director + LinkedIn
"accelerator name" + CEO + LinkedIn

However, some companies do not appear regardless of these three searches. For these, it is sometimes valuable to search the company name on LinkedIn and then if their list of employees is public, find the director from the list and search their description on Google to find the actual linkedin url.

Accelerator Data

2017-11-15T22:12:57Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Composite Accelerator Data
|Has owner=Matthew Ringheanu, Shrey Agarwal,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has deadline=Fall 2017
|Has keywords=Accelerator, Data
|Has notes=Continuation of [Accelerator Seed List (Data)]
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Accelerator Seed List (Data),
}}

=Relevant Files=
==Location for All Relevant Files==
*All relevant files are located in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\All Relevant Files
==List of All Relevant Files==

'''Original Search'''

*'''List of Preliminary Accelerators'''
**Original Location: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
**Description: This is the very first master list we compiled of potential accelerators. Look to [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] for process.
**Variables: Names of potential accelerators

*'''accelerator_data_noflag'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
**Description: This text file contains the data on all accelerators that we found from our first round of research that were not flagged. It consolidates the data collected by all McNair Center interns, filtering out the organizations which are not accelerators.
**Variables: Name, Score, Flag, CohortURL, Address, Duration, Vintage, Industry, Description, Equity, Nonprofit, Notes

'''Cohort Directory "Big Push"'''

*'''Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\
**Description: This folder contains files for each of the accelerators that we searched through from the "List of Preliminary Accelerators". There are three files per accelerator: 1) The "accelerator name.txt" file which contains each of the variables recorded by all of the McNair Center workers during our big push on the project winter 2016, 2) The .html file for the cohort page if the entry was indeed an accelerator and if the worker could find the cohort page on that accelerator, and 3) a "accelerator name.cohort.txt" file which contains a list of the cohort companies as well as all variables which were easily found alongside the cohort.

*'''List of Python files'''
**'''parse_accelerator_data'''
**'''parse_cohort_data'''
**'''process_locations'''
**'''wayback_machine'''
**Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
**Description: These files contain the code which Peter used to categorize the data from the "Data Copy" folder in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\, which is just a copy of our cleaned data file. From this code, Peter returned for us a list of accelerators categorized by their flag and a compiled list of all the cohort companies as well as the variables recorded by McNair workers.
**'''Note''': We manually altered the cohort data which came out of Peter's code so that we could homogenize the formatting. This resulted in a unique cohort file which will not be replicated when running the code again. On the other hand, we manually altered the individual txt files for the accelerators to fix format so running Peter's code again should result in a similar file.

*'''Cleaned Cohort Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This Excel file contains all data on all cohort companies for our entire list of current accelerators. All missing accelerators were updated by Veeral and we have used this as our final list of cohort companies for all accelerators.
**Variables: Accelerator Name, Company Name, Description, Website, Industry, Location, Acquisition, Notes, Inverstors, Perks, Status, Funding Stage, Founder, Executive, Program, Cohort, Year

'''Refining the List'''

*'''New Crunchbase Accelerators'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017
**Description: After conducting some SDC matches with cohort data from the cohort companies of the accelerators in the '''accelerator_data_noflag''' text file, we realized many potential accelerators were missing. We then got an Excel file from Crunchbase containing all of its organizations, which we then sorted to identify potential missing accelerators. The accelerators we were actually missing are in this Excel file.
**Variables: Names of Missing Accelerators
**Potential Crunchbase Variables

*'''Accelerator_Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Summer 2017\Veeral
**Description: This text file contains cleaned data on all of our current accelerators. This file was compiled by Veeral over Summer 2017. Some of these accelerators are not based in the United States.
**Variables: Accelerator, homepage_url, city, region, country_code, Creation date

*'''ListofAccs'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all current accelerators we have been working with.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Whois parser code

'''Additional Variables'''

*'''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all cohort companies of all accelerators.
**Variables: Cohort Companies, Accelerator name

*'''Current Matched Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: Sheet 1 contains our matched data from matching our SDC pull with our cohort companies list found in '''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''. Sheet 2 removes the duplicates from the previous match. Sheet 3 contains the list of VCCompanies, which accelerator they went through, the date of their first investment. Sheet 4 contains our cohort list matched with the crunchbase organizations, but it contains too many duplicates to use.
**Variables: VCCompanies, Accelerator, Earliest Round Date

*'''founders_linkedin'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains founder data for each accelerator found by Peter when crawling LinkedIn.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Founder name, LinkedIn URL

Accelerator Data

2017-11-14T22:01:54Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Composite Accelerator Data
|Has owner=Matthew Ringheanu, Shrey Agarwal,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has deadline=Fall 2017
|Has keywords=Accelerator, Data
|Has notes=Continuation of [Accelerator Seed List (Data)]
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Accelerator Seed List (Data),
}}

=Relevant Files=
==Location for All Relevant Files==
*All relevant files are located in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\All Relevant Files
==List of All Relevant Files==

'''Original Search'''

*'''List of Preliminary Accelerators'''
**Original Location: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
**Description: This is the very first master list we compiled of potential accelerators. Look to [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] for process.
**Variables: Names of potential accelerators

*'''accelerator_data_noflag'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
**Description: This text file contains the data on all accelerators that we found from our first round of research that were not flagged. It consolidates the data collected by all McNair Center interns, filtering out the organizations which are not accelerators.
**Variables: Name, Score, Flag, CohortURL, Address, Duration, Vintage, Industry, Description, Equity, Nonprofit, Notes

'''Cohort Directory "Big Push"'''

*'''Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\
**Description: This folder contains files for each of the accelerators that we searched through from the "List of Preliminary Accelerators". There are three files per accelerator: 1) The "accelerator name.txt" file which contains each of the variables recorded by all of the McNair Center workers during our big push on the project winter 2016, 2) The .html file for the cohort page if the entry was indeed an accelerator and if the worker could find the cohort page on that accelerator, and 3) a "accelerator name.cohort.txt" file which contains a list of the cohort companies as well as all variables which were easily found alongside the cohort.

*'''List of Python files'''
**'''parse_accelerator_data'''
**'''parse_cohort_data'''
**'''process_locations'''
**'''wayback_machine'''
**Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
**Description: These files contain the code which Peter used to categorize the data from the "Data Copy" folder in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\, which is just a copy of our cleaned data file. From this code, Peter returned for us a list of accelerators categorized by their flag and a compiled list of all the cohort companies as well as the variables recorded by McNair workers.

*'''Cleaned Cohort Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This Excel file contains all data on all cohort companies for our entire list of current accelerators. All missing accelerators were updated by Veeral and we have used this as our final list of cohort companies for all accelerators.
**Variables: Accelerator Name, Company Name, Description, Website, Industry, Location, Acquisition, Notes, Inverstors, Perks, Status, Funding Stage, Founder, Executive, Program, Cohort, Year

'''Refining the List'''

*'''New Crunchbase Accelerators'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017
**Description: After conducting some SDC matches with cohort data from the cohort companies of the accelerators in the '''accelerator_data_noflag''' text file, we realized many potential accelerators were missing. We then got an Excel file from Crunchbase containing all of its organizations, which we then sorted to identify potential missing accelerators. The accelerators we were actually missing are in this Excel file.
**Variables: Names of Missing Accelerators
**Potential Crunchbase Variables

*'''Accelerator_Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Summer 2017\Veeral
**Description: This text file contains cleaned data on all of our current accelerators. This file was compiled by Veeral over Summer 2017. Some of these accelerators are not based in the United States.
**Variables: Accelerator, homepage_url, city, region, country_code, Creation date

*'''ListofAccs'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all current accelerators we have been working with.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Whois parser code

'''Additional Variables'''

*'''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all cohort companies of all accelerators.
**Variables: Cohort Companies, Accelerator name

*'''Current Matched Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: Sheet 1 contains our matched data from matching our SDC pull with our cohort companies list found in '''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''. Sheet 2 removes the duplicates from the previous match. Sheet 3 contains the list of VCCompanies, which accelerator they went through, the date of their first investment. Sheet 4 contains our cohort list matched with the crunchbase organizations, but it contains too many duplicates to use.
**Variables: VCCompanies, Accelerator, Earliest Round Date

*'''founders_linkedin'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains founder data for each accelerator found by Peter when crawling LinkedIn.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Founder name, LinkedIn URL

Accelerator Data

2017-11-14T22:00:40Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Composite Accelerator Data
|Has owner=Matthew Ringheanu, Shrey Agarwal,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has deadline=Fall 2017
|Has keywords=Accelerator, Data
|Has notes=Continuation of [Accelerator Seed List (Data)]
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Accelerator Seed List (Data),
}}

=Relevant Files=
==Location for All Relevant Files==
*All relevant files are located in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\All Relevant Files
==List of All Relevant Files==

'''Original Search'''

*'''List of Preliminary Accelerators'''
**Original Location: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
**Description: This is the very first master list we compiled of potential accelerators. Look to [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] for process.
**Variables: Names of potential accelerators

*'''accelerator_data_noflag'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
**Description: This text file contains the data on all accelerators that we found from our first round of research that were not flagged. It consolidates the data collected by all McNair Center interns, filtering out the organizations which are not accelerators.
**Variables: Name, Score, Flag, CohortURL, Address, Duration, Vintage, Industry, Description, Equity, Nonprofit, Notes

'''Cohort Directory "Big Push"'''

*'''Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\
**Description: This folder contains files for each of the accelerators that we searched through from the "List of Preliminary Accelerators". There are three files per accelerator: 1) The "accelerator name.txt" file which contains each of the variables recorded by all of the McNair Center workers during our big push on the project winter 2016, 2) The .html file for the cohort page if the entry was indeed an accelerator and if the worker could find the cohort page on that accelerator, and 3) a "accelerator name.cohort.txt" file which contains a list of the cohort companies as well as all variables which were easily found alongside the cohort.

*'''List of Python files'''
**'''parse_accelerator_data'''
**'''parse_cohort_data'''
**'''process_locations'''
**'''wayback_machine'''
**Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
**Description: These files contain the code which Peter used to categorize the data from the "Data Copy" folder in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\, which is just a copy of our cleaned data file. From this code, Peter returned for us a list of accelerators categorized by their flag and a compiled list of all the cohort companies as well as the variables recorded by McNair workers.

*'''Cleaned Cohort Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This Excel file contains all data on all cohort companies for our entire list of current accelerators. All missing accelerators were updated by Veeral and we have used this as our final list of cohort companies for all accelerators.
**Variables: Accelerator Name, Company Name, Description, Website, Industry, Location, Acquisition, Notes, Inverstors, Perks, Status, Funding Stage, Founder, Executive, Program, Cohort, Year

'''Refining the List'''

*'''New Crunchbase Accelerators'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017
**Description: After conducting some SDC matches with cohort data from the cohort companies of the accelerators in the '''accelerator_data_noflag''' text file, we realized many potential accelerators were missing. We then got an Excel file from Crunchbase containing all of its organizations, which we then sorted to identify potential missing accelerators. The accelerators we were actually missing are in this Excel file.
**Variables: Names of Missing Accelerators
**Potential Crunchbase Variables

*'''Accelerator_Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Summer 2017\Veeral
**Description: This text file contains cleaned data on all of our current accelerators. This file was compiled by Veeral over Summer 2017. Some of these accelerators are not based in the United States.
**Variables: Accelerator, homepage_url, city, region, country_code, Creation date

*'''ListofAccs'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all current accelerators we have been working with.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Whois parser code

'''Additional Variables'''

*'''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all cohort companies of all accelerators.
**Variables: Cohort Companies, Accelerator name

*'''Current Matched Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: Sheet 1 contains our matched data from matching our SDC pull with our cohort companies list found in '''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''. Sheet 2 removes the duplicates from the previous match. Sheet 3 contains the list of VCCompanies, which accelerator they went through, the date of their first investment. Sheet 4 contains our cohort list matched with the crunchbase organizations, but it contains too many duplicates to use.
**Variables: VCCompanies, Accelerator, Earliest Round Date

*'''founders_linkedin'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains founder data for each accelerator found by Peter when crawling LinkedIn.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Founder name, LinkedIn URL

Accelerator Data

2017-11-14T21:54:16Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Composite Accelerator Data
|Has owner=Matthew Ringheanu, Shrey Agarwal,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has deadline=Fall 2017
|Has keywords=Accelerator, Data
|Has notes=Continuation of [Accelerator Seed List (Data)]
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Accelerator Seed List (Data),
}}

=Relevant Files=
==Location for All Relevant Files==
*All relevant files are located in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\All Relevant Files
==List of All Relevant Files==

*'''Original Search'''

**'''List of Preliminary Accelerators'''
***Original Location: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
***Description: This is the very first master list we compiled of potential accelerators. Look to [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] for process.
***Variables: Names of potential accelerators

**'''accelerator_data_noflag'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
***Description: This text file contains the data on all accelerators that we found from our first round of research that were not flagged. It consolidates the data collected by all McNair Center interns, filtering out the organizations which are not accelerators.
***Variables: Name, Score, Flag, CohortURL, Address, Duration, Vintage, Industry, Description, Equity, Nonprofit, Notes

*'''Cohort Directory "Big Push"'''

**'''Data'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\
***Description: This folder contains files for each of the accelerators that we searched through from the "List of Preliminary Accelerators". There are three files per accelerator: 1) The "accelerator name.txt" file which contains each of the variables recorded by all of the McNair Center workers during our big push on the project winter 2016, 2) The .html file for the cohort page if the entry was indeed an accelerator and if the worker could find the cohort page on that accelerator, and 3) a "accelerator name.cohort.txt" file which contains a list of the cohort companies as well as all variables which were easily found alongside the cohort.

**'''List of Python files'''
***'''parse_accelerator_data'''
***'''parse_cohort_data'''
***'''process_locations'''
***'''wayback_machine'''
***Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
***Description: These files contain the code which Peter used to categorize the data from the "Data Copy" folder in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\, which is just a copy of our cleaned data file. From this code, Peter returned for us a list of accelerators categorized by their flag and a compiled list of all the cohort companies as well as the variables recorded by McNair workers.

**'''Cleaned Cohort Data'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
***Description: This Excel file contains all data on all cohort companies for our entire list of current accelerators. All missing accelerators were updated by Veeral and we have used this as our final list of cohort companies for all accelerators.
***Variables: Accelerator Name, Company Name, Description, Website, Industry, Location, Acquisition, Notes, Inverstors, Perks, Status, Funding Stage, Founder, Executive, Program, Cohort, Year

*'''Refining the List'''

**'''New Crunchbase Accelerators'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017
***Description: After conducting some SDC matches with cohort data from the cohort companies of the accelerators in the '''accelerator_data_noflag''' text file, we realized many potential accelerators were missing. We then got an Excel file from Crunchbase containing all of its organizations, which we then sorted to identify potential missing accelerators. The accelerators we were actually missing are in this Excel file.
***Variables: Names of Missing Accelerators
***Potential Crunchbase Variables

**'''Accelerator_Data'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Summer 2017\Veeral
***Description: This text file contains cleaned data on all of our current accelerators. This file was compiled by Veeral over Summer 2017. Some of these accelerators are not based in the United States.
***Variables: Accelerator, homepage_url, city, region, country_code, Creation date

**'''ListofAccs'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
***Description: This text file contains a master list of all current accelerators we have been working with.
***Variables: Accelerator name, Whois parser code

*'''Additional Variables'''

**'''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
***Description: This text file contains a master list of all cohort companies of all accelerators.
***Variables: Cohort Companies, Accelerator name

**'''Current Matched Data'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
***Description: Sheet 1 contains our matched data from matching our SDC pull with our cohort companies list found in '''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''. Sheet 2 removes the duplicates from the previous match. Sheet 3 contains the list of VCCompanies, which accelerator they went through, the date of their first investment. Sheet 4 contains our cohort list matched with the crunchbase organizations, but it contains too many duplicates to use.
***Variables: VCCompanies, Accelerator, Earliest Round Date

**'''founders_linkedin'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
***Description: This text file contains founder data for each accelerator found by Peter when crawling LinkedIn.
***Variables: Accelerator name, Founder name, LinkedIn URL

Accelerator Data

2017-11-14T21:50:44Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Composite Accelerator Data
|Has owner=Matthew Ringheanu, Shrey Agarwal,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has deadline=Fall 2017
|Has keywords=Accelerator, Data
|Has notes=Continuation of [Accelerator Seed List (Data)]
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Accelerator Seed List (Data),
}}

=Relevant Files=
==Location for All Relevant Files==
*All relevant files are located in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\All Relevant Files
==List of All Relevant Files==

*'''Original Search'''

**'''List of Preliminary Accelerators'''
***Original Location: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
***Description: This is the very first master list we compiled of potential accelerators. Look to [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] for process.
***Variables: Names of potential accelerators

**'''accelerator_data_noflag'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
***Description: This text file contains the data on all accelerators that we found from our first round of research that were not flagged. It consolidates the data collected by all McNair Center interns, filtering out the organizations which are not accelerators.
***Variables: Name, Score, Flag, CohortURL, Address, Duration, Vintage, Industry, Description, Equity, Nonprofit, Notes

*'''Cohort Directory "Big Push"'''

**'''Data'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\
***Description: This folder contains files for each of the accelerators that we searched through from the "List of Preliminary Accelerators". There are three files per accelerator: 1) The "accelerator name.txt" file which contains each of the variables recorded by all of the McNair Center workers during our big push on the project winter 2016, 2) The .html file for the cohort page if the entry was indeed an accelerator and if the worker could find the cohort page on that accelerator, and 3) a "accelerator name.cohort.txt" file which contains a list of the cohort companies as well as all variables which were easily found alongside the cohort.

**'''List of Python files'''
***'''parse_accelerator_data'''
***'''parse_cohort_data'''
***'''process_locations'''
***'''wayback_machine'''
***Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data
***Description: These files contain the code which Peter used to categorize the data from the "Data Copy" folder in Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\, which is just a copy of our cleaned data file. From this code, Peter returned for us a list of accelerators categorized by their flag and a compiled list of all the cohort companies as well as the variables recorded by McNair workers.

**'''Cleaned Cohort Data'''
***Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
***Description: This Excel file contains all data on all cohort companies for our entire list of current accelerators. All missing accelerators were updated by Veeral and we have used this as our final list of cohort companies for all accelerators.
***Variables: Accelerator Name, Company Name, Description, Website, Industry, Location, Acquisition, Notes, Inverstors, Perks, Status, Funding Stage, Founder, Executive, Program, Cohort, Year

*'''Refining the List'''

*'''New Crunchbase Accelerators'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017
**Description: After conducting some SDC matches with cohort data from the cohort companies of the accelerators in the '''accelerator_data_noflag''' text file, we realized many potential accelerators were missing. We then got an Excel file from Crunchbase containing all of its organizations, which we then sorted to identify potential missing accelerators. The accelerators we were actually missing are in this Excel file.
**Variables: Names of Missing Accelerators
**Potential Crunchbase Variables

*'''Accelerator_Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Summer 2017\Veeral
**Description: This text file contains cleaned data on all of our current accelerators. This file was compiled by Veeral over Summer 2017. Some of these accelerators are not based in the United States.
**Variables: Accelerator, homepage_url, city, region, country_code, Creation date

*'''ListofAccs'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all current accelerators we have been working with.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Whois parser code

*'''Additional

*'''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains a master list of all cohort companies of all accelerators.
**Variables: Cohort Companies, Accelerator name

*'''Current Matched Data'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: Sheet 1 contains our matched data from matching our SDC pull with our cohort companies list found in '''Accelerator_Cohort_Companies'''. Sheet 2 removes the duplicates from the previous match. Sheet 3 contains the list of VCCompanies, which accelerator they went through, the date of their first investment. Sheet 4 contains our cohort list matched with the crunchbase organizations, but it contains too many duplicates to use.
**Variables: VCCompanies, Accelerator, Earliest Round Date

*'''founders_linkedin'''
**Original Location: Bulk(E:)\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017
**Description: This text file contains founder data for each accelerator found by Peter when crawling LinkedIn.
**Variables: Accelerator name, Founder name, LinkedIn URL

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-11-14T21:06:18Z

Shrey: /* Houston Accelerators */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu, Veeral Shah,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=Current Work=

TODO:
McNair/Projects/Accelerators/Fall 2017/unfound_founders.txt
A 0 means we don't have founder data for that accelerator.
Specs: A tab delimited text file with the following fields:
Accelerator First Name Last Name LinkedInURL(if possible)
Getting the LinkedInURL will ensure accuracy, but will work without it.

*Shrey: Find "demo day" keywords, so that we can search AcceleratorName Year Keyword and get back potential demo day pages
*Joe: Go through Accelerator list (approx 273 accelerators) and mark each by type (see below), building out type list as you go

Type list:
*Private
*Corporate
*Academic
Note: if DEAD, noted here.

Other info:
*nonprofit? (y/n)

*Subtype abbreviations:
**S: for if a social entrepreneurship initiative
**I: for if an incubator
**A: for an angel group
**F: for foreign
**C: for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V: for if part of venture fund
**G: for if government funded/partnered
**T: for international

Note: subtypes (from individual text files in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data) were only found for 23 of the 270 accelerators. These accelerators were initially intended to be removed from the master list. Remaining subtypes are currently being added.

other info:

international offices, founders, industries, org type, program duration, or other interesting, easily accessed variables.

Type list file saved as
"Accelerator type list" in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs.
The list of ListofAccs, from which we drew Accelerator type list, should have no matches with any of the flagged accelerators in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data. There are 23 matches though. So all subtypes must be searched and entered manually. Whether it is a nonprofit is listed in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs, called "whether nonprofit..."

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC-backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==MATCHING==

The files we used to match are located in the E drive. We used the matcher to match our portfolio company names from the cohort file located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators.
*The files used to matching are located E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Matcher
*Portco is the name of the companies pulled from the cohort file
*AccCo includes both the cohort company name, along with the name of the accelerator itself
*In the matcher, the inputs are the PortCo names, as well as the VC data from our pull in SDC
*The outputs include the AccCo_VC data located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators which give a lot of information on the matches, including:
:*name of the match itself
:*number of investments
:*dates that the company received its investments

==SDC Pull==

We accessed SDC platinum and pulled information on round-based funding that all registered companies received from between the years 1999 to 2017.

The receipt is as follows:

Session Details
---------------
Request Hits Request Description
0 - DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
1 96155 Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
2 79572 Round Date: 1/1/1999 to 3/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
3 Custom Report: VC Data (Columnar) - Save As:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\VC Data.txt
�
Billing Ref # : 2054025
Capture File : riceuniv.2054025
Session Name :

The VC data pull includes the following variables:

Company Name Date Company Date Company Company Company City Company Street Address, Line 1 Company Street Address, Line 2 Total Known Company Industry Sub-Group 3 Company Industry Major Group Round Company Stage Level 3 Round Amt, Round Amt,

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/ (Does not work anymore)

https://data.crunchbase.com/v3/docs/using-the-api (Has new instructions for application)

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4 (Does not work - seems to be replaced by https://angel.co/companies?company_types[]=Incubator )

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/

===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

=Kauffman Foundation Incubator Proposal Information=

==Institutions==
Summary: F6S, Crunchbase, seed-db

Tools: Matcher - used to match lists of potential accelerators with our current list to identify duplicates/new matches (E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators)

===F6S===
F6S WebCrawler and F6S Parser - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

===CrunchBase===

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(All Organizations)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.xls

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(Potential Accelerators)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.accdb under "Potential Accelerators query"

*Obtained using keyword matches in the descriptions of the potential accelerators.

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(New Verified Accelerators)''' - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\New CrunchBase Accelerators.xls

We have the Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot which provided lots of new data on accelerators and incubators but we would love to use the Crunchbase API to get a current database snapshot that we could use to cross reference companies and add newly formed accelerator and incubator companies.

===AngelList===

===seed-db===

Obtained through www.seed.db/accelerators

===Global Accelerator Network (GAN)===

GAN Parser- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\scrapeaccel.py

GAN Data- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\GAN Accelerator Data
*Contains: Company Name, # of Companies Range, % of Companies Funded, Funding Raised by Companies, Employee Range, Exit Funding, Exit Date, Total Company Funding Raised, # of Mentors Range, % Equity, Location, Minimum Seed Capital Investment

==Cohorts==

*Cohorts obtained manually
*All Cohort txt files are saved under "E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*cohort file name = (accelerator name).cohort
*Most updated Accelerator cohort data: E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Cleaned Cohort Data.xls

Automation for obtaining cohorts??

==Other Information==
Summary: Whois Parser, Geocode, Tools to determine industry, etc

===Whois Parser===

*Retrieves and parses Whois information. Specifically, takes a file with a column of domain names and populates the corresponding columns with information from the WhoIs API.

*Often used to obtain locations.

===Geocode===

Input: Company Address
Output: Directional Coordinates

*Used to obtain the locations of different Accelerators and Cohort companies.

===SDC Platinum Pull===

Used to obtain funding information and match companies that have gotten funding with companies that are Accelerator cohorts.

===Desired Information/Variables===

*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)

==Desired Tools/Information==

===Automating the Process of Obtaining Cohorts===
*Automating this process would save a lot of time and really progress the project.

===Obtaining More Details on Accelerators===

*Having the kind of thorough information on industry, companies, funding, location, exits, mentors, leadership, that we got for the GAN companies would be fantastic.

===List of Alive/Dead Accelerators===

This is a dream but would be very helpful

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-11-14T21:05:55Z

Shrey: /* Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu, Veeral Shah,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=Current Work=

TODO:
McNair/Projects/Accelerators/Fall 2017/unfound_founders.txt
A 0 means we don't have founder data for that accelerator.
Specs: A tab delimited text file with the following fields:
Accelerator First Name Last Name LinkedInURL(if possible)
Getting the LinkedInURL will ensure accuracy, but will work without it.

*Shrey: Find "demo day" keywords, so that we can search AcceleratorName Year Keyword and get back potential demo day pages
*Joe: Go through Accelerator list (approx 273 accelerators) and mark each by type (see below), building out type list as you go

Type list:
*Private
*Corporate
*Academic
Note: if DEAD, noted here.

Other info:
*nonprofit? (y/n)

*Subtype abbreviations:
**S: for if a social entrepreneurship initiative
**I: for if an incubator
**A: for an angel group
**F: for foreign
**C: for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V: for if part of venture fund
**G: for if government funded/partnered
**T: for international

Note: subtypes (from individual text files in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data) were only found for 23 of the 270 accelerators. These accelerators were initially intended to be removed from the master list. Remaining subtypes are currently being added.

other info:

international offices, founders, industries, org type, program duration, or other interesting, easily accessed variables.

Type list file saved as
"Accelerator type list" in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs.
The list of ListofAccs, from which we drew Accelerator type list, should have no matches with any of the flagged accelerators in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data. There are 23 matches though. So all subtypes must be searched and entered manually. Whether it is a nonprofit is listed in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs, called "whether nonprofit..."

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC-backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==MATCHING==

The files we used to match are located in the E drive. We used the matcher to match our portfolio company names from the cohort file located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators.
*The files used to matching are located E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Matcher
*Portco is the name of the companies pulled from the cohort file
*AccCo includes both the cohort company name, along with the name of the accelerator itself
*In the matcher, the inputs are the PortCo names, as well as the VC data from our pull in SDC
*The outputs include the AccCo_VC data located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators which give a lot of information on the matches, including:
:*name of the match itself
:*number of investments
:*dates that the company received its investments

==SDC Pull==

We accessed SDC platinum and pulled information on round-based funding that all registered companies received from between the years 1999 to 2017.

The receipt is as follows:

Session Details
---------------
Request Hits Request Description
0 - DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
1 96155 Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
2 79572 Round Date: 1/1/1999 to 3/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
3 Custom Report: VC Data (Columnar) - Save As:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\VC Data.txt
�
Billing Ref # : 2054025
Capture File : riceuniv.2054025
Session Name :

The VC data pull includes the following variables:

Company Name Date Company Date Company Company Company City Company Street Address, Line 1 Company Street Address, Line 2 Total Known Company Industry Sub-Group 3 Company Industry Major Group Round Company Stage Level 3 Round Amt, Round Amt,

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/ (Does not work anymore)

https://data.crunchbase.com/v3/docs/using-the-api (Has new instructions for application)

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4 (Does not work - seems to be replaced by https://angel.co/companies?company_types[]=Incubator )

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

=Kauffman Foundation Incubator Proposal Information=

==Institutions==
Summary: F6S, Crunchbase, seed-db

Tools: Matcher - used to match lists of potential accelerators with our current list to identify duplicates/new matches (E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators)

===F6S===
F6S WebCrawler and F6S Parser - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

===CrunchBase===

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(All Organizations)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.xls

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(Potential Accelerators)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.accdb under "Potential Accelerators query"

*Obtained using keyword matches in the descriptions of the potential accelerators.

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(New Verified Accelerators)''' - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\New CrunchBase Accelerators.xls

We have the Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot which provided lots of new data on accelerators and incubators but we would love to use the Crunchbase API to get a current database snapshot that we could use to cross reference companies and add newly formed accelerator and incubator companies.

===AngelList===

===seed-db===

Obtained through www.seed.db/accelerators

===Global Accelerator Network (GAN)===

GAN Parser- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\scrapeaccel.py

GAN Data- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\GAN Accelerator Data
*Contains: Company Name, # of Companies Range, % of Companies Funded, Funding Raised by Companies, Employee Range, Exit Funding, Exit Date, Total Company Funding Raised, # of Mentors Range, % Equity, Location, Minimum Seed Capital Investment

==Cohorts==

*Cohorts obtained manually
*All Cohort txt files are saved under "E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*cohort file name = (accelerator name).cohort
*Most updated Accelerator cohort data: E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Cleaned Cohort Data.xls

Automation for obtaining cohorts??

==Other Information==
Summary: Whois Parser, Geocode, Tools to determine industry, etc

===Whois Parser===

*Retrieves and parses Whois information. Specifically, takes a file with a column of domain names and populates the corresponding columns with information from the WhoIs API.

*Often used to obtain locations.

===Geocode===

Input: Company Address
Output: Directional Coordinates

*Used to obtain the locations of different Accelerators and Cohort companies.

===SDC Platinum Pull===

Used to obtain funding information and match companies that have gotten funding with companies that are Accelerator cohorts.

===Desired Information/Variables===

*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)

==Desired Tools/Information==

===Automating the Process of Obtaining Cohorts===
*Automating this process would save a lot of time and really progress the project.

===Obtaining More Details on Accelerators===

*Having the kind of thorough information on industry, companies, funding, location, exits, mentors, leadership, that we got for the GAN companies would be fantastic.

===List of Alive/Dead Accelerators===

This is a dream but would be very helpful

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-11-14T21:05:28Z

Shrey: /* Sources */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu, Veeral Shah,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=Current Work=

TODO:
McNair/Projects/Accelerators/Fall 2017/unfound_founders.txt
A 0 means we don't have founder data for that accelerator.
Specs: A tab delimited text file with the following fields:
Accelerator First Name Last Name LinkedInURL(if possible)
Getting the LinkedInURL will ensure accuracy, but will work without it.

*Shrey: Find "demo day" keywords, so that we can search AcceleratorName Year Keyword and get back potential demo day pages
*Joe: Go through Accelerator list (approx 273 accelerators) and mark each by type (see below), building out type list as you go

Type list:
*Private
*Corporate
*Academic
Note: if DEAD, noted here.

Other info:
*nonprofit? (y/n)

*Subtype abbreviations:
**S: for if a social entrepreneurship initiative
**I: for if an incubator
**A: for an angel group
**F: for foreign
**C: for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V: for if part of venture fund
**G: for if government funded/partnered
**T: for international

Note: subtypes (from individual text files in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data) were only found for 23 of the 270 accelerators. These accelerators were initially intended to be removed from the master list. Remaining subtypes are currently being added.

other info:

international offices, founders, industries, org type, program duration, or other interesting, easily accessed variables.

Type list file saved as
"Accelerator type list" in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs.
The list of ListofAccs, from which we drew Accelerator type list, should have no matches with any of the flagged accelerators in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data. There are 23 matches though. So all subtypes must be searched and entered manually. Whether it is a nonprofit is listed in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs, called "whether nonprofit..."

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC-backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==MATCHING==

The files we used to match are located in the E drive. We used the matcher to match our portfolio company names from the cohort file located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators.
*The files used to matching are located E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Matcher
*Portco is the name of the companies pulled from the cohort file
*AccCo includes both the cohort company name, along with the name of the accelerator itself
*In the matcher, the inputs are the PortCo names, as well as the VC data from our pull in SDC
*The outputs include the AccCo_VC data located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators which give a lot of information on the matches, including:
:*name of the match itself
:*number of investments
:*dates that the company received its investments

==SDC Pull==

We accessed SDC platinum and pulled information on round-based funding that all registered companies received from between the years 1999 to 2017.

The receipt is as follows:

Session Details
---------------
Request Hits Request Description
0 - DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
1 96155 Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
2 79572 Round Date: 1/1/1999 to 3/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
3 Custom Report: VC Data (Columnar) - Save As:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\VC Data.txt
�
Billing Ref # : 2054025
Capture File : riceuniv.2054025
Session Name :

The VC data pull includes the following variables:

Company Name Date Company Date Company Company Company City Company Street Address, Line 1 Company Street Address, Line 2 Total Known Company Industry Sub-Group 3 Company Industry Major Group Round Company Stage Level 3 Round Amt, Round Amt,

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/ (Does not work anymore)

https://data.crunchbase.com/v3/docs/using-the-api (Has new instructions for application)

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4 (Does not work - seems to be replaced by https://angel.co/companies?company_types[]=Incubator )

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

=Kauffman Foundation Incubator Proposal Information=

==Institutions==
Summary: F6S, Crunchbase, seed-db

Tools: Matcher - used to match lists of potential accelerators with our current list to identify duplicates/new matches (E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators)

===F6S===
F6S WebCrawler and F6S Parser - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

===CrunchBase===

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(All Organizations)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.xls

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(Potential Accelerators)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.accdb under "Potential Accelerators query"

*Obtained using keyword matches in the descriptions of the potential accelerators.

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(New Verified Accelerators)''' - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\New CrunchBase Accelerators.xls

We have the Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot which provided lots of new data on accelerators and incubators but we would love to use the Crunchbase API to get a current database snapshot that we could use to cross reference companies and add newly formed accelerator and incubator companies.

===AngelList===

===seed-db===

Obtained through www.seed.db/accelerators

===Global Accelerator Network (GAN)===

GAN Parser- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\scrapeaccel.py

GAN Data- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\GAN Accelerator Data
*Contains: Company Name, # of Companies Range, % of Companies Funded, Funding Raised by Companies, Employee Range, Exit Funding, Exit Date, Total Company Funding Raised, # of Mentors Range, % Equity, Location, Minimum Seed Capital Investment

==Cohorts==

*Cohorts obtained manually
*All Cohort txt files are saved under "E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*cohort file name = (accelerator name).cohort
*Most updated Accelerator cohort data: E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Cleaned Cohort Data.xls

Automation for obtaining cohorts??

==Other Information==
Summary: Whois Parser, Geocode, Tools to determine industry, etc

===Whois Parser===

*Retrieves and parses Whois information. Specifically, takes a file with a column of domain names and populates the corresponding columns with information from the WhoIs API.

*Often used to obtain locations.

===Geocode===

Input: Company Address
Output: Directional Coordinates

*Used to obtain the locations of different Accelerators and Cohort companies.

===SDC Platinum Pull===

Used to obtain funding information and match companies that have gotten funding with companies that are Accelerator cohorts.

===Desired Information/Variables===

*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)

==Desired Tools/Information==

===Automating the Process of Obtaining Cohorts===
*Automating this process would save a lot of time and really progress the project.

===Obtaining More Details on Accelerators===

*Having the kind of thorough information on industry, companies, funding, location, exits, mentors, leadership, that we got for the GAN companies would be fantastic.

===List of Alive/Dead Accelerators===

This is a dream but would be very helpful

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-11-14T21:04:06Z

Shrey: /* Link to Crunchbase API application */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu, Veeral Shah,
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=Current Work=

TODO:
McNair/Projects/Accelerators/Fall 2017/unfound_founders.txt
A 0 means we don't have founder data for that accelerator.
Specs: A tab delimited text file with the following fields:
Accelerator First Name Last Name LinkedInURL(if possible)
Getting the LinkedInURL will ensure accuracy, but will work without it.

*Shrey: Find "demo day" keywords, so that we can search AcceleratorName Year Keyword and get back potential demo day pages
*Joe: Go through Accelerator list (approx 273 accelerators) and mark each by type (see below), building out type list as you go

Type list:
*Private
*Corporate
*Academic
Note: if DEAD, noted here.

Other info:
*nonprofit? (y/n)

*Subtype abbreviations:
**S: for if a social entrepreneurship initiative
**I: for if an incubator
**A: for an angel group
**F: for foreign
**C: for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V: for if part of venture fund
**G: for if government funded/partnered
**T: for international

Note: subtypes (from individual text files in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data) were only found for 23 of the 270 accelerators. These accelerators were initially intended to be removed from the master list. Remaining subtypes are currently being added.

other info:

international offices, founders, industries, org type, program duration, or other interesting, easily accessed variables.

Type list file saved as
"Accelerator type list" in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs.
The list of ListofAccs, from which we drew Accelerator type list, should have no matches with any of the flagged accelerators in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Spring 2017\Code+Final_Data. There are 23 matches though. So all subtypes must be searched and entered manually. Whether it is a nonprofit is listed in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Fall 2017\Grouping project of ListOfAccs, called "whether nonprofit..."

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC-backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==MATCHING==

The files we used to match are located in the E drive. We used the matcher to match our portfolio company names from the cohort file located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators.
*The files used to matching are located E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Matcher
*Portco is the name of the companies pulled from the cohort file
*AccCo includes both the cohort company name, along with the name of the accelerator itself
*In the matcher, the inputs are the PortCo names, as well as the VC data from our pull in SDC
*The outputs include the AccCo_VC data located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators which give a lot of information on the matches, including:
:*name of the match itself
:*number of investments
:*dates that the company received its investments

==SDC Pull==

We accessed SDC platinum and pulled information on round-based funding that all registered companies received from between the years 1999 to 2017.

The receipt is as follows:

Session Details
---------------
Request Hits Request Description
0 - DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
1 96155 Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
2 79572 Round Date: 1/1/1999 to 3/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
3 Custom Report: VC Data (Columnar) - Save As:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\VC Data.txt
�
Billing Ref # : 2054025
Capture File : riceuniv.2054025
Session Name :

The VC data pull includes the following variables:

Company Name Date Company Date Company Company Company City Company Street Address, Line 1 Company Street Address, Line 2 Total Known Company Industry Sub-Group 3 Company Industry Major Group Round Company Stage Level 3 Round Amt, Round Amt,

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/ (Does not work anymore)

https://data.crunchbase.com/v3/docs/using-the-api (Has new instructions for application)

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

=Kauffman Foundation Incubator Proposal Information=

==Institutions==
Summary: F6S, Crunchbase, seed-db

Tools: Matcher - used to match lists of potential accelerators with our current list to identify duplicates/new matches (E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators)

===F6S===
F6S WebCrawler and F6S Parser - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

===CrunchBase===

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(All Organizations)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.xls

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(Potential Accelerators)'''- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\organizations.accdb under "Potential Accelerators query"

*Obtained using keyword matches in the descriptions of the potential accelerators.

CrunchBase 2013 Snapshot '''(New Verified Accelerators)''' - E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\New CrunchBase Accelerators.xls

We have the Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot which provided lots of new data on accelerators and incubators but we would love to use the Crunchbase API to get a current database snapshot that we could use to cross reference companies and add newly formed accelerator and incubator companies.

===AngelList===

===seed-db===

Obtained through www.seed.db/accelerators

===Global Accelerator Network (GAN)===

GAN Parser- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\scrapeaccel.py

GAN Data- E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Web Scraping for Accelerators\GAN Accelerator Data
*Contains: Company Name, # of Companies Range, % of Companies Funded, Funding Raised by Companies, Employee Range, Exit Funding, Exit Date, Total Company Funding Raised, # of Mentors Range, % Equity, Location, Minimum Seed Capital Investment

==Cohorts==

*Cohorts obtained manually
*All Cohort txt files are saved under "E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*cohort file name = (accelerator name).cohort
*Most updated Accelerator cohort data: E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Cleaned Cohort Data.xls

Automation for obtaining cohorts??

==Other Information==
Summary: Whois Parser, Geocode, Tools to determine industry, etc

===Whois Parser===

*Retrieves and parses Whois information. Specifically, takes a file with a column of domain names and populates the corresponding columns with information from the WhoIs API.

*Often used to obtain locations.

===Geocode===

Input: Company Address
Output: Directional Coordinates

*Used to obtain the locations of different Accelerators and Cohort companies.

===SDC Platinum Pull===

Used to obtain funding information and match companies that have gotten funding with companies that are Accelerator cohorts.

===Desired Information/Variables===

*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)

==Desired Tools/Information==

===Automating the Process of Obtaining Cohorts===
*Automating this process would save a lot of time and really progress the project.

===Obtaining More Details on Accelerators===

*Having the kind of thorough information on industry, companies, funding, location, exits, mentors, leadership, that we got for the GAN companies would be fantastic.

===List of Alive/Dead Accelerators===

This is a dream but would be very helpful

Accelerator Data

2017-11-13T21:32:15Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

Accelerator Data

2017-11-13T21:13:03Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

Accelerator Data

2017-11-13T21:11:38Z

Shrey: /* List of All Relevant Files */

Accelerator Data

2017-11-09T21:07:47Z

Shrey: Created page with "{{McNair Projects |Has title=Composite Accelerator Data |Has owner=Matthew Ringheanu, Shrey Agarwal, |Has start date=Fall 2016 |Has deadline=Fall 2017 |Has keywords=Accelerato..."

Shrey Agarwal

2017-11-09T18:59:42Z

Shrey:

<onlyinclude>

{{McNair Staff
|position=Research Team
|name=Shrey Agarwal
|degree=BSc.
|major=Materials Science and Nanoengineering; Business Minor
|class=2020,
|join_date=September 2016,
|skills=C, C++, Writing, Editing, Excel, Graphic Design
|interests=Rafting, Hiking, Video Games, Sustainable Energy, Basketball, Economics, Public Policy
|fun_fact=Traveled to 26 countries
|email=mailto:sva2@rice.edu
|skype_name=shrey.agarwal84
|status=Active
}}

==Intro==

Shrey Agarwal is a student currently working as a Research Assistant for the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy's McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Shrey is working towards a degree in Materials Science and Nanoengineering from Rice University, along with a minor in business. Shrey is currently a freshman at McMurtry college. Along with research at the McNair center, Shrey is involved with Catalyst, Rice's undergraduate science journal, and the Rice Annual Fund, where he works in the Industrials section. Shrey plans to get a MBA once he completes his undergrad engineering degree.

==Early Life==

Shrey was born in Rourkela, India, where he lived until he was 5. Somehow he ended up at Rice in Houston.

==Time at McNair==
[[Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)]]
[[Category:McNair Staff]]

</onlyinclude>

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-11-07T22:17:49Z

Shrey: /* Fall 2017 */

===Fall 2017===
<onlyinclude>

[[Shrey Agarwal]] [[Work Logs]] [[Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)|(log page)]

9/19/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Became reacclimatized with the project, spoke with Ed about the direction for the rest of the semester
9/20/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked on setting up a new pull for the updated SDC data
9/21/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the pull and sorted the data from the updated accelerator list
9/22/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Tried to set up the matcher with Matthew; ran into some difficulties on Power Shell, returning a blank file in the output
9/26/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the match and created pivot tables to count the number of repetitions (companies going through more than one accelerator)
9/27/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Discussed with Matthew the best way to collect the VC data from the repetitions. We tried different matches through our SDC data to no avail
9/28/17 16:00 - 17:00
*Continued attempting to match with SDC the different columns. Didn't work without separating the data into individual files, a very tedious process.
9/29/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Spoke with Ed about incubators project, will begin as soon as we can time the accelerator startup investments. Ed is expecting us to begin sometime in the next two months, using a similar process as we did for incubators. The process should be handled by a new worker.
10/02/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Talked to Ed about next steps for the project. Practiced accessing the CrunchBase database on SQL and brushed up on SQL code.
10/03/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Sifted through the database for Crunchbase investment information.
10/04/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Pulled the funding rounds table from SQL and matched it with the companies that have received VC funding in order to gather round dates.
10/06/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Went through the matched data. Brainstormed ways to get the dates for cohort companies going through accelerators.
10/11/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Looked into using the WhoIs Parser in order to find when the companies went through their accelerators.
10/12/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Discovered that the Wayback Machine will not be a good option for identifying the time when a company went through the accelerator. Created a list of VC Companies and their earliest round date. Included a column for the date they went through their accelerators and will fill it in when we find a good method of finding this date.
10/16/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on sorting VCCompanies by their earliest round date.
10/17/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ben to find a solution to our problem of data acquisition. Finalized earliest round date for VCCompanies.
10/18/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Updated our VC data with Ed's help in order to increase the accuracy and completion of our data.
10/19/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Organized all of our matched data and updated it in order to reflect the most recent SDC pull with Ed. Matched Crunchbase data with our cohort companies.
10/20/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Generated the new list of VCCompanies as well as their earliest round dates.
10/23/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked on sorting out the discrepancies in our matched data.
10/24/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Went through list of VCCompanies and began adding respective accelerators in order to proceed with VCPercentage table.
10/25/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued going through list of VCCompanies and adding accelerators.
10/26/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued going through list of VCCompanies and adding accelerators. Will have this completed on Monday.
10/30/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished adding all of the accelerators to the list of VCCompanies. Added a column indicating whether or not the company went through two or more accelerators.
10/31/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Began compiling data in the column for the dates that a specific company went through an Accelerator.
11/01/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finalized entering dates for Y Combinator cohort companies.
11/02/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Continued entering cohort company dates into Excel file.
11/06/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Began looking at keywords for identifying the cohort class dates for each company
11/07/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Received list from Peter with the accelerator founders matched from the Crunchbase LinkedIn URLs and proceeded to find the links for those founders without a match on Crunchbase. Data found in "Unfound Founders List" in the Fall 2017 folder

</onlyinclude>

===Spring 2017===

01/17/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up "accelerating" from [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], numbers 341-351
1/18/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished accelerating for sure, went back and began an overview of the work done for quality control.
01/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Mandatory meeting, then worked through 2 of Ed's unfinished accelerators
1/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to go over about 70 items in the accelerator list and ensure that they follow a uniform structure and show correct information
1/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Peter to fix the problem with results not coming through on the new spreadsheet by renaming the file and including more symbols in the searches. Spreadsheet should be up to date now.
*Got to number 144 on the list while going through files.
1/25/17 14:00 - 16;00
*Continued looking through the list and fixing wrong entries or reporting them
1/26/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Talked with Ed about project going forward and tried to access the Crunchbase API with Peter to crawl for start-up companies.
*Continued working through the accelerator list, stopped at number 186.
1/27/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through accelerator list and fixing any entries with error. Got to number 261.
1/30/17 14:30 - 16:30
*Got through about 425
1/31/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Got to number 502
2/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished looking through the initial list of accelerators and writing down which ones needed to be modified or completed (through 551)
2/03/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Finished about 30 entries for the accelerator entries that still needed to be completed. Worked out of the "NOT DONE" file in the server (which is now blank because everything is finished)
2/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Developed a standardized format for the text files with Matthew. Instructions are under "standardized format" in the accelerator seed list portion. I started at number 226 and standardized formats up until 370.
2/07/17 14:00-16:00
*Continued work from yesterday, completed up to number 488 from the list. Will likely need one more day to finish.
2/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished standardizing the txt files for use on the excel spreadsheet, compiled the data and examined the resultant tables. Realized we needed to fix some categories in the cohort files.
2/09/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ed on a side project trying to gather information on climate change thanks to Baker's article on the Wall Street Journal
*Gathered information on climate change in relation to high-growth, high-risk innovation and organizations that deal with things such as carbon credits
2/10/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Realized that blog post was ambitious because we could not really find a clear purpose from the information we gathered, nor could we find a unique angle. Held off on the idea
*Went back to organizing the new columns and headers on the text file by identifying areas of error in the excel spreadsheet
2/15/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Spoke with Ed about free enterprise while he lectured all of us. It took about an hour.
*Looked at plans for project going forward including using linkedin to search the founders
2/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found our first source for expanding the project into incubators, from angel.co. Seems similar to f6s in that we can crawl it and obtain a list of incubators and their various counterparts.
2/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found more sources for incubators by reading through quora discussions and masters theses. Bookmarked these pages so that I could put them into text files after.
2/23/17 14:00 - 18:00
*Converted incubator files to text-pad and saved them (4 total), then cleaned them up through regex
*Took the cohort text file, put it into excel, and proceeded to clean up all of the mistakes in the excel document, particularly bad data or mistakes with organizations. Got through Y-Combinator.
2/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up cleaning the cohort data for the names and the descriptions, but there still needs to be work done on the other stuff like dates and programs
2/28/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Created page [[Hub-Based Venture Firms]] and proceeded to research VC in Hubs listed on under E:\McNair\Projects\Hubs\summer 2016\Hubs Variables - Ariel.xls
*Looked at details such as whether they have in-house funds, whether they co-invest, focuses, and amounts invested.
3/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben and Matthew to pull data from SDC for all VC funded companies and normalized it to put it in an Excel document.
3/02/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Tried to repeat the VC data pull without it crashing from pulling too many entries. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish it
3/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to put final touches on the cohort data to prep it for matching with our VC data
3/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finally finished working on the cohort files, will match on the 8th
3/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Matched the VC Data with the list of Cohort Companies and got one list of all cohort companies that have received VC funding.
3/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Participated in a SQL training session with Ed, learned how to create a database and to pull tab delimited information from text files onto a table
3/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Met with Ed and arrived at the conclusion of finishing the draft for a report by the end of the semester. Put the initial report information on the accelerator page using the variables that we currently have
3/22/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to compile tables in our database of the matched VC-portfolio company lists and the overall accelerator cohort information. Found multiple errors in the cohort file which needed to be fixed before finishing the tables and analyzing the data
3/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished cleaning the cohort file once again.
3/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued practicing my SQL and creating the code for compiling the tables
3/29/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked on the matched data with Matthew. Will run the RegEx code that will filter the URLs, and I will look through the duplicates where two different VC-backed company names matched to one cohort company name
3/30/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Examined the Regex code for the URLs and attempted to filter them out
4/03/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued learning some SQL from Ed
4/04/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Began examining the Crunchbase data; looked through the 2013 snapshot
*Created a new Crunchbase account with McNair center and examined the basic access, which does not give us much information
4/05/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Made the final VC percentage table from our database and previous code with Ed; realized we were missing many accelerators as well as a lot of important cohort data so need to reexamine our previous data.
4/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through Crunchbase to see how we can pull accelerators up until 2013; most likely will use objects to sort the data into accelerators, perhaps keywords from "accelerators"
4/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Examined SARP and attempted to match their accelerators with the ones from our data, realized that a few of our cohorts were missing as well as a few of the actual accelerators so we need to fix the data in our excel file
*Began compiling a list of missing accelerators on textpad to later insert into our excel.
4/10/17 13:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben to find missing accelerators from the Crunchbase data using the keywords. Also, began recording information from some of the big accelerators we were missing
*Found 228 matches for accelerators, will match from our list to find the similarities
4/11/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished compiling the accelerator and cohort information for the few we found from SARP, will consult Ed to figure out how to approach the missing accelerators and what to do for the preliminary report

===Fall 2016===

09/27/2016 14:00 - 17:00:
*Set up personal and work log pages, accessed Remote Desktop.
*Compiled list of accelerators from Wiki
09/29/2016 14:00 - 16:15; 16:45 - 17:30:
*Created new project: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] and worked with Dr. Egan to create schematic for data entry.
*Evaluated 3 sources and logged data. Sources were taken from [[List of Accelerators]]. Logged each step onto project page and identified categories that would be suitable for web crawling sometime in the future.
10/11/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Explored how to use regular expressions in TextPad to aid with data sorting (need to review expressions with Dr. Egan in future)
*Continued evaluating sources from [[List of Accelerators]] and recorded steps onto project page, as before. Finished evaluating the six sources from initial list. (All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]])
10/13/2016 14:00 - 17:00;
*All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Talked to Dr. Egan about project going forward. Need to pick out 10-15 accelerators from the sources listed on my project page and identify a reliable method for obtaining cohort information, as well as other variables
*Used google searches to identify more sources, and evaluated three databases with the help of TextPad
*Began working on more generic google searches. Was able to go through "Location+accelerator"-type searches today. Will continue next time.
10/18/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Took a sample size of 10 accelerators and detailed how to extract cohort information, as well as what other information is readily available from accelerator URLs.
*Brought Matthew up to speed on accelerator project, added summaries to each section so they became easier to follow, and worked with him to finish up extracting cohort information
10/20/16 14:30 - 17:30:
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Finished up the list of instructions for finding the cohort. Continued compiling the list of variables for each of the accelerators within the sample size.
*Consulted Peter on prospects of creating a web crawler with the information we currently have compiled. Determined it was possible, although beyond the scope of Peter's knowledge.
10/25/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Consulted Ed with next step for project.
*Began listing the E-R diagram onto the accelerator database page where entities were potential categories and each entity had its associated attributes
10/27/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working with Matthew to identify elements in the E-R diagram for pulling information on accelerators.
*Found sources to obtain/cross-reference information (ie. Angel List)
11/08/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Identified possible keywords to filter results through for accelerators
*Began compiling a comprehensive list of accelerators based on the data we have already sifted through.
*Learned how to use regular expressions from Ben to sort names individually and alphabetically.
11/10/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Began sorting through accelerator list and removing duplicates, as well as identifying more places to pull names from.
*Worked with Peter to create a crawl for f6s because the website does not return only accelerators.
11/15/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Took a break from f6s to locate more lists based on individual google searches such as "city+accelerator+list"
*Put Seed DB information into an excel file on the remote desktop
11/17/16 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued filling out information for the random Google Searches
*Organized TextPad files on the RDP into coherent excel spreadsheets with proper headers on the table
*Noticed problem with f6s: it seems although all of the html coding was protected by a captcha so the crawler did not actually extract any information; it was all blocked.
11/22/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked to fix f6s crawler with Peter
*Finished and compiled master list of accelerators
12/01/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Caught up on project with Ed and Carlin
*Took 20 accelerators (241-260) from the list and filled out text.html files for them; finished the 20
12/05/16 13:00 - 16:00
*After finishing first 20 accelerators, continued working down the list, beginning at 321
*Work noted in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], but mostly stored on McNair RDP
12/06/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Continued "Accelerating" down the list in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], finished up until 340
12/08/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on accelerator list on the same page.

[[Category:Work Log]]

Egg Egan

2017-10-16T21:05:29Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Staff
|position=Omelet
|name=Egg Egan
|user_image=Egg.jpg
|degree=Medium Well
|class=Grade A
|skills=Skillet Maneuvering, cracking under pressure, punctuality
|status=Cooked
}}

=Ingredients=
# 3 incubated eggs
# 1/2 cup deadweight loss
# 100ml free markets
# 251g accelerators

Egg Egan

2017-10-16T20:11:50Z

Shrey: /* Ingredients */

{{McNair Staff
|position=Omelet
|name=Egg Eggan
|user_image=Egg.jpg
|degree=Medium Well
|class=Grade A
|skills=Skillet Maneuvering, cracking under pressure
|status=Cooked
}}

=Ingredients=
# 3 eggs
# 1/2 cup deadweight loss
# 1/3 cup free markets
# 251g Accelerators

Egg Egan

2017-10-04T03:51:13Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Staff
|position=Omelet
|name=Egg Eggan
|user_image=Egg.jpg
|degree=Medium Well
|class=Grade A
|skills=Skillet Maneuvering, cracking under pressure
|status=Cooked
}}

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-10-03T20:35:16Z

Shrey:

09/27/2016 14:00 - 17:00:
*Set up personal and work log pages, accessed Remote Desktop.
*Compiled list of accelerators from Wiki
09/29/2016 14:00 - 16:15; 16:45 - 17:30:
*Created new project: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] and worked with Dr. Egan to create schematic for data entry.
*Evaluated 3 sources and logged data. Sources were taken from [[List of Accelerators]]. Logged each step onto project page and identified categories that would be suitable for web crawling sometime in the future.
10/11/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Explored how to use regular expressions in TextPad to aid with data sorting (need to review expressions with Dr. Egan in future)
*Continued evaluating sources from [[List of Accelerators]] and recorded steps onto project page, as before. Finished evaluating the six sources from initial list. (All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]])
10/13/2016 14:00 - 17:00;
*All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Talked to Dr. Egan about project going forward. Need to pick out 10-15 accelerators from the sources listed on my project page and identify a reliable method for obtaining cohort information, as well as other variables
*Used google searches to identify more sources, and evaluated three databases with the help of TextPad
*Began working on more generic google searches. Was able to go through "Location+accelerator"-type searches today. Will continue next time.
10/18/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Took a sample size of 10 accelerators and detailed how to extract cohort information, as well as what other information is readily available from accelerator URLs.
*Brought Matthew up to speed on accelerator project, added summaries to each section so they became easier to follow, and worked with him to finish up extracting cohort information
10/20/16 14:30 - 17:30:
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Finished up the list of instructions for finding the cohort. Continued compiling the list of variables for each of the accelerators within the sample size.
*Consulted Peter on prospects of creating a web crawler with the information we currently have compiled. Determined it was possible, although beyond the scope of Peter's knowledge.
10/25/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Consulted Ed with next step for project.
*Began listing the E-R diagram onto the accelerator database page where entities were potential categories and each entity had its associated attributes
10/27/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working with Matthew to identify elements in the E-R diagram for pulling information on accelerators.
*Found sources to obtain/cross-reference information (ie. Angel List)
11/08/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Identified possible keywords to filter results through for accelerators
*Began compiling a comprehensive list of accelerators based on the data we have already sifted through.
*Learned how to use regular expressions from Ben to sort names individually and alphabetically.
11/10/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Began sorting through accelerator list and removing duplicates, as well as identifying more places to pull names from.
*Worked with Peter to create a crawl for f6s because the website does not return only accelerators.
11/15/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Took a break from f6s to locate more lists based on individual google searches such as "city+accelerator+list"
*Put Seed DB information into an excel file on the remote desktop
11/17/16 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued filling out information for the random Google Searches
*Organized TextPad files on the RDP into coherent excel spreadsheets with proper headers on the table
*Noticed problem with f6s: it seems although all of the html coding was protected by a captcha so the crawler did not actually extract any information; it was all blocked.
11/22/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked to fix f6s crawler with Peter
*Finished and compiled master list of accelerators
12/01/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Caught up on project with Ed and Carlin
*Took 20 accelerators (241-260) from the list and filled out text.html files for them; finished the 20
12/05/16 13:00 - 16:00
*After finishing first 20 accelerators, continued working down the list, beginning at 321
*Work noted in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], but mostly stored on McNair RDP
12/06/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Continued "Accelerating" down the list in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], finished up until 340
12/08/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on accelerator list on the same page.
01/17/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up "accelerating" from [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], numbers 341-351
1/18/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished accelerating for sure, went back and began an overview of the work done for quality control.
01/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Mandatory meeting, then worked through 2 of Ed's unfinished accelerators
1/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to go over about 70 items in the accelerator list and ensure that they follow a uniform structure and show correct information
1/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Peter to fix the problem with results not coming through on the new spreadsheet by renaming the file and including more symbols in the searches. Spreadsheet should be up to date now.
*Got to number 144 on the list while going through files.
1/25/17 14:00 - 16;00
*Continued looking through the list and fixing wrong entries or reporting them
1/26/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Talked with Ed about project going forward and tried to access the Crunchbase API with Peter to crawl for start-up companies.
*Continued working through the accelerator list, stopped at number 186.
1/27/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through accelerator list and fixing any entries with error. Got to number 261.
1/30/17 14:30 - 16:30
*Got through about 425
1/31/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Got to number 502
2/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished looking through the initial list of accelerators and writing down which ones needed to be modified or completed (through 551)
2/03/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Finished about 30 entries for the accelerator entries that still needed to be completed. Worked out of the "NOT DONE" file in the server (which is now blank because everything is finished)
2/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Developed a standardized format for the text files with Matthew. Instructions are under "standardized format" in the accelerator seed list portion. I started at number 226 and standardized formats up until 370.
2/07/17 14:00-16:00
*Continued work from yesterday, completed up to number 488 from the list. Will likely need one more day to finish.
2/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished standardizing the txt files for use on the excel spreadsheet, compiled the data and examined the resultant tables. Realized we needed to fix some categories in the cohort files.
2/09/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ed on a side project trying to gather information on climate change thanks to Baker's article on the Wall Street Journal
*Gathered information on climate change in relation to high-growth, high-risk innovation and organizations that deal with things such as carbon credits
2/10/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Realized that blog post was ambitious because we could not really find a clear purpose from the information we gathered, nor could we find a unique angle. Held off on the idea
*Went back to organizing the new columns and headers on the text file by identifying areas of error in the excel spreadsheet
2/15/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Spoke with Ed about free enterprise while he lectured all of us. It took about an hour.
*Looked at plans for project going forward including using linkedin to search the founders
2/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found our first source for expanding the project into incubators, from angel.co. Seems similar to f6s in that we can crawl it and obtain a list of incubators and their various counterparts.
2/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found more sources for incubators by reading through quora discussions and masters theses. Bookmarked these pages so that I could put them into text files after.
2/23/17 14:00 - 18:00
*Converted incubator files to text-pad and saved them (4 total), then cleaned them up through regex
*Took the cohort text file, put it into excel, and proceeded to clean up all of the mistakes in the excel document, particularly bad data or mistakes with organizations. Got through Y-Combinator.
2/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up cleaning the cohort data for the names and the descriptions, but there still needs to be work done on the other stuff like dates and programs
2/28/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Created page [[Hub-Based Venture Firms]] and proceeded to research VC in Hubs listed on under E:\McNair\Projects\Hubs\summer 2016\Hubs Variables - Ariel.xls
*Looked at details such as whether they have in-house funds, whether they co-invest, focuses, and amounts invested.
3/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben and Matthew to pull data from SDC for all VC funded companies and normalized it to put it in an Excel document.
3/02/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Tried to repeat the VC data pull without it crashing from pulling too many entries. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish it
3/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to put final touches on the cohort data to prep it for matching with our VC data
3/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finally finished working on the cohort files, will match on the 8th
3/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Matched the VC Data with the list of Cohort Companies and got one list of all cohort companies that have received VC funding.
3/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Participated in a SQL training session with Ed, learned how to create a database and to pull tab delimited information from text files onto a table
3/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Met with Ed and arrived at the conclusion of finishing the draft for a report by the end of the semester. Put the initial report information on the accelerator page using the variables that we currently have
3/22/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to compile tables in our database of the matched VC-portfolio company lists and the overall accelerator cohort information. Found multiple errors in the cohort file which needed to be fixed before finishing the tables and analyzing the data
3/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished cleaning the cohort file once again.
3/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued practicing my SQL and creating the code for compiling the tables
3/29/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked on the matched data with Matthew. Will run the RegEx code that will filter the URLs, and I will look through the duplicates where two different VC-backed company names matched to one cohort company name
3/30/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Examined the Regex code for the URLs and attempted to filter them out
4/03/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued learning some SQL from Ed
4/04/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Began examining the Crunchbase data; looked through the 2013 snapshot
*Created a new Crunchbase account with McNair center and examined the basic access, which does not give us much information
4/05/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Made the final VC percentage table from our database and previous code with Ed; realized we were missing many accelerators as well as a lot of important cohort data so need to reexamine our previous data.
4/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through Crunchbase to see how we can pull accelerators up until 2013; most likely will use objects to sort the data into accelerators, perhaps keywords from "accelerators"
4/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Examined SARP and attempted to match their accelerators with the ones from our data, realized that a few of our cohorts were missing as well as a few of the actual accelerators so we need to fix the data in our excel file
*Began compiling a list of missing accelerators on textpad to later insert into our excel.
4/10/17 13:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben to find missing accelerators from the Crunchbase data using the keywords. Also, began recording information from some of the big accelerators we were missing
*Found 228 matches for accelerators, will match from our list to find the similarities
4/11/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished compiling the accelerator and cohort information for the few we found from SARP, will consult Ed to figure out how to approach the missing accelerators and what to do for the preliminary report
9/19/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Became reacclimatized with the project, spoke with Ed about the direction for the rest of the semester
9/20/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Worked on setting up a new pull for the updated SDC data
9/21/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the pull and sorted the data from the updated accelerator list
9/22/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Tried to set up the matcher with Matthew; ran into some difficulties on Power Shell, returning a blank file in the output
9/26/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Finished the match and created pivot tables to count the number of repetitions (companies going through more than one accelerator)
9/27/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Discussed with Matthew the best way to collect the VC data from the repetitions. We tried different matches through our SDC data to no avail
9/28/17 16:00 - 17:00
*Continued attempting to match with SDC the different columns. Didn't work without separating the data into individual files, a very tedious process.
9/29/17 15:00 - 17:00
*Spoke with Ed about incubators project, will begin as soon as we can time the accelerator startup investments. Ed is expecting us to begin sometime in the next two months, using a similar process as we did for incubators. The process should be handled by a new worker.
[[Category:Work Log]]

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-09-26T21:03:42Z

Shrey:

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-04-19T20:03:57Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu
|Has start date=Fall 2016
||Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC-backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==MATCHING==

The files we used to match are located in the E drive. We used the matcher to match our portfolio company names from the cohort file located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators.
*The files used to matching are located E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Matcher
*Portco is the name of the companies pulled from the cohort file
*AccCo includes both the cohort company name, along with the name of the accelerator itself
*In the matcher, the inputs are the PortCo names, as well as the VC data from our pull in SDC
*The outputs include the AccCo_VC data located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators which give a lot of information on the matches, including:
:*name of the match itself
:*number of investments
:*dates that the company received its investments

==SDC Pull==

We accessed SDC platinum and pulled information on round-based funding that all registered companies received from between the years 1999 to 2017.

The receipt is as follows:

Session Details
---------------
Request Hits Request Description
0 - DATABASE: Portfolio Companies (VIPC)
1 96155 Venture Related Deals: Select All Venture Related Deals
2 79572 Round Date: 1/1/1999 to 3/1/2017 (Custom) (Calendar)
3 Custom Report: VC Data (Columnar) - Save As:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\VC Data.txt
�
Billing Ref # : 2054025
Capture File : riceuniv.2054025
Session Name :

The VC data pull includes the following variables:

Company Name Date Company Date Company Company Company City Company Street Address, Line 1 Company Street Address, Line 2 Total Known Company Industry Sub-Group 3 Company Industry Major Group Round Company Stage Level 3 Round Amt, Round Amt,

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot

2017-04-17T20:59:02Z

Shrey:

Username: mcnair@rice.edu

password: amount

==Original Email==

Thank you for submitting a request for Research Access to Crunchbase through our API. We have reviewed your request, and granted you Basic Access. You can now access Crunchbase data in the following ways.

Check out the Open Data Map
Explore the 2013 Snapshot
Visit our website for instructions on accessing Crunchbase data. To access the REST API, you'll need your user key:

6d382e4bbdaa297138f32a588b139f53

With Basic Access, API use is limited to the Open Data Map and 2013 Snapshot. Access to the full API and latest funding round data requires a license. To learn more check out our offerings.

==Basic Membership==
*Can not seem to filter results past the first 50 companies
*Very basic information such as company name, location, industry classification, website, and "Crunchbase ranking".

==Retrieval==

The data was retrieved by Shrey and Matthew through an application from the Crunchbase Website for the API service. The data took about a month to come in due to a lack of response from Crunchbase itself. Eventually, they gave us basic access.

==Content==

The snapshot contained 2 .tar.qz files, which were extracted into 181/crunchbase using the command
tar -zxvf file.tar.gz

The csv files (organizations.csv and people.csv) were copied for access to:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Crunchbase Snapshot

The files (size in bytes) and their contents are

'''crunchbase_2013_snapshot_mysql.tar.gz'''
*license.txt 526
*cb_objects.sql 338955612
*cb_offices.sql 14850092
*cb_people.sql 13253952
*cb_ipos.sql 178397
*cb_milestones.sql 10498840
*cb_funds.sql 385010
*cb_relationships.sql 48655529
*cb_degrees.sql 13829471
*cb_investments.sql 6185134
*cb_acquisitions.sql 2309393
*cb_funding_rounds.sql 14681705

'''odm.csv.tar.gz'''
*organizations.csv 212013301
**459916 records with the following fields:
***crunchbase_uuid
***type
***primary_role
***name
***crunchbase_url
***homepage_domain
***homepage_url
***profile_image_url
***facebook_url
***twitter_url
***linkedin_url
***stock_symbol
***location_city
***location_region
***location_country_code
***short_description
*people.csv 188924229
**521634 records with the following fields:
***crunchbase_uuid
***type
***first_name
***last_name
***crunchbase_url
***profile_image_url
***facebook_url
***twitter_url
***linkedin_url
***location_city
***location_region
***location_country_code
***title
***organization
***organization_crunchbase_url
*crunchbase_license.txt 487

==Changing MYSQL to PostgreSQL==

The SQL files were generated in MySQL. We need to convert them to PostgreSQL. See: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Converting_MySQL_to_PostgreSQL and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1942586/comparison-of-database-column-types-in-mysql-postgresql-and-sqlite-cross-map

The key changes are:

MYSQL POSTGRESQL
----- ----------
LOCK --comment out as no need but LOCK [ TABLE ] [ ONLY ] name [ * ] [, ...] [ IN lockmode MODE ] [ NOWAIT ]
UNLOCK --comment out
decimal(x,y) real (might work as is)
datetime timestamp
KEY --comment out as no need but FOREIGN KEY ( column_name [, ... ] ) REFERENCES reftable [ ( refcolumn [, ... ] ) ]

==Documentation and File Locations==
The Crunchbase information were broken down into two different files:
*The "organizations" Excel file contains: crunchbase_uuid type primary_role name crunchbase_url homepage_domain homepage_url profile_image_url facebook_url twitter_url linkedin_url stock_symbol location_city location_region location_country_code short_description
:* Located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Crunchbase Snapshot
*The "people" Excel file contains: crunchbase_uuid type first_name last_name crunchbase_url profile_image_url facebook_url twitter_url linkedin_url location_city location_region location_country_code title organization organization_crunchbase_url
:* Located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Crunchbase Snapshot

==Obtaining Accelerators from the "Organizations" file==
#Created new columns in the data labeled "match: blah", where blah is the word we're searching for in the descriptions
#Added: "=if(isnumber(search("blah",B2))=TRUE,1,0)", where blah is the substring (what you're searching for), B2 is the string (what your searching in) and 1 represents that it's present and 0 means it isn't.
#Added: "=sum(A1:C1) This just sums the cells from A1 to C1"
#Compiled a list of potential accelerators depending on the number of matches (the sum)
:# File is labeled "PotentialAccelerators" which just has the list of accelerators we were considering based on their match number; located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Crunchbase Snapshot

==Appending Crunchbase Accelerators Information to Old Accelerator Data==
Matthew created a file called "Crunchbase Potential Accelerators", which repeats the names of all the accelerators in the Crunchbase folder, but includes a note as to whether the accelerator is already included in our data, or whether we need to add the file to our data before the semester ends.
*Adding the accelerator consists of adding the accelerator text file with basic information, the cohort html file, and most importantly, the cohort text file so we can calculate the VC raise rate

[[category:internal]]

Talk:Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-04-17T20:44:27Z

Shrey:

Rank on VC
*Getting a VC percentage for each Accelerator

Also categorize
*Age
*Nonprofit or not
*Location

RegEx Code for repeating data down for the round data from SDC:

\n([^\t]+\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t[^\t]*\t)(.*)\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\1\2\n\1

=if(isnumber(search("blah",B2))=TRUE,1,0)
where blah is the substring (what you're searching for), B2 is the string (what your searching in) and 1 represents that it's present and 0 means it isn't.

=sum(A1:C1)
This just sums the cells from A1 to C1

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-04-17T20:37:51Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu
|Has start date=Fall 2016
||Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]], Crunchbase, and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results
*Crunchbase has its own webpage with instructions for how we retrieve the data

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==SOURCE: Crunchbase==
*All of the information for the Crunchbase documentation is located in the page [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]] webpage, along with the documentation for how we determined the accelerator information.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-04-12T20:47:22Z

Shrey:

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-04-07T19:26:01Z

Shrey:

Emerging Ecosystems

2017-04-05T21:06:23Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Emerging Entrepreneurship Ecosystems
|Has owner=Eliza Martin
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has project status=Active
}}
Tentative timeline for six blog posts to be completed by end of the semester:

St. Louis: completed by 3/24 and sent for peer editing.

Washington DC: already completed, but needs editing (on 3/27). Send for peer editing 3/27.

Houston: complete by 3/30 and send for peer editing.

Chicago: complete by 4/7 and send for peer editing.

Las Vegas: complete by 4/14 and send for peer editing.

Nashville: complete by 4/21 and send for peer editing.

Denver: complete by 4/25 and send for peer editing.

File with cities and accelerators called "City Accelerators Eliza" located in E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators
*Should be able to copy and paste into Excel to look at all of the data, except for the last few entries because we found those on the web

==Project Overview==
According to a 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report, approximately 11.9% of United States adults are starting and running new businesses. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an increase in the number of businesses less than one year old and jobs created by businesses less than one year old. While entrepreneurship in the United States is strong, there are significant challenges to maintaining growth.

Important for continued US entrepreneurship growth is the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Accelerators, angel investors, hubs, strong crowd funding and micro-finance availability, encouraging regulatory environment, and availability of venture capital are all components on successful ecosystems. Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, California), Route 128 (Massachusetts), and The Research Triangle (North-Carolina) have facilitated the success of many companies such as Facebook, Google, Integrated Computer Solutions, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Across the country, many new entrepreneurship ecosystems are emerging.

This project will examine the emerging ecosystems throughout the United States in a blog post format.

==List of Emerging Ecosystems==
*Austin (completed: [[Austin TX Emerging Ecosystems (Blog Post)| Austin, TX: Emerging Ecosystems]])
*Denver
*Cincinnati (completed: http://mcnair.bakerinstitute.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Ecosystem)
*Chicago
*Las Vegas
*Minneapolis-St. Paul
*St. Louis (in progress: http://mcnair.bakerinstitute.org/wiki/St._Louis:_Emerging_Ecosystems)
*Kansas City
*Nashville
*Miami
*San Diego
*Phoenix
*Washington DC (completed but not published)

Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot

2017-04-04T20:48:08Z

Shrey:

Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot

2017-04-04T20:44:21Z

Shrey:

Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot

2017-04-04T20:35:43Z

Shrey:

Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot

2017-04-04T20:24:58Z

Shrey:

==Original Email==

Thank you for submitting a request for Research Access to Crunchbase through our API. We have reviewed your request, and granted you Basic Access. You can now access Crunchbase data in the following ways.

Check out the Open Data Map
Explore the 2013 Snapshot
Visit our website for instructions on accessing Crunchbase data. To access the REST API, you'll need your user key:

6d382e4bbdaa297138f32a588b139f53

With Basic Access, API use is limited to the Open Data Map and 2013 Snapshot. Access to the full API and latest funding round data requires a license. To learn more check out our offerings.

==Retrieval==

The data was retrieved by Shrey and Matthew through an application from the Crunchbase Website for the API service. The data took about a month to come in due to a lack of response from Crunchbase itself. Eventually, they gave us basic access.

==Content==

The snapshot contained 2 .tar.qz files, which were extracted into 181/crunchbase using the command
tar -zxvf file.tar.gz

The csv files (organizations.csv and people.csv) were copied for access to:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Crunchbase Snapshot

The files (size in bytes) and their contents are

'''crunchbase_2013_snapshot_mysql.tar.gz'''
*license.txt 526
*cb_objects.sql 338955612
*cb_offices.sql 14850092
*cb_people.sql 13253952
*cb_ipos.sql 178397
*cb_milestones.sql 10498840
*cb_funds.sql 385010
*cb_relationships.sql 48655529
*cb_degrees.sql 13829471
*cb_investments.sql 6185134
*cb_acquisitions.sql 2309393
*cb_funding_rounds.sql 14681705

'''odm.csv.tar.gz'''
*organizations.csv 212013301
**459916 records with the following fields:
***crunchbase_uuid
***type
***primary_role
***name
***crunchbase_url
***homepage_domain
***homepage_url
***profile_image_url
***facebook_url
***twitter_url
***linkedin_url
***stock_symbol
***location_city
***location_region
***location_country_code
***short_description
*people.csv 188924229
**521634 records with the following fields:
***crunchbase_uuid
***type
***first_name
***last_name
***crunchbase_url
***profile_image_url
***facebook_url
***twitter_url
***linkedin_url
***location_city
***location_region
***location_country_code
***title
***organization
***organization_crunchbase_url
*crunchbase_license.txt 487

==Changing MYSQL to PostgreSQL==

The SQL files were generated in MySQL. We need to convert them to PostgreSQL. See: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Converting_MySQL_to_PostgreSQL and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1942586/comparison-of-database-column-types-in-mysql-postgresql-and-sqlite-cross-map

The key changes are:

MYSQL POSTGRESQL
----- ----------
LOCK --comment out as no need but LOCK [ TABLE ] [ ONLY ] name [ * ] [, ...] [ IN lockmode MODE ] [ NOWAIT ]
UNLOCK --comment out
decimal(x,y) real (might work as is)
datetime timestamp
KEY --comment out as no need but FOREIGN KEY ( column_name [, ... ] ) REFERENCES reftable [ ( refcolumn [, ... ] ) ]

[[category:internal]]

Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot

2017-04-04T20:21:28Z

Shrey:

==Original Email==

Thank you for submitting a request for Research Access to Crunchbase through our API. We have reviewed your request, and granted you Basic Access. You can now access Crunchbase data in the following ways.

Check out the Open Data Map
Explore the 2013 Snapshot
Visit our website for instructions on accessing Crunchbase data. To access the REST API, you'll need your user key:

6d382e4bbdaa297138f32a588b139f53

With Basic Access, API use is limited to the Open Data Map and 2013 Snapshot. Access to the full API and latest funding round data requires a license. To learn more check out our offerings.

==Retrieval==

The data was retrieved by Shrey and Matthew - STATE HOW AND FROM WHERE

==Content==

The snapshot contained 2 .tar.qz files, which were extracted into 181/crunchbase using the command
tar -zxvf file.tar.gz

The csv files (organizations.csv and people.csv) were copied for access to:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Crunchbase Snapshot

The files (size in bytes) and their contents are

'''crunchbase_2013_snapshot_mysql.tar.gz'''
*license.txt 526
*cb_objects.sql 338955612
*cb_offices.sql 14850092
*cb_people.sql 13253952
*cb_ipos.sql 178397
*cb_milestones.sql 10498840
*cb_funds.sql 385010
*cb_relationships.sql 48655529
*cb_degrees.sql 13829471
*cb_investments.sql 6185134
*cb_acquisitions.sql 2309393
*cb_funding_rounds.sql 14681705

'''odm.csv.tar.gz'''
*organizations.csv 212013301
**459916 records with the following fields:
***crunchbase_uuid
***type
***primary_role
***name
***crunchbase_url
***homepage_domain
***homepage_url
***profile_image_url
***facebook_url
***twitter_url
***linkedin_url
***stock_symbol
***location_city
***location_region
***location_country_code
***short_description
*people.csv 188924229
**521634 records with the following fields:
***crunchbase_uuid
***type
***first_name
***last_name
***crunchbase_url
***profile_image_url
***facebook_url
***twitter_url
***linkedin_url
***location_city
***location_region
***location_country_code
***title
***organization
***organization_crunchbase_url
*crunchbase_license.txt 487

==Changing MYSQL to PostgreSQL==

The SQL files were generated in MySQL. We need to convert them to PostgreSQL. See: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Converting_MySQL_to_PostgreSQL and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1942586/comparison-of-database-column-types-in-mysql-postgresql-and-sqlite-cross-map

The key changes are:

MYSQL POSTGRESQL
----- ----------
LOCK --comment out as no need but LOCK [ TABLE ] [ ONLY ] name [ * ] [, ...] [ IN lockmode MODE ] [ NOWAIT ]
UNLOCK --comment out
decimal(x,y) real (might work as is)
datetime timestamp
KEY --comment out as no need but FOREIGN KEY ( column_name [, ... ] ) REFERENCES reftable [ ( refcolumn [, ... ] ) ]

[[category:internal]]

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-03-23T19:41:33Z

Shrey:

09/27/2016 14:00 - 17:00:
*Set up personal and work log pages, accessed Remote Desktop.
*Compiled list of accelerators from Wiki
09/29/2016 14:00 - 16:15; 16:45 - 17:30:
*Created new project: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] and worked with Dr. Egan to create schematic for data entry.
*Evaluated 3 sources and logged data. Sources were taken from [[List of Accelerators]]. Logged each step onto project page and identified categories that would be suitable for web crawling sometime in the future.
10/11/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Explored how to use regular expressions in TextPad to aid with data sorting (need to review expressions with Dr. Egan in future)
*Continued evaluating sources from [[List of Accelerators]] and recorded steps onto project page, as before. Finished evaluating the six sources from initial list. (All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]])
10/13/2016 14:00 - 17:00;
*All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Talked to Dr. Egan about project going forward. Need to pick out 10-15 accelerators from the sources listed on my project page and identify a reliable method for obtaining cohort information, as well as other variables
*Used google searches to identify more sources, and evaluated three databases with the help of TextPad
*Began working on more generic google searches. Was able to go through "Location+accelerator"-type searches today. Will continue next time.
10/18/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Took a sample size of 10 accelerators and detailed how to extract cohort information, as well as what other information is readily available from accelerator URLs.
*Brought Matthew up to speed on accelerator project, added summaries to each section so they became easier to follow, and worked with him to finish up extracting cohort information
10/20/16 14:30 - 17:30:
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Finished up the list of instructions for finding the cohort. Continued compiling the list of variables for each of the accelerators within the sample size.
*Consulted Peter on prospects of creating a web crawler with the information we currently have compiled. Determined it was possible, although beyond the scope of Peter's knowledge.
10/25/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Consulted Ed with next step for project.
*Began listing the E-R diagram onto the accelerator database page where entities were potential categories and each entity had its associated attributes
10/27/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working with Matthew to identify elements in the E-R diagram for pulling information on accelerators.
*Found sources to obtain/cross-reference information (ie. Angel List)
11/08/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Identified possible keywords to filter results through for accelerators
*Began compiling a comprehensive list of accelerators based on the data we have already sifted through.
*Learned how to use regular expressions from Ben to sort names individually and alphabetically.
11/10/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Began sorting through accelerator list and removing duplicates, as well as identifying more places to pull names from.
*Worked with Peter to create a crawl for f6s because the website does not return only accelerators.
11/15/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Took a break from f6s to locate more lists based on individual google searches such as "city+accelerator+list"
*Put Seed DB information into an excel file on the remote desktop
11/17/16 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued filling out information for the random Google Searches
*Organized TextPad files on the RDP into coherent excel spreadsheets with proper headers on the table
*Noticed problem with f6s: it seems although all of the html coding was protected by a captcha so the crawler did not actually extract any information; it was all blocked.
11/22/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked to fix f6s crawler with Peter
*Finished and compiled master list of accelerators
12/01/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Caught up on project with Ed and Carlin
*Took 20 accelerators (241-260) from the list and filled out text.html files for them; finished the 20
12/05/16 13:00 - 16:00
*After finishing first 20 accelerators, continued working down the list, beginning at 321
*Work noted in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], but mostly stored on McNair RDP
12/06/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Continued "Accelerating" down the list in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], finished up until 340
12/08/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on accelerator list on the same page.
01/17/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up "accelerating" from [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], numbers 341-351
1/18/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished accelerating for sure, went back and began an overview of the work done for quality control.
01/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Mandatory meeting, then worked through 2 of Ed's unfinished accelerators
1/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to go over about 70 items in the accelerator list and ensure that they follow a uniform structure and show correct information
1/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Peter to fix the problem with results not coming through on the new spreadsheet by renaming the file and including more symbols in the searches. Spreadsheet should be up to date now.
*Got to number 144 on the list while going through files.
1/25/17 14:00 - 16;00
*Continued looking through the list and fixing wrong entries or reporting them
1/26/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Talked with Ed about project going forward and tried to access the Crunchbase API with Peter to crawl for start-up companies.
*Continued working through the accelerator list, stopped at number 186.
1/27/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through accelerator list and fixing any entries with error. Got to number 261.
1/30/17 14:30 - 16:30
*Got through about 425
1/31/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Got to number 502
2/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished looking through the initial list of accelerators and writing down which ones needed to be modified or completed (through 551)
2/03/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Finished about 30 entries for the accelerator entries that still needed to be completed. Worked out of the "NOT DONE" file in the server (which is now blank because everything is finished)
2/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Developed a standardized format for the text files with Matthew. Instructions are under "standardized format" in the accelerator seed list portion. I started at number 226 and standardized formats up until 370.
2/07/17 14:00-16:00
*Continued work from yesterday, completed up to number 488 from the list. Will likely need one more day to finish.
2/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished standardizing the txt files for use on the excel spreadsheet, compiled the data and examined the resultant tables. Realized we needed to fix some categories in the cohort files.
2/09/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ed on a side project trying to gather information on climate change thanks to Baker's article on the Wall Street Journal
*Gathered information on climate change in relation to high-growth, high-risk innovation and organizations that deal with things such as carbon credits
2/10/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Realized that blog post was ambitious because we could not really find a clear purpose from the information we gathered, nor could we find a unique angle. Held off on the idea
*Went back to organizing the new columns and headers on the text file by identifying areas of error in the excel spreadsheet
2/15/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Spoke with Ed about free enterprise while he lectured all of us. It took about an hour.
*Looked at plans for project going forward including using linkedin to search the founders
2/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found our first source for expanding the project into incubators, from angel.co. Seems similar to f6s in that we can crawl it and obtain a list of incubators and their various counterparts.
2/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found more sources for incubators by reading through quora discussions and masters theses. Bookmarked these pages so that I could put them into text files after.
2/23/17 14:00 - 18:00
*Converted incubator files to text-pad and saved them (4 total), then cleaned them up through regex
*Took the cohort text file, put it into excel, and proceeded to clean up all of the mistakes in the excel document, particularly bad data or mistakes with organizations. Got through Y-Combinator.
2/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up cleaning the cohort data for the names and the descriptions, but there still needs to be work done on the other stuff like dates and programs
2/28/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Created page [[Hub-Based Venture Firms]] and proceeded to research VC in Hubs listed on under E:\McNair\Projects\Hubs\summer 2016\Hubs Variables - Ariel.xls
*Looked at details such as whether they have in-house funds, whether they co-invest, focuses, and amounts invested.
3/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben and Matthew to pull data from SDC for all VC funded companies and normalized it to put it in an Excel document.
3/02/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Tried to repeat the VC data pull without it crashing from pulling too many entries. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish it
3/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to put final touches on the cohort data to prep it for matching with our VC data
3/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finally finished working on the cohort files, will match on the 8th
3/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Matched the VC Data with the list of Cohort Companies and got one list of all cohort companies that have received VC funding.
3/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Participated in a SQL training session with Ed, learned how to create a database and to pull tab delimited information from text files onto a table
3/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Met with Ed and arrived at the conclusion of finishing the draft for a report by the end of the semester. Put the initial report information on the accelerator page using the variables that we currently have
3/22/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to compile tables in our database of the matched VC-portfolio company lists and the overall accelerator cohort information. Found multiple errors in the cohort file which needed to be fixed before finishing the tables and analyzing the data
3/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
Finished cleaning the cohort file once again.
[[Category:Work Log]]

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-03-22T19:25:53Z

Shrey: /* End of Semester Report */

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu
|Has start date=Fall 2016
||Has keywords=Accelerators,Data
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in, as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

Accelerator Seed List (Data)

2017-03-21T20:48:16Z

Shrey:

{{McNair Projects
|Has title=Accelerator Seed List (Data)
|Has owner=Shrey Agarwal, Matthew Ringheanu
|Has start date=Fall 2016
|Has keywords=Accelerators
|Has project status=Active
|Is dependent on=Industry Classifier
}}

=End of Semester Report=
The end of semester report will focus on ranking accelerators and environments based on the variables we have gathered. Our primary form of categorization will be ranking individual accelerators based on their venture capital raise rate. We can probably generate information over time for accelerators and the amount of VC they raised to get a sense of what locations have developed in the past five years from the dates of transactions recorded by SDC. To obtain these rankings, we will identify which cohorts companies were trained in as well as complete details of the accelerator and the details of cohort companies. We will focus only on accelerators because there are many other entities in each ecosystem. We will also utilize information on IPO or acquisition by companies, obtained through Crunchbase, to gain some sense of how successful startups emerging from a particular accelerator are. To obtain the data over time, we will need to fill out the cohort date information column in our cohort data, which will require the help of either Crunchbase or the Wayback machine for older accelerators. In ranking the accelerators across regions, we can also track industry-specific hotspots for accelerators such as medicine in Memphis or technology in San Francisco.

To complete the report, we need to fill information in:
*Industry and focus
*Location
*Name, description
*Matched VC data
*Founder information (maybe)

=Overview=
This project is developing broad and near-population data on accelerators and their cohort companies. The objective is to identify which cohorts of which accelerators a cohort company was trained in, obtain details of the accelerators, and obtain details of the cohort companies, including information about any venture capital investment that the cohort company might have received and any IPO or acquisition the company may have experienced.

The primary use of this data is for an academic paper detailed on the [[Matching Entrepreneurs to Accelerators and VCs (Academic Paper)]] page.

However, this project can also provide useful data to other academic papers ([[Urban Start-up Agglomeration]], [[Hubs (Academic Paper)]], and [[Hubs Scorecard (Academic Paper)]]), projects ([[Houston Entrepreneurship]]) and blog posts (under the [[Emerging Ecosystems]] umbrella project).

This project needs the results of the [[Industry Classifier]], [[Whois Parser]], and other tools.

=Current Project Write-Up=

==Things To Do==
*Obtain all URLs for accelerators in order to run through the Wayback Machine to find out when they started.
*Match Crunchbase Data with our Accelerator List to see if they have any accelerators that we do not.
*Obtain an example of accelerator that started early and has multiple companies but does not separate them into cohorts and figure out a way to determine which companies went through each cohort.

==What Each File in the "Accelerator" Folder on the RDP Contains==
*"Accelerator List Sources" (Folder) - This folder contains most of the sources that we pulled accelerator names from at the very beginning of the project.
*"Code+Final_Data" (Folder) - This folder contains Peter's code for pulling the data from the text files in the "Data" folder.
*"Crunchbase Snapshot" (Folder) - This folder contains the data we obtained from Crunchbase. There is a massive amount of data which we will need to sort through to find useful information and hopefully match that data with our current cohort data.
*"Data" (Folder) - This folder contains all of our data on accelerators including cohort information and the html files of each cohort page. I would estimate that it is about 95% clean currently.
*"Data - Copy" (Folder) - This is just a copy of our current "Data" folder.
*"Data_Copy" (Folder) - This is a copy of our original "Data" folder before we did any manual cleaning.
*"Enclosing_Circle" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain some data on VC but I'm not sure how it pertains to the Accelerator project.
*"F6S Accelerator HTMLs" (Folder) - This folder contains the HTML pages of all the pages on the F6S website. We used it to add more potential accelerators to our list.
*"Google_SiteSearch" (Folder) - This folder contains Python code for Google searches.
*"Industry_Classifier" (Folder) - This folder seems to contain Python code but I'm not sure what for.
*"Matcher" (Folder) - This folder contains the Matcher.
*"Python WebCrawler" (Folder) - This folder contains code that is a work in progress for pulling descriptions from accelerator websites. It is Jeemin's project.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data Copy" (Excel File) - This file contains a copy of our cleaned cohort data.
*"Cleaned Cohort Data" (Excel File) - This file contains the most current, completely cleaned data on cohort company information.
*"NormalizeFixedWidth" (PL File) - This is the normalizer.
*"PortCoNames" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of the cohort companies as well as the accelerator they went through.
*"VC Data" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the names of the companies that have ever received VC funding.
*"VC_Data" (TXT File) - This file contains that non-normalized data of all of the VC information.
*"VC_Data_Names" (TXT File) - This file contains all of the names of companies that have received VC funding.
*"VC_Data_Names_Matched_PortCoNames" (Excel File) - This file contains all of the cohort companies that have also received VC funding. Still needs to be sorted through.

==Process==
After accumulating the massive amount of data on accelerators, their cohorts, and their html files, we began cleaning those text files, which are located in the "Data" folder within "Accelerators". After going through the first round of cleaning, we ran a code through the cohort data which put all of that information into an Excel document called "Cleaned Cohort Data". There were still some mistakes in the cohort information unfortunately, which we fixed within the Excel file itself. Therefore, there are some text files within the "Data" folder that do not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file. If we were to run the cohort code through the "Data" folder, we would get something that does not match with the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file, which is problematic. The solution to this (other than manually cleaning the text files again) would be to write a code from the "Cleaned Cohort Data" file which would allow us to clean the data in the "Data" folder through the format of the Excel file. We have also matched all of the cohort companies with our list of all companies that have received VC funding.

=Current To Do=

#Work on the [[Crunchbase 2013 Snapshot]]
#Match cohort companies to VC backed portfolio companies
#Refine our data to work out which cohort each cohort company was a member of, cohort start dates and locations, etc.
#Make a list of top accelerator lists (e.g., http://tech.co/top-startup-accelerators-ranked-2012-08) and check that we have those accelerators

=End of Semester Notes=

*We have compiled a very long list of accelerators from many different databases. For the past couple of weeks, everyone in the center has been going through this list, 20 at a time, classifying each one as an accelerator or not an accelerator, and then proceeding to gather data on the accelerator using the process outlined below. This process went very smoothly. We have successfully gone through about 80% of the list. We are still missing information on the last hundred or so names. All of the collected data is located on the RDP, within the "Accelerators" folder under "Data".

=Data Collection Notes=

==3 files==

For each accelerator in the list, put files in E:\Projects\Accelerators\Data
*AcceleratorName.txt - copy and paste the variables below into a (tab-delimited) txt file and complete
*AcceleratorName.cohort - your cohort text file (see below)
*AcceleratorName.html (possibly automatically with a folder too) - save a copy of the html of the cohort page

==.txt Variables==

Name
Score
Flag
CohortURL
Address
Duration
Vintage
Industry
Description
Equity
NonProfit
Notes

Try to get '''Name, Score, Flag, Cohort URL and Address''' for all. ONLY GRAB OTHER VARIABLES IF EASY. Just leave things blank if you can't find them quickly.

'''If the score is 0, or the flag is S, I, A, or F just stop''' - don't bother downloading a cohort list, saving an HTML file, etc. If possible, do stick a very brief description of the problem in the notes field.

Notes:
*Score: is 0-1 where 0 is definitely not an accelerator, 1 is definitely an accelerator
*Flag: (leave blank if not needed), if multiple then separate by comma
**S for social entrep
**I for incubator
**A for an angel group
**F is for foreign
**C for in coworking space/hub/etc
**V for if part of venture fund
**D is for Dead
*Put just the root URL in Cohort URL if there isn't a Cohort page
*Duration: in wks (months x 4.33 and round)
*Vintage is year of first cohort if possible
*Industry is industry focus but only if clear focus
*Equity is a number (don't put %) or Y/N
*Notes is only there if need it. Particularly try to use this field to note discards.

==.cohort files==

Your .cohort files must:
*Be tab delimited txt
*Have a header
*The first column must be the portfolio company name
*Grab as many columns as you can easily (and name them)

==Standardized format for text files==

Information Text file
*1 tab only after each category
*No spaces after commas for flags or industry
*For duration put only a number in weeks but do not write "weeks"
*Equity is either only a number (no percent sign) or a Y/N

Cohort Text file
*1 tab between each column
*Titles of each column on top
*Make a new category for "Cohort Number" and write either "1 2 3 4 etc."
*Matthew: 1-225 (done) Shrey: 226-550 (done)

==Link to Crunchbase API application==

https://about.crunchbase.com/forms/research-access-apply/

==Sign-Ups==

Ed - 1-10 (done)
Carlin - 11-20 (done)
Carlin - 21-40 (done)
Christy - 41-60 (done)
Avesh - 61-80 (done)
Eliza - 81-100 (done)
Meghana - 101-120 (done)
Peter - 121-140 (done)
Ramee - 141-160 (done)
Will - 161-180 (done)
Matthew - 181-200 (done)
Julia - 201-220 (done)
Peter - 221-240 (done)
Shrey - 241-260 (done)
Matthew - 261-280 (done)
Eliza - 281-300 (done)
Julia - 301-320 (done)
Shrey - 321-340 (done)
Carlin - 341-361 (done)
Julia - 362-380 (done)
Dylan - 381-393 (done)
Jake - 394-404 (done)
Dylan - 405-410 (done)
Avesh - 411-415 (done)
Dylan - 416-423 (done)
Peter - 424-460(done)
Carlin - 461-480 (done)
Peter - 481-490(done)
Julia - 491-510 (done)
Peter - 511-515 (done)
Julia - 516-529 (done)
Ben - 530-540 (done)
Shrey - 541-551 (done)

=List of Accelerators=
#10Xelerator
#1440
#33entrepreneurs
#500 Startups
#9Mile Labs
#AIA Accelerator
#ARK Challenge
#AT&T Aspire Accelerator
#ATDC Community
#AZ TechCelerator
#AccelFoods
#Acceleprise
#Accelerate Baltimore
#Accelerate Genius
#Accelerate Tectoria Accelerator
#Accelerator Centre
#Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC)
#Airbus BizLab
#Alchemist Accelerator
#AlphaLab
#Amplify.LA
#Angel Capital
#Angelcube
#Angelpad
#Annual Business BootCamp
#Arizona Center for Innovation
#Arizona Furnace
#Arrowhead Tech Incubator 2016
#Aspire 3 Accelerator 2017
#Atlanta Ventures Accelerator
#AutoXLR8R
#Awesome Inc.
#Axel Springer Plug and Play
#B 4 Change Impact Accelerator
#B2B Acceleration Program
#B4C Social Venture Accelerator
#BBC Worldwide Labs
#BMW Startup Garage
#Brandcelerate
#Bunker Labs
#Bank of Ireland Accelerator Programme
#Bantunium Labs Accelerator
#Barclays Accelerator
#Barclays New York Summer 2015
#Berkley Ventures
#Bessemer Business Incubation System
#Beta-i
#Beta.MN
#BetaFactory
#BetaSpring
#Betablox
#Betaspring RevUp (DUPLICATE)
#Bethnal Green Ventures
#BioAccel
#BioInspire
#Bir 2015
#BitAngel Engagement Level
#BitAngels Startup Summer Program of 2013
#Bizdom
#Black Forest Accelerator
#Blue Startups
#Blueprint Health
#Bolt Boston
#Bonnier Accelerator
#BoomStartup
#BoomStartup Winter 2017 (DUPLICATE)
#Boomtown Accelerator
#Boomtown Health Tech (DUPLICATE)
#Boost VC
#BootupLabs
#Brandery
#Brooklyn Beta Summer Camp
#Budweiser Dream Brewery
#Buildit
#BuiltinPGH Companies
#Business Innovation Center
#Business Opportunity Academy 2017
#Business Technology Development Center (BizTech)
#CLT Joules Energy Accelerator 2014
#CWI Ventures
#CWI Ventures Application (DUPLICATE)
#CableLabs Technology Tours 2016
#Capital Factory
#Capital Innovators
#Capital Investment Network (Startups)
#Caroline Plouff
#Catalyst Partners
#Cause Collective : Social Innovation Lab
#Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation
#Chain Reaction Innovations 2017
#Chemical Angel Network
#Chinaccelerator
#Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence
#Citi Accelerator
#Citrix Startup Accelerator
#Claremont/Upland Makerspace Fablab
#Climate Ventures 2.0 Accelerator
#Co.Lab accelerator
#Code for America Accelerator
#Cohab's Traxtion Point
#Collision Conference Investors
#Common Bond
#Communitech Hyperdrive
#Conquer Accelerator
#Coolhouse Labs
#CuriousMinds Incubator / Accelerator
#CyberTECH San Diego
#DBS Accelerator
#DPD Last Mile labs
#DV X Labs
#Dat Ventures
#Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center
#Deep Space Ventures
#Demo Accelerator 2016- 2017
#DeveloperTown
#Difference Engine
#Digital Malaysia Corporate Accelerator Program
#Digital Media Zone Incubator/Accelerator
#Disney Accelerator
#DogFish Accelerator
#Domi Station
#Dotforge accelerator
#Dream Funded
#DreamIT Health
#DreamStart - Free Mentoring Program
#Dreamit Ventures (DUPLICATE)
#Ducky Diggy Lloyd
#E-Capital Summit
#EC Mentor Skills Inventory
#EIGERlab
#ETRAC
#EY Startup Challenge
#Eco Holding
#Eleven Startup Accelerator
#Emerge Xcelerate
#EnterpriseWorks Incubation Program
#Entrepreneur Development Center
#Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
#Environmental Business Cluster
#Equity Legal
#Excelerate Labs
#Execution Labs
#Exhilarator
#Extreme Startups
#Extreme University
#FOOD-X
#Factory45
#Fargo Startup House 2014-2015
#FastTrack Propero Healthcare
#FbFund
#Female Propeller for High Flyers
#FinTech Innovation Lab
#FinTech Studios 2015
#Fintech Founders Club #2
#First Growth Venture Network
#Fishbowl Labs AOL
#Flagship Enterprise Center
#FlashStarts
#Flashpoint
#Flat6 Labs
#Fledge9
#Flextronics Lab IX
#Food Future Scale-up Accelerator 2017
#Food System 6 (FS6) Accelerator
#FoodForwardX
#Fortify Ventures
#Founder Institute
#FounderFuel
#FoundersPad
#Fownders Accelerator
#French Accelerator 2016
#Fund the Food
#Fuse Corps Host
#GAKKEN Accelerator Program
#Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center
#Game CoLab Incubator Program 2014
#GameFounders
#GammaRebels
#Gazelle Lab
#Gener8tor
#German Accelerator Life Sciences
#German Accelerator Tech
#Global Accelerator Network 2015
#Good Works Houston Lab
#GoodCompany Ventures
#Google Launchpad Accelerator
#Grants4Apps Accelerator
#GreenStart
#Greenlite Labs
#GrowLab
#Growth Hacking Accelerator 2015
#Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
#H-Farm Ventures
#HACKT Mission for International Founders
#HAXLR8R
#HCC Entrepreneurship Launchpad
#HIGHLINE Academy
#HUB
#HUBB Accelerator
#HUBB GTLA 2016
#HackFWD
#Hatch
#Health Wildcatters
#Health accelerator
#Healthbox
#Hero City Co-Working Space
#High Street Startups Accelerator
#Highway1
#Honda Xcelerator
#Houston Technology Center
#Hub Ventures
#HugeThing
#I/O ventures
#ICONYC labs
#IDC Elevator
#INcubes Funnel and Accelerator 2014/2015
#INcubes Online Form
#INcubes Startup Visa
#Illumina Accelerator
#Illuminator, New York Accelerator 2015
#Imagine K12
#Immokalee Business Development Center
#Impact Engine
#Impact USA - 2017
#Incubate Miami
#Infuse Accelerator
#Ingenuity Partner Program
#InnoSpring
#Innov&Connect
#Innov8 for Health
#Innova Memphis
#InnovateOC
#Innovation Depot
#Innovation Pavilion
#Innovation Showcase Winter 2017
#Insight Accelerator Labs
#Intel Education Accelerator
#Investment Preparedness Lab
#Invoke Collective
#Iowa Startup Accelerator
#JFDI.Asia
#JFE Accelerator SF
#JLAB
#Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator
#Jolt
#JumpSchool
#JumpStart Foundry
#Jumpstart! Boulder
#JusticeXL
#Kairos Boston Spring Program
#Kaplan EdTech
#Kick
#Kick Boise
#Kick LA
#Kick Victoria
#Kicklabs
#Kinetiq Labs
#L-SPARK Accelerator
#LAUNCH incubator
#LAUNCHub
#LI TechCOMETS
#LabFunding Project Accelerator 2014
#Labs Venture Accelerator
#Launch Chapel Hill
#Launch Memphis
#LaunchBox Digital
#LaunchHouse
#LaunchPad PEI
#LaunchSpot
#Launch_Academy
#Launchpad Digital Health, LLC
#Launchpad LA
#Launchpad Long Island
#Le Camping
#Leading Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program
#Lean Launch Ventures
#LearnLaunchX
#Lemnos Labs
#Life Changing Labs
#LiftOff Health Incubator
#Lightbank Start
#LightningLab
#Lowe's Accelerator
#MACH37
#MACH37 Spring
#MIT SA+P venture accelerator
#MITA Institute Accelerator
#MTGx MediaFactory
#Mac6
#Madworks Governance Accelerator
#Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development - Top Gun Program
#Matter
#Maven Ventures Fund & Incubator
#Media Camp
#Melbourne Accelerator Program
#Memphis BioWorks
#Merck Accelerator
#MergeLane 2017 Accelerator
#Mergelane
#Metavallon
#Microsoft Accelerator
#MindTheBridge
#Momentum
#MuckerLab
#Muru-D
#My5ive Accelerator 2016
#N-Motion (DUPLICATE)
#NDRC (LaunchPad / VentureLab)
#NEXT Dashboard
#NMotion
#NY Digital Health Accelerator
#NY Fashion Tech Lab 2017
#NYC ACRE
#NYC SeedStart
#Nashville Entrepreneur Center
#Nebula Shift
#Nephoscale IaaS
#Nest New York
#New Ventures Group
#New York Digital Health Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#NewME Accelerator PopUps
#NewMe
#Next media accelerator
#NextHIT
#NextStart
#Nike+ Accelerator
#Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET)
#Northern England
#Nxtp.labs
#OCTANe
#Oasis 500
#OpenFund
#Orange Fab
#Orange Works
#Orion Startups
#Oxygen Accelerator
#PIE
#Patriot Boot Camp
#Pearson Catalyst for Education
#Pipeline H2O
#Pitney Bowes Inc
#Plarium Labs
#Plug In South LA
#Plug and Play
#Plum Alley Investments 2016
#Points of Light Accelerator
#PowerHaus
#Preccelerator® Program 2016
#ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
#Project Entrepreneur 2016/17
#Project Healtchare
#Project Lift
#Project Music
#Project Skyway
#Propeller Venture Accelerator
#Prosper Capital Accelerator
#Proton Enterprises
#Pushstart Accelerator
#Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator
#Queen Creek Business Incubator
#R/GA Accelerator
#RAIN Incubator/Accelerator
#RJI Investment Group
#Reach
#RetailXelerator
#Rock Health
#Rocket Fuel Labs
#Rockstart Accelerator
#RunUp Labs
#Runway IoT Accelerator 2015
#SAP Startup Focus Program
#SKTA Innopartners Innovation Accelerator
#SPACELAB Tech Accelerator
#SPARK
#SPH Plug and Play
#SURF Incubator
#SaltMines Group Start-Up Studio
#ScaleTown
#Seamless IoT 2016
#Searchcamp
#Seed Hatchery
#SeedSpot
#SeedStartup
#SeedSumo
#Seedcamp
#Seedrocket
#Seeqnce
#Sequoia Apps
#Serval Ventures
#Shenzhen Valley Ventures Incubator
#Shoals Entrepreneurial Center
#Shopper Futures Accelerator
#Shotput Ventures
#Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute
#SigmaLabs Accelerator
#Silicon Valley Incubator & Accelerator
#SixThirty
#Sixers Innovation Lab
#Skywalker Accelerator
#SmartHealth Activator
#Smashd Labs
#SoCo Nexus Accelerator Spring 2017
#Social Enterprise Challenge
#Socratic Labs
#SparkLabs
#Sparkgap
#Sports Tank
#Springboard
#Sprint Accelerator
#Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator
#SproutBox
#SproutCamp
#Starburst Aerospace Accelerator
#Start Path Europe
#Start'inPost
#StartEngine
#StartFast Venture Accelerator
#Starta Accelerator Winter 2017
#Startl
#Startmate
#Startup Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#Startup Front
#Startup Next & GAN
#Startup Orange County Accelerator
#Startup Runway
#Startup Wise Guys
#Startup Zone PEI
#Startup52X Accelerator
#StartupCity
#StartupHighway
#StartupHouse Foundry program
#StartupMinds Accelerator
#StartupYard
#Startupbootcamp
#Straight Shot
#Summer@Highland
#Surge
#SynBio axlr8r
#TEB Incubation & Acceleration Center
#THRIVE Accelerator III
#THRIVE Open Innovation (DUPLICATE)
#TIM#WCAP Accelerator
#TLabs
#TMCx Accelerator Digital Health 2017
#Tallwave
#Tampa Bay Innovation Center
#Tampa Bay Wave
#Tandem Mobile Accelerator
#Tech Nexus
#Tech Wildcatters
#Tech2020
#TechLaunch
#TechRanch
#TechSquareLabs
#Techstars
#Techstars Music
#Telenet Idealabs
#Telluride Venture Accelerator
#TenX
#The Alchemist Accelerator (DUPLICATE)
#The Ark
#The Bakery
#The Batchery
#The Brandery
#The Bridge
#The Center For Technology Enterprise & Development
#The Chaser
#The Company Lab (CO.LAB)
#The Draper FinTech Connection
#The Factory
#The Greatest Pitch
#The Harbor Accelerator
#The Incubator
#The Iron Yard
#The Mediapreneur Incubator
#The Morpheus
#The New York Venture Summit
#The Next Step: from idea to startup
#The Refinery
#The Unilever Foundry
#The Venture Center's Pre-Accelerator I
#The Vine OC
#The Vogt Awards
#The Yield Lab
#The eFactory Accelerator
#Think Big Partners Accelerator
#TiE Angels
#Tigerlabs Digital Health Accelerator
#Tolstoy Summer Camp
#TopSeedsLab
#Travel Startups Incubator
#Travelport Labs Accelerator
#Travelport Labs Incubator
#Triangle Startup Factory
#Tumml
#Tune Labs
#Twin Cities Accelerator 2016
#UW-Whitewater Launch Pad Accelerator
#Unbank.ventures FinTech Incubator
#University Technology Park
#Unreasonable Institute
#UpTech
#Upstart Accelerator
#Upstart Labs
#Upstart Memphis
#Uptima Business Bootcamp
#Upwest Labs
#VANTEC
#VC FinTech Accelerator
#Velocity Indiana Accelerator
#Venture Catalyst Partners
#Venture Hive
#Venture I
#VentureOut's Enterprise Tech Expedition
#Venturegeeks
#Vet-Tech Accelerator
#VictorySpark
#Village88 Techlab
#Volkswagen ERL Technology Accelerator
#WHLabs
#Wasabi Ventures Academy
#Wayra
#Wellness Accelerator
#Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator
#Wireless IoT
#Women Innovate Mobile
#XLerateHealth
#XTRATOS
#Xlerate Health
#Y Combinator
#Y&R SparkPlug 2017
#YEurope
#YLE Media Startup Accelerator Program
#Yahoo Ad Tech Program
#Yangler (online accelerator)
#Year of the Startup
#Yetizen Accelerator
#You Is Now
#Z80 Labs
#ZIP Launchpad Admission
#ZeroTo510
#Zone Startups Calgary
#designX 2017
#eMerging Ventures
#ezone
#iStart Jax (DUPLICATE)
#iStart Valley
#iVentures10
#ignite100
#innovyz start
#tekMountain Accelerator

=Project Summary=
This project will be used to determine which accelerators are the most effective at churning out successful startups, as well as what characteristics are exhibited by these accelerators. First, we need to gather as much data as we can about as many accelerators as we can in order to look at factors that differentiate successful vs. unsuccessful ventures. Next, we need to create a web crawling program which will gather information about accelerators across the world by accessing their websites and extracting information. I believe that our overall goal with this research project is to gain insight into the methods of successful accelerators, as well as to find out what exactly differentiates very successful accelerators from dead accelerators.

Helpful Links: http://seedrankings.com/

=Sources=

Summary: These are sources obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and other Google searches. We will evaluate these sources by looking at the number of accelerators they supply (as most of them are lists) and then also taking a look at the type of information they provide about each accelerator. Key data points are cohort-related data, startup-related data, and logistics of the accelerator. Better sources supply more information that the URL alone.

(Obtained from [[List of Accelerators]] and various Google searches)
*http://seedrankings.com/
*http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html
*http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
*http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/?utm_content=35401577&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
*https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/
*http://www.builtinnyc.com/2016/06/03/accelerators-incubators-nyc
*http://www.represent.la/
*http://www.launch.co/blog/complete-list-of-incubators-and-accelerators-like-y-combinat.html
*https://angel.co/accelerator-4

(Obtained from Google search: "Accelerator Database")
*seed-db is the first result that pops up
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/
*https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json
*By the 5th or 6th search result, the utility diminished greatly
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/17/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2015-powering-a-tech-boom/#2f52fa7e34e4
*http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/the-15-best-startup-accelerators-in-the-us.html
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/03/11/the-best-startup-accelerators-of-2016/#74086a7724f2
*https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/these-are-the-top-20-us-accelerators/
*https://www.nexpcb.com/blogs/news/the-hardware-incubators-accelerators-list

Other ways used to find Accelerators (listed below "List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches"):
*Type in generic location + "accelerators" (e.g. Houston Accelerators)
:*Looked at roughly the first 20 results
:*Used three locations as examples of accelerators that pop up
*Type in a specific state + "accelerator" + "list" (e.g. Texas accelerator list) to search for more relevant lists
:*Once again, looked at roughly the first 20 results

=Source Evaluations=

Summary: These evaluations couple with each of the sources above. The evaluations provide instructions for obtaining the information listed, as well as a general review of how useful the data seems. The review serves to determine whether a crawler would be suitable for obtaining information from the source autonomously.

==Source: http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html==
#Opened source website
#Copied Information under "All Accelerator Programs" to TextPad, already sorted. Returned 190 results
#Each link on parent list leads to individual '''home page url''' of accelerator
:*Used sample size of 20 links, determined 16 to be accelerators, 2 to be incubators, 2 to be inactive or broken links
:*Many accelerators do not include founding date, most recent accelerators from around 2013-2014 (as determined from home page)
===Review===
*Reliable source for specific URLs to older accelerators, not very helpful for more specific information.
*Web crawling seems improbable because information is not readily available from source. Can potentially mine staff information or contact information from associated "about" page in the home url

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all==
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 235 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes:
::# "state"
::# "company name"
::# "website and CrunchBase links"
::# "cohort date"
::#"exit value"
::#"funding".
:::Many entries for "exit value" are missing, some values for "funding" are missing
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators out of 235 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the following:
::#Status
::#Program (name)
::#Location
::#Country
::#Number of companies
::#Cumulative exit values
::#Cumulative funding
::#Average funding for startups
::#Median funding for startups
:::Many entries for "median funding" are left empty, as well as entries for all types of funding on the bottom half of the table
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, but after cross-referencing from other sources shows that seed-db is lacking many newer accelerators; list is not all-inclusive.
*Includes regional distributions for accelerator groups as well. For example, rather than just "Techstars", the group is broken into Austin, Berlin, Boston, Boulder, etc.

==Source: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators==
:Very similar to "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all", but contains large regional accelerators as groups, rather than individual accelerators. For example, Techstars appears only once.
#Copied "Seed Accelerators" table to TextPad, data sorted itself into lines. Returned 239 results.
#Clicking on the accelerator name itself links to a page with all of its associated startups, up until 6/2016 cohort
::*Startup table includes same information as previous source, "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all". However, accelerators spanning across multiple regions have their startups located under one category on this webpage.
:On original seed-db webpage, each accelerator has a link to its associated home page url
::*From the table, each listed entry was an accelerator, although 24 accelerators/groups out of 239 were classified as "dead"
::*Along with the home url, each accelerator table includes the same information as the "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" source
===Review===
*Reliable source for accelerators, includes list of accelerators both dead and active, as well as their associated start-ups
*Web crawling potential is promising; startup table is located within the source for each webpage. Can also mine any category from the accelerator table
*Overall very extensive data for accelerators that are included on the list, includes large groups as well as individual accelerators. It seems that some accelerators missing from "http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all" are located here, since there are 239 returns rather than 235.

==Source: https://www.f6s.com/programs?type==
#On the webpage, set "Type" to "Accelerator/Program", set "Location" to "North America", and set "Invest in Country" to "United States" to return results
#Highlighted results and scrolled down until all results found; copied results to TextPad
#In TextPad, sorted out lines with "by", as well as miscellaneous categories such as dates and dollar signs through Regular Expressions
#Using the "More Info" line which held constant through the entire list, assigned a sequential number to the line (in order to determine the number of results)
::*Obtained a grand total of 1467 results from the list
::*Along with the name of the program/accelerator, the data included:
::#Dollar value per team
::#Equity
::#Application Site
::#Accelerator URL
::*Many entries are not accelerators, from a quick glance through the results, there were various conferences, 3-5 days events, and written literature pertaining to accelerators as well
::*From a sample size of the first 30 entries, determined 10 to be valid accelerators, 3 incubators, 6 conferences/weekends, and the rest to be miscellaneous entries such as startup events or "studios" (perhaps useful but not relevant to search)
::*As we go down the list, the number of accelerators proportionately decreases. Can comfortably say that overall accelerator turnout from this website is much less than 33%, probably closer to 10-15%.
===Review===
*Potentially useful website if crawler could remove the clutter and target solely the accelerators; very useful for identifying new accelerators since data automatically sorted by date and location.
*Large list of sources includes many irrelevant results, such as conferences or weekends which are difficult to identify. The name of the sorting category itself, "Accelerator/Program" suggests that many of the results fall under the "Program" section rather than being valid accelerators.
*Potential site for identifying accelerators, but limited by in-site sorting; useful for URL and perhaps equity, but not very detailed information relating to the accelerator/program.

==Source: http://gust.com/usa-canada-accelerator-report-2015/==
#Selected region of US and Canada
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Top 20 Active Accelerators" and selected "see the full list" near the bottom of the listed accelerators
#Copied resulting entries into TextPad and sorted out the numbers to leave only the name of the accelerator
::*Obtained 100 results for different accelerators
::*Accelerator lists included:
::#Name and URL
::#Number of Start-ups funded (2015 only)
::*Accelerator list limited to 2015
===Review===
*Website provides its own evaluation of an accelerator's success based on various factors and provides data for larger trends.
*Usefulness is questionable because website does not provide much except the URL, and all of the entries are based on success in 2015.
*Other interesting data within website such as "Hot Markets", investment breakdowns by state, etc. All of this data is also limited to 2015.

==Source: https://bostonstartupsguide.com/guide/every-boston-startup-accelerator-incubator/==
#Scrolled down to the section labeled "Startup accelerators in Boston"
#Copied text beginning from "MassChallenge" (the first paragraph was just a general definition of startups) and continued to copy until "Startup Incubators in Boston"
#After pasting in TextPad, I sorted the data to delete any characters after the "-" and added a sequential number at the beginning of each line
::*Returned a total of 17 results for startups in Boston
::*Accelerator list included:
::#Name and URL
::#Capital requirements
::#Application periods and requirements
::#Paragraph describing accelerator and its goals
===Review===
*Although the guide is dated, useful for identifying strong accelerator programs in Boston
*Limitation: only focuses on Boston, but the description is helpful in identifying the role of the accelerator
*Limited information on accelerator, not very useful by itself without information from the accelerator URL

==Source: https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/==
#Copied and pasted table into Microsoft Excel (Data was already sorted into categories so no need for TextPad)
#Table returned 72 references (but there was a link to the bottom to a larger database)
::*The table itself includes:
::#Major Company
::#Accelerator
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Website
::#Details
::*The "Details" link led to a variety of other information including:
::#Status (Active or Inactive)
::#Locations
::#Funding
::#Equity
::#Term
::#Cohort Based? (Regular or Irregular)
::#Pitch Day
::#Office Space
::#Powered by
::#Support Offered?
::#Launch year
::#Focus Areas
::#General Description
::*Also Included a variety of data regarding the host company as well
===Review===
*Solid list for corporate accelerators and also includes a variety of information about the accelerator, the cohorts, etc. Some of the entries are international accelerators however so need to filter them out
*Only limited to 72 accelerators from major companies

==Source: https://github.com/florianheinemann/www-corporate-accelerators-net/blob/master/_data/Accelerators.json==
#This source is a .json file from the previous database
#After placing into TextPad, replaced each space with a ###, replaced each new line with a tab, and replaced each ### with a new line. Ultimately returned 80 results
::*From the file, the .json includes:
::#NAICS and NAICS sector
::#Classification
::#Sector Description
::#Term
::#Goal
::#Partner
::*Also includes most of the information from the previous source, since they are undoubtedly linked
===Review===
*Another solid list for corporate accelerators with some more information, but ultimately very similar to the previous source.

==Source: https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-a-comprehensive-list-of-startup-incubators-and-accelerators-in-the-US==
#Since we already looked at the first listed source (seed-db), I clicked on the second link "(by Robert Shedd) http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/" which took me to a page headed "Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of startup accelerator programs" created by a blogger, Robert Shedd
#List included 102 entries by the blogger, each of which do look like an accelerator
::*Upon immediate overview, noticed many results from previous sources were missing. Immediately noticed lack of "OwlSpark", the accelerator from Rice.
::*Shedd only offers us the accelerator name plus its URL
===Review===
*Nice list to cross-reference with other sources but does not offer much new insight compared to more powerful engines such as seed-db\

=List of Sources Obtained from Various Google Searches=

Summary: These accelerators are taken from a specific Google search rather than a list. The idea is to compile a list of Google searches that return relevant results of accelerators. This will aid in the creation of a future web crawler.

==From "Location + Accelerator"(Only individual results, not lists)==
===Houston Accelerators===
*Examples of single accelerators found
:#TMCx: http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/innovation-programs/tmcx/
:#RED labs: http://redlabs.uh.edu/8
:#SURGE accelerator: https://kirkcoburn.com/
:#OwlSpark: http://owlspark.com/
:#NextHIT: http://www.houstonhealthventures.com/nexthit-accelerator-program-application/
===Los Angeles Accelerators===
:#Amplify: http://amplify.la/
:#Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
:#Chicklabs: https://www.chicklabsllc.com/
:#Disney Accelerator: https://disneyaccelerator.com/
:#Launchpad: https://launchpad.la/
===New York Accelerators===
:#DreamIT Ventures: http://www.dreamit.com/#meaningful-experience
:#Women Innovate Mobile: http://www.wim.co/
:#Techstars NYC: http://www.techstars.com/programs/nyc-program/
:#Entrepreneurs Roundtable: http://eranyc.com/
:#FirstGrowthVC: http://venturecrush.com/fg/
:#New York Digital Health Accelerator: http://digitalhealthaccelerator.com/
:#Grand Central Tech: http://www.grandcentraltech.com/
:#Accelerator Corp: http://www.acceleratorcorp.com/
:#New York Startup Lab: http://nystartuplab.com/
===Review===
*Some locations return more viable results for a similar sample size. For example, New York returned 9 valid accelerators, whereas Los Angeles and Houston both returned 5 actual accelerators out of the first 20 results: an 80% difference. Some optimization may come from identifying which locations return more accelerators upon searching.

==From "State+Accelerator+List"==
===New York Accelerator List===
*http://www.ongridventures.com/resources/new-york-silicon-alley-resources/newyorkaccelerators/ (Ranks 14 accelerators)
*http://under30ceo.com/11-new-york-tech-incubators-and-accelerators-for-entrepreneurs/ (Ranks 11 accelerators)
===California Accelerator List===
*http://www.socaltech.com/the_complete_guide_to_southern_california_accelerators_and_incubators_part_i/s-0040924.html (Lists accelerators in Southern Cali)
*http://barberacorporatelaw.com/blog/2014/4/8/28-business-incubators-in-the-los-angeles-area (List of 24 accelerators near the LA area)
===Texas Accelerator List===
*http://www.austinstartuplist.com/incubators (List of accelerators in Austin, <5 results)
*http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2016/09/02/the-top-texas-healthcare-accelerators-and-incubators/ (Modest list of accelerators aiding in healthcare)
*http://realfoodmba.com/food-startup-accelerators/ (List of food-based accelerators, some of which are in Austin, others of which are international)
===Colorado Accelerator List===
*http://www.builtincolorado.com/2015/01/14/best-colorado-accelerators-your-startup (8 results)
*https://www.quora.com/What-accelerator-programs-are-located-in-Colorado (Quora inquiry yielding modest results)
===Washington Accelerator List===
*http://www.geekwire.com/2015/mapping-seattles-incubators-accelerators-and-co-working-spaces/ (Returns 14 results)
===Oregon Accelerator List===
*http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/subscriber-only/2016/01/15/incubators-and-accelerators.html (Returns list of 5 accelerators and details)
*http://www.oregon4biz.com/Innovate-&-Create/R&D-Business/Incubators/ (Returns list of 26 accelerators and incubators)

Notes:
*Seed-DB appears for almost all of the search results
*Acceleratorinfo appears for most of the search results
*There are multiple cumulative reports of incubators per location, but not for accelerators
*Most regionalized accelerator lists deal with either an article or a ranking of a particular amount of accelerators in the area
*Many results returned nationally ranked lists of accelerators, such as the Forbes list of "Top Accelerators" or something along the lines of "Best Accelerators in the US". The connection is that perhaps one accelerator mentioned on the list may be located within the searched state.
*There are also a few results for actual particle accelerators that must be sorted out (i.e. superconducting super collider)

==Found through google searching accelerators found previously==
'''Found from googling YLE Media Startup Accelerator'''
*https://www.corporate-accelerators.net/database/index.html (DB of Corporate Accelerators 71-79 entries)
*http://startupaccelerator.vc/accelerator-corporate-innovation-sig/ (Database of Accelerators and Corporate Innovation 92 entries)
neither of these have had their entries added to list of accelerators

=Individual Accelerator Evaluations=
Summary: The purpose of this section is to create instructions for each accelerator on how to find cohort information from their URLs. Along with specific instructions for obtaining the cohorts for each accelerator chosen, there should be a list of easy-to-obtain and relevant statistics regarding the accelerator, such as information about its team, location, etc. The variable statistics list is cumulative, whereas the cohort directions are unique per the accelerator.

==Accelerators Chosen (Format = Name (source))==
#Blue Startups (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Launchpad LA (http://www.acceleratorinfo.com/see-all.html)
#Y Combinator (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#FlashPoint (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators/all)
#Prosper Accelerator (https://www.f6s.com/programs?type)
#Axel Springer Plug and Play (http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)
#Techstars (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Startmate (http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators)
#Capital Factory (http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/)
#OwlSpark (Google search: "Houston + accelerators")

==Accelerator: Blue Startups (http://bluestartups.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Track Record" page under the "Home" tab; found total number of graduated cohorts to be 7
#Navigated to "Portfolio" tab. Tab includes list of all seven graduated cohorts along with companies emerging from each one. Each cohort is listed under a separate page (ex. "Cohort 1", "Cohort 2", etc) and at the bottom of each cohort page, there is a link to the other 6. Each company has a short description along with its URL.
#An "Alumni News" page at the bottom of "Portfolio" includes articles pertinent to graduated startups.
#Unfortunately does not include the date and year of each cohort class, but perhaps could cross-reference with other sources.

==Accelerator: Launchpad LA (http://launchpad.la/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Companies" in the top of the homepage
#"Companies" returns all companies backed by Launchpad LA based on their class year and number (cohort)
#:*Also sorted by active startups vs. inactive startups
#At the bottom of the "Companies" tab, there is a statistical layout returning values for the number of companies started by Launchpad during its time as an accelerator (2012-present), as well as the total funding funneled into the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Y Combinator (http://www.ycombinator.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Scrolled down on the home page and clicked on a link entitled "See all companies".
#Navigated to a drop down menu named "All Batches", and clicked on it to expand the list.
#List is made up of dates ranging from 2005-2016, and these dates return lists of launched companies including most but not all of their URL's, as well as their launch year.

==Accelerator: Flashpoint (http://flashpoint.gatech.edu/)==
Finding the cohort:
#On upper right corner after animation, there is a tab sign which lets you navigate to a page labeled "Teams"
#The "Team" page has each batch of companies emerging from Georgia Tech, although it does not include the dates or cohorts of these companies. For example, "Batch 1" at the top of the page just lists the companies in the batch without URLs or any additional information.
#On the "Application" page on the tab near the top, there is information regarding Batch 7, which begins early 2017. Suggests that batch 6 either ended spring 2016 or fall 2016.

==Accelerator: Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (http://www.prosperstl.com)==
Finding the cohort:
#Navigated to "Accelerator" tab and clicked "Companies" when prompted with the drop down menu.
#This tab returned all of the launched company logos which then redirected to the company's home page when clicked.
#No other relevant form of information such as date launched or cohort was included on this page.

==Accelerator: Axel Springer Plug and Play(http://www.axelspringerplugandplay.com/)==
Finding the cohort:
#Clicked on the "Companies" tab on the home page and was directed to the middle of the page which included a short list of current companies.
#Clicked on the "All Companies" link which returned a page filled with startup logos and brief descriptions of those startups. When clicked, each logo serves to redirect to that startup's home page.
#Companies were not sorted by cohort or in any other relevant way.

==Accelerator: Techstars (http://www.techstars.com)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the Accelerators tabs and clicked "Companies" on the drop down menu.
#Firstly, this returns a table comprised of a long list of different classes from different areas separated by years.
#Upon scrolling down further, each of these classes is broken down by the startups that graduated from them. It also includes information such as how much was invested in each startup, as well as whether or not the startup was acquired, is active, or failed.

==Accelerator: Startmate (http://www.startmate.com.au)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startups" tab, which returned a page of all startups that have graduated from Startmate.
#Startups are separated by year of graduation, and each company is linked on this page.
#It appears as if each year, 1 cohort is taken through the accelerator.

==Accelerator: Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/accelerate/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the startups tab, which returned a long list of companies that were accelerated by Capital Factory.
#Each logo for the startups served as a link to their respective websites.
#There was no evidence or mention of any cohorts.

==Accelerator: OwlSpark (http://entrepreneurship.rice.edu/accelerator/)==
Finding the cohorts:
#Navigated to the "Startup Teams" tab, which returned a page that included links to 4 "Classes".
#Each class link i.e. (Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4) returned links to each startup that graduated from the program.
#These classes signify cohorts.

==List of Promising Variables==
*Key People (founders, lead entrepreneurs, strategists, etc.)
*Total number of launched companies
*A FAQ for application details, accelerator vision, and
*Funds raised per company (average)
*Features offered by accelerator (perks, space, tools, etc)
*General events hosted by the accelerator
*(Success) stories for graduated start-ups

=E-R Diagram (in list form) for Identifying Attributes to Pull from Accelerators=
Summary: I will look at different entities within the accelerator page (e.g accelerators, cohorts, founders) and then find potential attributes that can be codified from those entities. Along with the attribute, we list a potential method for pulling that particular attribute.

Format:
:Entity
:*Attribute - Possible sources/ways to get

Ed: "Be creative with finding new attributes to pull!"

==List==
Accelerators
*Accelerator Name - Website, external database
*Contact Form - General contact section in each website
*Industry focus - can be pulled from description
*Description - pulled from website itself
*Takes equity? - Database or from "about" page
*Non-profit? - Database
*URL - Already have way of obtaining
*DNS Registration Date - Already have way of obtaining
*Address - Google Maps, maybe the website
*Founding Date - Google Maps, website, server registration

Accelerators (1) has (n) Features

Features
*Mentorship? - Description in website
*Space Offered - Google Maps, Website description
*Partnerships - Angel list, Same section as mentorship or events
*Hosted Events - Calender

Accelerators (1) has (n) Founders

Founders
*Name - Founders or Team Page
*Title - Directly underneath or next to name
*PhD? - Biography, webpage under name
*Serial - Biography
*Link back to "Accelerator Name" in Accelerators

Founders (n) has (n) Ventures

Ventures
*Other Companies - Biography, webpage
*Previous Companies - Biography
*Net Worth - Forbes, Biography
*Link back to "Name" in Founders

Accelerators (1) has (n) Cohorts

Cohorts
*Date + Accelerator = Cohort ID - Database or Website
*Number of Startups - Website, count from Startups
*Cohort Number - Categorization on website, external database
*Link back to "Accelerator Name"

Cohorts (1) has (n) Startups

Startups
*Names - Website, external database
*State of Inc - Angel List
*URL - Angel List, website
*Founding Date - Registration database, Angel List
*Industry - startup description
*Founding Location - Angel List
*Current Location - Angel List
*VC Raised to Date - SDC Platinum
*Angel Funds Raised to date - Angel List

==Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites==
*The word "Accelerator"
**This word appears at least one time on the home page of the vast majority of accelerator websites. The word "Accelerator" appears either as a link to another page on the website or in a title on the homepage of the website. Not many other websites contain this word on their homepage, especially not if one Googles something generic such as "Accelerators in the US".

*Fixed Term
**Accelerators normally work with their cohorts for 3 months. This is a major factor which differentiates between an accelerator and any other member of a startup ecosystem. If on their website they mention either "3 months" or "12 weeks", it is extremely likely that the website belongs to an accelerator.

*Cohorts, Portfolio, Class, or Companies
**This is a potential variable that could link the websites of many different accelerators. The problem with the word "portfolio" is also used by numerous venture capital firms, which could potentially cause complications when attempting to pull only the sites of accelerators from a Google search. The word "cohort", however, would have an extremely high probability of identifying the website as belonging to an accelerator. The words "class" and "companies" are promising but do not offer certainty.

*Equity, Investment
**Although by itself, equity does not mean much, when paired with any of these other terms, it could potentially point to an accelerator. Most accelerators take equity in the form of common stock (6-8%), or they will ask for some alternate form of stake in the company.

*Education and Mentorship
**Accelerators differ from incubators and angel investors in that they emphasize the education of the potential startup. They offer advice and intense mentorship from more experienced entrepreneurs within their staff, as well as many networking opportunities with the outside world. This variable is more difficult to find on the website of the accelerator, but I believe that if the website includes numerous keywords such as "education", "mentorship", or "networking opportunities", it would be somewhat safe to assume that the website is owned by an accelerator.

*Demo Day
**This variable does not have tremendous potential in terms of crawling websites, but I feel that it is worth mentioning. Most accelerators "graduate" their cohorts with a demo day, which is a day when the startups present their company to potential investors. If the website contains the words "demo day", which is fairly uncommon, it could be a good source of accelerator identification.

A combination of any of these variables would certainly identify the current website as belonging to an accelerator.

==Comprehensive List of Accelerators==

All text files saved in "Accelerators" project on the McNair RPD.

*Acc.Info: 190
*SeedDB: 240
*SARP: 59
*Corp: 79
*Total: 568 results

After removing duplicates and locations: 363 results

Doesn't count f6s, which returns 1170 results, roughly only 300 of which were accelerators. We created a crawler to sift through the webpages and parse HTML so we could identify the accelerators. Program and HTML saved on the Desktop.

==Randomly Chosen Accelerators==
*TLabs
*BetaSpring
*The Unilever Foundry
*AIA Accelerator
*R/GA Accelerator
*Zeroto510
*Hub:raum
*Orange Fab
*Furnace
*Launch Chapel Hill

===Determining whether or not these are accelerators===
Googled name of Accelerator and clicked on the first link

Looked for Variables which Distinguish Accelerator Websites
*TLabs: Homepage states: "Leading Indian Tech Accelerator"; TLabs is an accelerator, but it is located in India.
*Betaspring: Under the "About Betaspring" tab, it states that "Betaspring was among the first ten startup accelerators to launch worldwide".
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not claim to be an accelerator, nor does it have information on the website about cohorts. This name was pulled from the source Corporate Accelerators.
*AIA Accelerator: The word "accelerator" is included in the name. Under the "Overview" tab, it states that startups have received mentorship.
*R/GA Accelerator: Under the "Overview" tab it states that the "R/GA Accelerator is designed for startups and... it is a three month, immersive, mentorship driven program".
*Zeroto510: Website contains a "Portfolio Companies" tab which divides up the companies into cohorts. This identifies Zeroto510 as an accelerator.
*Hub:raum: Offers accelerator and incubator programs; however, none are located in North America.
*Orange Fab: States on the main page that "We're a 3-month accelerator program".
*Furnace: "About" tab states that Furnace is "an innovative startup accelerator designed to form, incubate, and launch new companies". Concludes with a Demo Day
*Launch Chapel Hill: Homepage states that they are "a startup accelerator". Also included on the homepage is a line that states "Applications for Cohort 7 are now open".

7/10 are accelerators located in the US.

2/10 are accelerators not located in the US.

1/10 is not an accelerator.

===Steps for Extracting Cohort Information===
*TLabs: Clicked on the "Startup" tab and located a drop down menu entitled "Showing Startups from:". This menu separates startups into Batches ranging from 1-9. These batches are cohorts.
*Betaspring: This website does not have a "Companies" or "Startups" tab. I clicked on their "Who" tab and noticed that within this section were two links called "Our portfolio" and "Our companies" which both linked to the same place. This place contained a list of the startups that Betaspring has funded, as well as links to each of the startup websites. The list was not separated into cohorts.
*The Unilever Foundry: Does not have a "Startups" or "Companies" link on the website.
*AIA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Startups" tab which returned a page with 5 companies and a bit of information on each of these companies. Also included the URL to each startup. However, the companies were not separated into cohorts, probably because there are so few of them.
*R/GA Accelerator: Clicked on the "Alumni" tab and navigated down the webpage. Startups are separated by class, which means cohort in this case. Startup info contains link to demo day presentation as well as the startup url.
*Zeroto510: Hovered over the "About Us" drop down menu and clicked on the "Portfolio Companies" link. Startups are separated by cohort, one for each year, starting from 2013.
*Hub:raum: Clicked on the "Portfolio" tab. Directed to a page with many names of startups, as well as a brief description of what their company is about. Also includes a link to each startup's website. Startups are not separated into cohorts, but rather by investment by location, current participants, and alumni.
*Orange Fab: Clicked on the "Startups" tab and was directed to a different page. Startups are not only separated into cohorts named "Seasons", but they are also separated by industry.
*Furnace: Clicked on "Portfolio" tab, but unfortunately the website is broken and it returned an error in code.
*Launch Chapel Hill: Clicked on the "Ventures" tab and was directed to a page in which all startups were separated into cohorts, and a brief description of the startup was provided underneath their logo.

=Code=

The directory for all data related to this project is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators

==F6S Web Crawler==

This is a python script using the selenium library that retrieves the html content of each page on F6S's North American Accelerator search results. The script is located in:

E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The script is titled f6s_crawler_gentle.py

When run, the script visits the F6S search page for North American Accelerator's and begins retrieving the HTML of each page in that search list.
NOTE: Timing must be spaced out between all interactions with the browser. F6S has Captcha, and the program will fail if the site receives too many hit requests, or has any inkling that it is being probed by a bot.

The Accelerator HTML files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files

The Accelerator HTML files stored as text files are stored in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs\Accelerator_HTML_files_text

==F6S Parser==
The next step is to take the HTML files retrieved by the crawler and to parse them for necessary information. This parser should also determine whether or not the site is an accelerator site.

The code for the parser is located in
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

It is titled f6s_parser.py

To run the code, open the file in Komodo and press play.
If running from the command line, change to the correct directory and run the following comand:
python f6s_parser.py

The list of accelerators that passed through the parser is in the same directory:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\F6S Accelerator HTMLs

The tab delimited text file is named AcceleratorList.
The file contains the names of the accelerators that had the keywords listed in the file. Also, the file contains the run dates and location of the accelerator if it was listed on the f6s page.

==F6S API==
F6S has an API, but we have had no success getting a key to the API. The link to get a key to the API is on [https://www.f6s.com/developers/apis/deal-feed this page].

I (Peter) have emailed F6S to ask for a key directly at support@f6s.com. As of the end of the Fall 2016 Semester, they have not responded.

FUN FACT (MASS-RENAME FILES USING WINDOWS POWER SHELL):

The following command allowed me to append ".txt" to all files in a folder once in the proper directory:
Get-ChildItem * | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name + '.txt'}

To change file formats, Microsoft suggests:
Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -Replace '\.txt', '.log'}

==Final Data==
The Parser for parsing the text files of accelerator data is located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

The Parser for parsing the cohort files of accelerator data is also located in:
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data

This folder contains the Python parsers. The Final_data folder contains the tab-delimited text files of parsed data. final_accelerator_data.txt contains the generalized data saved in .txt files and final_cohort_data.txt contains the cohort data saved in .cohort.txt files.

All the files entitled accelerator_data are subsets of the final_accelerator_data.txt file, but each file contains only the accelerators that matched to the flag specified in the file title.

find_headers .py finds a set of the headers for all the cohort files from the seed list project.

==Google SiteSearch==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Google_SiteSearch
This folder contains code for a google search parser. The script sitesearch.py will search for a queried company and return a likely web address for that company.

==Way Back Machine Parser==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\wayback_machine.py
This script takes URLs and returns a timestamp for the oldest documented webpage under that URL courtesy of the Way Back Machine Archive.

==Process Locations==
E:\McNair\Projects\Accelerators\Code+Final_Data\process_locations.py
This script takes a physical address and converts it into latitude and longitude coordinates. Should be used in conjunction with the Enclosing Circle program to find the concentration of accelerators.
E:\McNair\Software\CodeBase\EnclosingCircle.py

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-03-21T19:58:24Z

Shrey:

09/27/2016 14:00 - 17:00:
*Set up personal and work log pages, accessed Remote Desktop.
*Compiled list of accelerators from Wiki
09/29/2016 14:00 - 16:15; 16:45 - 17:30:
*Created new project: [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]] and worked with Dr. Egan to create schematic for data entry.
*Evaluated 3 sources and logged data. Sources were taken from [[List of Accelerators]]. Logged each step onto project page and identified categories that would be suitable for web crawling sometime in the future.
10/11/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Explored how to use regular expressions in TextPad to aid with data sorting (need to review expressions with Dr. Egan in future)
*Continued evaluating sources from [[List of Accelerators]] and recorded steps onto project page, as before. Finished evaluating the six sources from initial list. (All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]])
10/13/2016 14:00 - 17:00;
*All work done in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Talked to Dr. Egan about project going forward. Need to pick out 10-15 accelerators from the sources listed on my project page and identify a reliable method for obtaining cohort information, as well as other variables
*Used google searches to identify more sources, and evaluated three databases with the help of TextPad
*Began working on more generic google searches. Was able to go through "Location+accelerator"-type searches today. Will continue next time.
[[Category:Internal]]
10/18/2016 14:00 - 17:30;
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Took a sample size of 10 accelerators and detailed how to extract cohort information, as well as what other information is readily available from accelerator URLs.
*Brought Matthew up to speed on accelerator project, added summaries to each section so they became easier to follow, and worked with him to finish up extracting cohort information
10/20/16 14:30 - 17:30:
*Work continued in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]]
*Finished up the list of instructions for finding the cohort. Continued compiling the list of variables for each of the accelerators within the sample size.
*Consulted Peter on prospects of creating a web crawler with the information we currently have compiled. Determined it was possible, although beyond the scope of Peter's knowledge.
10/25/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Consulted Ed with next step for project.
*Began listing the E-R diagram onto the accelerator database page where entities were potential categories and each entity had its associated attributes
10/27/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working with Matthew to identify elements in the E-R diagram for pulling information on accelerators.
*Found sources to obtain/cross-reference information (ie. Angel List)
11/08/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Identified possible keywords to filter results through for accelerators
*Began compiling a comprehensive list of accelerators based on the data we have already sifted through.
*Learned how to use regular expressions from Ben to sort names individually and alphabetically.
11/10/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Began sorting through accelerator list and removing duplicates, as well as identifying more places to pull names from.
*Worked with Peter to create a crawl for f6s because the website does not return only accelerators.
11/15/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Took a break from f6s to locate more lists based on individual google searches such as "city+accelerator+list"
*Put Seed DB information into an excel file on the remote desktop
11/17/16 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued filling out information for the random Google Searches
*Organized TextPad files on the RDP into coherent excel spreadsheets with proper headers on the table
*Noticed problem with f6s: it seems although all of the html coding was protected by a captcha so the crawler did not actually extract any information; it was all blocked.
11/22/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked to fix f6s crawler with Peter
*Finished and compiled master list of accelerators
12/01/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Caught up on project with Ed and Carlin
*Took 20 accelerators (241-260) from the list and filled out text.html files for them; finished the 20
12/05/16 13:00 - 16:00
*After finishing first 20 accelerators, continued working down the list, beginning at 321
*Work noted in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], but mostly stored on McNair RDP
12/06/16 14:00 - 18:00
*Continued "Accelerating" down the list in [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], finished up until 340
12/08/16 14:00 - 17:00
*Continued working on accelerator list on the same page.
01/17/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up "accelerating" from [[Accelerator Seed List (Data)]], numbers 341-351
1/18/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished accelerating for sure, went back and began an overview of the work done for quality control.
01/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Mandatory meeting, then worked through 2 of Ed's unfinished accelerators
1/23/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to go over about 70 items in the accelerator list and ensure that they follow a uniform structure and show correct information
1/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Peter to fix the problem with results not coming through on the new spreadsheet by renaming the file and including more symbols in the searches. Spreadsheet should be up to date now.
*Got to number 144 on the list while going through files.
1/25/17 14:00 - 16;00
*Continued looking through the list and fixing wrong entries or reporting them
1/26/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Talked with Ed about project going forward and tried to access the Crunchbase API with Peter to crawl for start-up companies.
*Continued working through the accelerator list, stopped at number 186.
1/27/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Continued looking through accelerator list and fixing any entries with error. Got to number 261.
1/30/17 14:30 - 16:30
*Got through about 425
1/31/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Got to number 502
2/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished looking through the initial list of accelerators and writing down which ones needed to be modified or completed (through 551)
2/03/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Finished about 30 entries for the accelerator entries that still needed to be completed. Worked out of the "NOT DONE" file in the server (which is now blank because everything is finished)
2/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Developed a standardized format for the text files with Matthew. Instructions are under "standardized format" in the accelerator seed list portion. I started at number 226 and standardized formats up until 370.
2/07/17 14:00-16:00
*Continued work from yesterday, completed up to number 488 from the list. Will likely need one more day to finish.
2/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished standardizing the txt files for use on the excel spreadsheet, compiled the data and examined the resultant tables. Realized we needed to fix some categories in the cohort files.
2/09/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Worked with Ed on a side project trying to gather information on climate change thanks to Baker's article on the Wall Street Journal
*Gathered information on climate change in relation to high-growth, high-risk innovation and organizations that deal with things such as carbon credits
2/10/17 14:00 - 17:00
*Realized that blog post was ambitious because we could not really find a clear purpose from the information we gathered, nor could we find a unique angle. Held off on the idea
*Went back to organizing the new columns and headers on the text file by identifying areas of error in the excel spreadsheet
2/15/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Spoke with Ed about free enterprise while he lectured all of us. It took about an hour.
*Looked at plans for project going forward including using linkedin to search the founders
2/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found our first source for expanding the project into incubators, from angel.co. Seems similar to f6s in that we can crawl it and obtain a list of incubators and their various counterparts.
2/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Found more sources for incubators by reading through quora discussions and masters theses. Bookmarked these pages so that I could put them into text files after.
2/23/17 14:00 - 18:00
*Converted incubator files to text-pad and saved them (4 total), then cleaned them up through regex
*Took the cohort text file, put it into excel, and proceeded to clean up all of the mistakes in the excel document, particularly bad data or mistakes with organizations. Got through Y-Combinator.
2/24/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finished up cleaning the cohort data for the names and the descriptions, but there still needs to be work done on the other stuff like dates and programs
2/28/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Created page [[Hub-Based Venture Firms]] and proceeded to research VC in Hubs listed on under E:\McNair\Projects\Hubs\summer 2016\Hubs Variables - Ariel.xls
*Looked at details such as whether they have in-house funds, whether they co-invest, focuses, and amounts invested.
3/01/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Ben and Matthew to pull data from SDC for all VC funded companies and normalized it to put it in an Excel document.
3/02/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Tried to repeat the VC data pull without it crashing from pulling too many entries. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish it
3/06/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Worked with Matthew to put final touches on the cohort data to prep it for matching with our VC data
3/07/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Finally finished working on the cohort files, will match on the 8th
3/08/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Matched the VC Data with the list of Cohort Companies and got one list of all cohort companies that have received VC funding.
3/20/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Participated in a SQL training session with Ed, learned how to create a database and to pull tab delimited information from text files onto a table
3/21/17 14:00 - 16:00
*Met with Ed and arrived at the conclusion of finishing the draft for a report by the end of the semester. Put the initial report information on the accelerator page using the variables that we currently have

Shrey Agarwal (Work Log)

2017-02-28T21:50:06Z

Shrey:

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T21:39:09Z

Shrey:

{{AcademicPaper
|Title=Hub-Based Venture Firms
|RAs=Shrey Agarwal,
|Status=In development
}}
[[Hubs]]

=Capital Factory=
In-house operating fund? YES
*https://angel.co/capital-factory-fund-4
*"The Capital Factory Fund comes from Austin's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors and only invests in Austin-based tech startups. Investors from around the world are participating who want to dip their toe in the booming Austin market and identify future individual investments. If you are bullish on Austin, then you want to be in this fund."
*Takes in new investors each round
*co-invests based on partners
*Founding date unclear, but Capital Factory founded 2009
=1871=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Space where companies, ideas, startups come together to share experience
*Has partnerships with VC, but does not seem to have own fund
=1776=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We connect our startups to the latest wisdom on how to build highly scalable businesses through our curriculum. To expert mentors who can help startups quickly solve problems. To markets through our institutional and corporate partners. To capital through our investor network and the 1776 Seed Fund."
*Incubator with own seed fund
*http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/09/calling-all-startups-1776-closes-first-seed-fund.html
*Closed first seed fund at $12.5m late 2015
*Focuses on government in energy, health, education, sustainability, transportation, and smart_tech
=American Underground=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Invested in Groundfloor for $1m in 2014, classifies as a "Micro VC" so reasonably, has a small personal fund
*Looks like it co-invests
*Mainly a campus space for startups and entrepreneurs to congregate
*"Google for Entrepreneurs enables tech hubs by providing them with technical content, business tools, and infrastructure upgrades so that they can support increasing demand from developers and startups."
*Focus: tech
=Galvanize=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Lessons for programming, data science, etc.
*University of New Haven
*Locations across US, online classes
=Rocket Space=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Corporate membership" for various perks, connections to network of startups
*pseudo-accelerator program of some sort, has various program, so might make some small investments in the program
*Focus: tech
=Betamore=
In-house operating fund? NO
*has bootcamps for rising VC analysts, but no fund of its own to invest
*programming classes for SQL, etc.
*Became nonprofit 2015, partners with VC in Baltimore and other locations
=Packard Place=
In-house operating fund? UNLIKELY
*Uses old space of Packard Place Motors, converted into an innovation and acceleration space
*Claims to have multiple accelerator programs in Charlotte
*Mentions nothing about on-site VC
=The Venture Center=
In-house operating fund? YES
*VC fund based in Arkansas
*Founded in 2013, raised $19m in revenue the past year
*focuses on acceleration and mentorship as a VC
*focus: technology commercialization
=The Idea Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*No information on VC on-site
*Just an ecosystem with mentorship and opportunities
=Benjamin's Desk=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Coworking space for mobile technology
*Showcases work to potential investors, does not invest on its own
*Perks with membership
=GSV Labs=
In-house operating fund? YES
*invests with listed partners
*over $250m raised in VC 2015
*Founded 2012
*focuses: big-data, edtech, entertainment, sustainability, and mobile
*does not seem to co-invest
*partners with silicon valley investors
=Founders Floor=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We are a seed stage investor in technology companies through our private syndicate fund."
*Co-invests? yes "For larger seed rounds we regularly introduce our portfolio companies to in-network seed stage VC’s for co-investment opportunities"
*Also has a pseudo-accelerator and coworking space
*Founded fund in 2014, classified as micro VC(<<$100m)
=CyberTech=
In-house operating fund? NO
*global space for cybersecurity and IoT
*paid membership, plus an incubator program
*hosts events around the US
=Innovation Pavilion=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Never mentions in-house VC
*place for connecting VC and startups
*"At the heart of Innovation Pavilion is the entrepreneur. We have a network consisting of investors, supply chain manufacturers, service providers and professional services like financial, legal and marketing. We also encourage collaboration through events and workshops at our facilities." No onsite VC
=BestHQ=
In-house operating fund? NO
*connects startups and VC
*collaboration/coworking space
*paid membership
=Work Hard Pittsburgh=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Current model launched in 2016, serves as a business incubator and a co-working space
*No mention of VC
=Tampa Bay Wave=
In-house operating fund? NO
*space connecting entrepreneurs and startups
*began a startup accelerator that launched in 2013
=Think Big Partners=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Think Big Partners helps companies grow faster, smarter and more efficiently through our network of in-house services, community members and national partners. We push the boundaries of the status quo and help entrepreneurs create game changing companies and technologies."
*Not much more information on website than that, definitely no on-site VC
=Hacker Lab=
In-house operating fund? NO
*coworking space with classes, a "hacker space", and a "maker space"
*Does not invest
=Geekdom=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Has its own "Geekdom Fund" which invests in early stage IT startups
*focus: IT, tech
*Raised $6.68m in 2014, classifies as micro VC
*coinvests with partner network
=Epicenter=
In-house operating fund? NO
*part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative, strictly a working space
*connects entrepreneurs to coworking space with hands-on mentoring
=Awesome Inc=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates funds as a Micro VC to help startups partner with other companies
*Raised about $4.5m from 2015-2016, founded in 2016
*Focuses on education, many programs to teach high schoolers and middle schoolers basic STEM
*Reasonable to expect co-investing with these circumstances
=Learn Launch=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates a small fund for seed investments into its Ed-tech accelerator
*Micro VC providing up to $120k to each startup and working with VC partners to provide more
*focus: education
*Fund began as late as 2016, 2017 marks the second Accelerator fund
=Catapult Chicago=
In-house operating fund? NO
*community of solely tech startups
*Bunch of amenities for membership, including forums, programming, advisors, and "Everest" program
=Velocity=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Very small fund in the ecosystem
*invests from $10-25k to early stage and seed companies
*Primarily connects companies together in Southern Indiana
*Certainly co-invests
*Funding seems to have started 2015
*focus is tech
=Tech Ranch=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Education for entrepreneurs, thinking space for ventures since 2008
*Focus on networking
*no mention of VC or funding
=ReSET=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Paid membership
*nonprofit with no personal fund
*"Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state."
*focus: social entrepreneurship, enterprise
=The Atlanta Tech Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Just seems to be a collaboration space
*Has private offices and communal places for networking and interactions
*Has "scholarship" to waive membership fees, but that does not count as a fund.

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T21:38:47Z

Shrey:

{{AcademicPaper
|Title=Hub-Based Venture Firms
|Author=Shrey Agarwal,
|Status=In development
}}
[[Hubs]]

=Capital Factory=
In-house operating fund? YES
*https://angel.co/capital-factory-fund-4
*"The Capital Factory Fund comes from Austin's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors and only invests in Austin-based tech startups. Investors from around the world are participating who want to dip their toe in the booming Austin market and identify future individual investments. If you are bullish on Austin, then you want to be in this fund."
*Takes in new investors each round
*co-invests based on partners
*Founding date unclear, but Capital Factory founded 2009
=1871=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Space where companies, ideas, startups come together to share experience
*Has partnerships with VC, but does not seem to have own fund
=1776=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We connect our startups to the latest wisdom on how to build highly scalable businesses through our curriculum. To expert mentors who can help startups quickly solve problems. To markets through our institutional and corporate partners. To capital through our investor network and the 1776 Seed Fund."
*Incubator with own seed fund
*http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/09/calling-all-startups-1776-closes-first-seed-fund.html
*Closed first seed fund at $12.5m late 2015
*Focuses on government in energy, health, education, sustainability, transportation, and smart_tech
=American Underground=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Invested in Groundfloor for $1m in 2014, classifies as a "Micro VC" so reasonably, has a small personal fund
*Looks like it co-invests
*Mainly a campus space for startups and entrepreneurs to congregate
*"Google for Entrepreneurs enables tech hubs by providing them with technical content, business tools, and infrastructure upgrades so that they can support increasing demand from developers and startups."
*Focus: tech
=Galvanize=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Lessons for programming, data science, etc.
*University of New Haven
*Locations across US, online classes
=Rocket Space=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Corporate membership" for various perks, connections to network of startups
*pseudo-accelerator program of some sort, has various program, so might make some small investments in the program
*Focus: tech
=Betamore=
In-house operating fund? NO
*has bootcamps for rising VC analysts, but no fund of its own to invest
*programming classes for SQL, etc.
*Became nonprofit 2015, partners with VC in Baltimore and other locations
=Packard Place=
In-house operating fund? UNLIKELY
*Uses old space of Packard Place Motors, converted into an innovation and acceleration space
*Claims to have multiple accelerator programs in Charlotte
*Mentions nothing about on-site VC
=The Venture Center=
In-house operating fund? YES
*VC fund based in Arkansas
*Founded in 2013, raised $19m in revenue the past year
*focuses on acceleration and mentorship as a VC
*focus: technology commercialization
=The Idea Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*No information on VC on-site
*Just an ecosystem with mentorship and opportunities
=Benjamin's Desk=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Coworking space for mobile technology
*Showcases work to potential investors, does not invest on its own
*Perks with membership
=GSV Labs=
In-house operating fund? YES
*invests with listed partners
*over $250m raised in VC 2015
*Founded 2012
*focuses: big-data, edtech, entertainment, sustainability, and mobile
*does not seem to co-invest
*partners with silicon valley investors
=Founders Floor=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We are a seed stage investor in technology companies through our private syndicate fund."
*Co-invests? yes "For larger seed rounds we regularly introduce our portfolio companies to in-network seed stage VC’s for co-investment opportunities"
*Also has a pseudo-accelerator and coworking space
*Founded fund in 2014, classified as micro VC(<<$100m)
=CyberTech=
In-house operating fund? NO
*global space for cybersecurity and IoT
*paid membership, plus an incubator program
*hosts events around the US
=Innovation Pavilion=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Never mentions in-house VC
*place for connecting VC and startups
*"At the heart of Innovation Pavilion is the entrepreneur. We have a network consisting of investors, supply chain manufacturers, service providers and professional services like financial, legal and marketing. We also encourage collaboration through events and workshops at our facilities." No onsite VC
=BestHQ=
In-house operating fund? NO
*connects startups and VC
*collaboration/coworking space
*paid membership
=Work Hard Pittsburgh=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Current model launched in 2016, serves as a business incubator and a co-working space
*No mention of VC
=Tampa Bay Wave=
In-house operating fund? NO
*space connecting entrepreneurs and startups
*began a startup accelerator that launched in 2013
=Think Big Partners=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Think Big Partners helps companies grow faster, smarter and more efficiently through our network of in-house services, community members and national partners. We push the boundaries of the status quo and help entrepreneurs create game changing companies and technologies."
*Not much more information on website than that, definitely no on-site VC
=Hacker Lab=
In-house operating fund? NO
*coworking space with classes, a "hacker space", and a "maker space"
*Does not invest
=Geekdom=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Has its own "Geekdom Fund" which invests in early stage IT startups
*focus: IT, tech
*Raised $6.68m in 2014, classifies as micro VC
*coinvests with partner network
=Epicenter=
In-house operating fund? NO
*part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative, strictly a working space
*connects entrepreneurs to coworking space with hands-on mentoring
=Awesome Inc=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates funds as a Micro VC to help startups partner with other companies
*Raised about $4.5m from 2015-2016, founded in 2016
*Focuses on education, many programs to teach high schoolers and middle schoolers basic STEM
*Reasonable to expect co-investing with these circumstances
=Learn Launch=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates a small fund for seed investments into its Ed-tech accelerator
*Micro VC providing up to $120k to each startup and working with VC partners to provide more
*focus: education
*Fund began as late as 2016, 2017 marks the second Accelerator fund
=Catapult Chicago=
In-house operating fund? NO
*community of solely tech startups
*Bunch of amenities for membership, including forums, programming, advisors, and "Everest" program
=Velocity=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Very small fund in the ecosystem
*invests from $10-25k to early stage and seed companies
*Primarily connects companies together in Southern Indiana
*Certainly co-invests
*Funding seems to have started 2015
*focus is tech
=Tech Ranch=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Education for entrepreneurs, thinking space for ventures since 2008
*Focus on networking
*no mention of VC or funding
=ReSET=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Paid membership
*nonprofit with no personal fund
*"Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state."
*focus: social entrepreneurship, enterprise
=The Atlanta Tech Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Just seems to be a collaboration space
*Has private offices and communal places for networking and interactions
*Has "scholarship" to waive membership fees, but that does not count as a fund.

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T21:38:33Z

Shrey:

{{AcademicPaper
|Title=Hub-Based Venture Firms
|Status=In development
}}
[[Hubs]]

=Capital Factory=
In-house operating fund? YES
*https://angel.co/capital-factory-fund-4
*"The Capital Factory Fund comes from Austin's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors and only invests in Austin-based tech startups. Investors from around the world are participating who want to dip their toe in the booming Austin market and identify future individual investments. If you are bullish on Austin, then you want to be in this fund."
*Takes in new investors each round
*co-invests based on partners
*Founding date unclear, but Capital Factory founded 2009
=1871=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Space where companies, ideas, startups come together to share experience
*Has partnerships with VC, but does not seem to have own fund
=1776=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We connect our startups to the latest wisdom on how to build highly scalable businesses through our curriculum. To expert mentors who can help startups quickly solve problems. To markets through our institutional and corporate partners. To capital through our investor network and the 1776 Seed Fund."
*Incubator with own seed fund
*http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/09/calling-all-startups-1776-closes-first-seed-fund.html
*Closed first seed fund at $12.5m late 2015
*Focuses on government in energy, health, education, sustainability, transportation, and smart_tech
=American Underground=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Invested in Groundfloor for $1m in 2014, classifies as a "Micro VC" so reasonably, has a small personal fund
*Looks like it co-invests
*Mainly a campus space for startups and entrepreneurs to congregate
*"Google for Entrepreneurs enables tech hubs by providing them with technical content, business tools, and infrastructure upgrades so that they can support increasing demand from developers and startups."
*Focus: tech
=Galvanize=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Lessons for programming, data science, etc.
*University of New Haven
*Locations across US, online classes
=Rocket Space=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Corporate membership" for various perks, connections to network of startups
*pseudo-accelerator program of some sort, has various program, so might make some small investments in the program
*Focus: tech
=Betamore=
In-house operating fund? NO
*has bootcamps for rising VC analysts, but no fund of its own to invest
*programming classes for SQL, etc.
*Became nonprofit 2015, partners with VC in Baltimore and other locations
=Packard Place=
In-house operating fund? UNLIKELY
*Uses old space of Packard Place Motors, converted into an innovation and acceleration space
*Claims to have multiple accelerator programs in Charlotte
*Mentions nothing about on-site VC
=The Venture Center=
In-house operating fund? YES
*VC fund based in Arkansas
*Founded in 2013, raised $19m in revenue the past year
*focuses on acceleration and mentorship as a VC
*focus: technology commercialization
=The Idea Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*No information on VC on-site
*Just an ecosystem with mentorship and opportunities
=Benjamin's Desk=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Coworking space for mobile technology
*Showcases work to potential investors, does not invest on its own
*Perks with membership
=GSV Labs=
In-house operating fund? YES
*invests with listed partners
*over $250m raised in VC 2015
*Founded 2012
*focuses: big-data, edtech, entertainment, sustainability, and mobile
*does not seem to co-invest
*partners with silicon valley investors
=Founders Floor=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We are a seed stage investor in technology companies through our private syndicate fund."
*Co-invests? yes "For larger seed rounds we regularly introduce our portfolio companies to in-network seed stage VC’s for co-investment opportunities"
*Also has a pseudo-accelerator and coworking space
*Founded fund in 2014, classified as micro VC(<<$100m)
=CyberTech=
In-house operating fund? NO
*global space for cybersecurity and IoT
*paid membership, plus an incubator program
*hosts events around the US
=Innovation Pavilion=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Never mentions in-house VC
*place for connecting VC and startups
*"At the heart of Innovation Pavilion is the entrepreneur. We have a network consisting of investors, supply chain manufacturers, service providers and professional services like financial, legal and marketing. We also encourage collaboration through events and workshops at our facilities." No onsite VC
=BestHQ=
In-house operating fund? NO
*connects startups and VC
*collaboration/coworking space
*paid membership
=Work Hard Pittsburgh=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Current model launched in 2016, serves as a business incubator and a co-working space
*No mention of VC
=Tampa Bay Wave=
In-house operating fund? NO
*space connecting entrepreneurs and startups
*began a startup accelerator that launched in 2013
=Think Big Partners=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Think Big Partners helps companies grow faster, smarter and more efficiently through our network of in-house services, community members and national partners. We push the boundaries of the status quo and help entrepreneurs create game changing companies and technologies."
*Not much more information on website than that, definitely no on-site VC
=Hacker Lab=
In-house operating fund? NO
*coworking space with classes, a "hacker space", and a "maker space"
*Does not invest
=Geekdom=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Has its own "Geekdom Fund" which invests in early stage IT startups
*focus: IT, tech
*Raised $6.68m in 2014, classifies as micro VC
*coinvests with partner network
=Epicenter=
In-house operating fund? NO
*part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative, strictly a working space
*connects entrepreneurs to coworking space with hands-on mentoring
=Awesome Inc=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates funds as a Micro VC to help startups partner with other companies
*Raised about $4.5m from 2015-2016, founded in 2016
*Focuses on education, many programs to teach high schoolers and middle schoolers basic STEM
*Reasonable to expect co-investing with these circumstances
=Learn Launch=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates a small fund for seed investments into its Ed-tech accelerator
*Micro VC providing up to $120k to each startup and working with VC partners to provide more
*focus: education
*Fund began as late as 2016, 2017 marks the second Accelerator fund
=Catapult Chicago=
In-house operating fund? NO
*community of solely tech startups
*Bunch of amenities for membership, including forums, programming, advisors, and "Everest" program
=Velocity=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Very small fund in the ecosystem
*invests from $10-25k to early stage and seed companies
*Primarily connects companies together in Southern Indiana
*Certainly co-invests
*Funding seems to have started 2015
*focus is tech
=Tech Ranch=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Education for entrepreneurs, thinking space for ventures since 2008
*Focus on networking
*no mention of VC or funding
=ReSET=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Paid membership
*nonprofit with no personal fund
*"Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state."
*focus: social entrepreneurship, enterprise
=The Atlanta Tech Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Just seems to be a collaboration space
*Has private offices and communal places for networking and interactions
*Has "scholarship" to waive membership fees, but that does not count as a fund.

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T21:27:59Z

Shrey:

{{AcademicPaper
|Title=Hub-Based Venture Firms
|Status=In development
}}
[[Hubs]]

=Capital Factory=
In-house operating fund? YES
*https://angel.co/capital-factory-fund-4
*"The Capital Factory Fund comes from Austin's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors and only invests in Austin-based tech startups. Investors from around the world are participating who want to dip their toe in the booming Austin market and identify future individual investments. If you are bullish on Austin, then you want to be in this fund."
*Takes in new investors each round
*co-invests based on partners
*Founding date unclear, but Capital Factory founded 2009
=1871=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Space where companies, ideas, startups come together to share experience
*Has partnerships with VC, but does not seem to have own fund
=1776=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We connect our startups to the latest wisdom on how to build highly scalable businesses through our curriculum. To expert mentors who can help startups quickly solve problems. To markets through our institutional and corporate partners. To capital through our investor network and the 1776 Seed Fund."
*Incubator with own seed fund
*http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/09/calling-all-startups-1776-closes-first-seed-fund.html
*Closed first seed fund at $12.5m late 2015
*Focuses on government in energy, health, education, sustainability, transportation, and smart_tech
=American Underground=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Invested in Groundfloor for $1m in 2014, classifies as a "Micro VC" so reasonably, has a small personal fund
*Looks like it co-invests
*Mainly a campus space for startups and entrepreneurs to congregate
*"Google for Entrepreneurs enables tech hubs by providing them with technical content, business tools, and infrastructure upgrades so that they can support increasing demand from developers and startups."
*Focus: tech
=Galvanize=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Lessons for programming, data science, etc.
*University of New Haven
*Locations across US, online classes
=Rocket Space=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Corporate membership" for various perks, connections to network of startups
*pseudo-accelerator program of some sort, has various program, so might make some small investments in the program
*Focus: tech
=Betamore=
In-house operating fund? NO
*has bootcamps for rising VC analysts, but no fund of its own to invest
*programming classes for SQL, etc.
*Became nonprofit 2015, partners with VC in Baltimore and other locations
=Packard Place=
In-house operating fund? UNLIKELY
*Uses old space of Packard Place Motors, converted into an innovation and acceleration space
*Claims to have multiple accelerator programs in Charlotte
*Mentions nothing about on-site VC
=The Venture Center=
In-house operating fund? YES
*VC fund based in Arkansas
*Founded in 2013, raised $19m in revenue the past year
*focuses on acceleration and mentorship as a VC
*focus: technology commercialization
=The Idea Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*No information on VC on-site
*Just an ecosystem with mentorship and opportunities
=Benjamin's Desk=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Coworking space for mobile technology
*Showcases work to potential investors, does not invest on its own
*Perks with membership
=GSV Labs=
In-house operating fund? YES
*invests with listed partners
*over $250m raised in VC 2015
*Founded 2012
*focuses: big-data, edtech, entertainment, sustainability, and mobile
*does not seem to co-invest
*partners with silicon valley investors
=Founders Floor=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We are a seed stage investor in technology companies through our private syndicate fund."
*Co-invests? yes "For larger seed rounds we regularly introduce our portfolio companies to in-network seed stage VC’s for co-investment opportunities"
*Also has a pseudo-accelerator and coworking space
*Founded fund in 2014, classified as micro VC(<<$100m)
=CyberTech=
In-house operating fund? NO
*global space for cybersecurity and IoT
*paid membership, plus an incubator program
*hosts events around the US
=Innovation Pavilion=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Never mentions in-house VC
*place for connecting VC and startups
*"At the heart of Innovation Pavilion is the entrepreneur. We have a network consisting of investors, supply chain manufacturers, service providers and professional services like financial, legal and marketing. We also encourage collaboration through events and workshops at our facilities." No onsite VC
=BestHQ=
In-house operating fund? NO
*connects startups and VC
*collaboration/coworking space
*paid membership
=Work Hard Pittsburgh=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Current model launched in 2016, serves as a business incubator and a co-working space
*No mention of VC
=Tampa Bay Wave=
In-house operating fund? NO
*space connecting entrepreneurs and startups
*began a startup accelerator that launched in 2013
=Think Big Partners=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Think Big Partners helps companies grow faster, smarter and more efficiently through our network of in-house services, community members and national partners. We push the boundaries of the status quo and help entrepreneurs create game changing companies and technologies."
*Not much more information on website than that, definitely no on-site VC
=Hacker Lab=
In-house operating fund? NO
*coworking space with classes, a "hacker space", and a "maker space"
*Does not invest
=Geekdom=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Has its own "Geekdom Fund" which invests in early stage IT startups
*focus: IT, tech
*Raised $6.68m in 2014, classifies as micro VC
*coinvests with partner network
=Epicenter=
In-house operating fund? NO
*part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative, strictly a working space
*connects entrepreneurs to coworking space with hands-on mentoring
=Awesome Inc=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates funds as a Micro VC to help startups partner with other companies
*Raised about $4.5m from 2015-2016, founded in 2016
*Focuses on education, many programs to teach high schoolers and middle schoolers basic STEM
*Reasonable to expect co-investing with these circumstances
=Learn Launch=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates a small fund for seed investments into its Ed-tech accelerator
*Micro VC providing up to $120k to each startup and working with VC partners to provide more
*focus: education
*Fund began as late as 2016, 2017 marks the second Accelerator fund
=Catapult Chicago=
In-house operating fund?
=Velocity=
=Tech Ranch=
=ReSET=
=The Atlanta Tech Village=

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T21:24:49Z

Shrey:

{{AcademicPaper
|Title=Hub-Based Venture Firms
|Status=In development
}}
[[Hubs]]

=Capital Factory=
In-house operating fund? YES
*https://angel.co/capital-factory-fund-4
*"The Capital Factory Fund comes from Austin's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors and only invests in Austin-based tech startups. Investors from around the world are participating who want to dip their toe in the booming Austin market and identify future individual investments. If you are bullish on Austin, then you want to be in this fund."
*Takes in new investors each round
*co-invests based on partners
*Founding date unclear, but Capital Factory founded 2009
=1871=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Space where companies, ideas, startups come together to share experience
*Has partnerships with VC, but does not seem to have own fund
=1776=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We connect our startups to the latest wisdom on how to build highly scalable businesses through our curriculum. To expert mentors who can help startups quickly solve problems. To markets through our institutional and corporate partners. To capital through our investor network and the 1776 Seed Fund."
*Incubator with own seed fund
*http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/09/calling-all-startups-1776-closes-first-seed-fund.html
*Closed first seed fund at $12.5m late 2015
*Focuses on government in energy, health, education, sustainability, transportation, and smart_tech
=American Underground=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Invested in Groundfloor for $1m in 2014, classifies as a "Micro VC" so reasonably, has a small personal fund
*Looks like it co-invests
*Mainly a campus space for startups and entrepreneurs to congregate
*"Google for Entrepreneurs enables tech hubs by providing them with technical content, business tools, and infrastructure upgrades so that they can support increasing demand from developers and startups."
*Focus: tech
=Galvanize=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Lessons for programming, data science, etc.
*University of New Haven
*Locations across US, online classes
=Rocket Space=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Corporate membership" for various perks, connections to network of startups
*pseudo-accelerator program of some sort, has various program, so might make some small investments in the program
*Focus: tech
=Betamore=
In-house operating fund? NO
*has bootcamps for rising VC analysts, but no fund of its own to invest
*programming classes for SQL, etc.
*Became nonprofit 2015, partners with VC in Baltimore and other locations
=Packard Place=
In-house operating fund? UNLIKELY
*Uses old space of Packard Place Motors, converted into an innovation and acceleration space
*Claims to have multiple accelerator programs in Charlotte
*Mentions nothing about on-site VC
=The Venture Center=
In-house operating fund? YES
*VC fund based in Arkansas
*Founded in 2013, raised $19m in revenue the past year
*focuses on acceleration and mentorship as a VC
*focus: technology commercialization
=The Idea Village=
In-house operating fund? NO
*No information on VC on-site
*Just an ecosystem with mentorship and opportunities
=Benjamin's Desk=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Coworking space for mobile technology
*Showcases work to potential investors, does not invest on its own
*Perks with membership
=GSV Labs=
In-house operating fund? YES
*invests with listed partners
*over $250m raised in VC 2015
*Founded 2012
*focuses: big-data, edtech, entertainment, sustainability, and mobile
*does not seem to co-invest
*partners with silicon valley investors
=Founders Floor=
In-house operating fund? YES
*"We are a seed stage investor in technology companies through our private syndicate fund."
*Co-invests? yes "For larger seed rounds we regularly introduce our portfolio companies to in-network seed stage VC’s for co-investment opportunities"
*Also has a pseudo-accelerator and coworking space
*Founded fund in 2014, classified as micro VC(<<$100m)
=CyberTech=
In-house operating fund? NO
*global space for cybersecurity and IoT
*paid membership, plus an incubator program
*hosts events around the US
=Innovation Pavilion=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Never mentions in-house VC
*place for connecting VC and startups
*"At the heart of Innovation Pavilion is the entrepreneur. We have a network consisting of investors, supply chain manufacturers, service providers and professional services like financial, legal and marketing. We also encourage collaboration through events and workshops at our facilities." No onsite VC
=BestHQ=
In-house operating fund? NO
*connects startups and VC
*collaboration/coworking space
*paid membership
=Work Hard Pittsburgh=
In-house operating fund? NO
*Current model launched in 2016, serves as a business incubator and a co-working space
*No mention of VC
=Tampa Bay Wave=
In-house operating fund? NO
*space connecting entrepreneurs and startups
*began a startup accelerator that launched in 2013
=Think Big Partners=
In-house operating fund? NO
*"Think Big Partners helps companies grow faster, smarter and more efficiently through our network of in-house services, community members and national partners. We push the boundaries of the status quo and help entrepreneurs create game changing companies and technologies."
*Not much more information on website than that, definitely no on-site VC
=Hacker Lab=
In-house operating fund? NO
*coworking space with classes, a "hacker space", and a "maker space"
*Does not invest
=Geekdom=
In-house operating fund? YES
*Has its own "Geekdom Fund" which invests in early stage IT startups
*focus: IT, tech
*Raised $6.68m in 2014, classifies as micro VC
*coinvests with partner network
=Epicenter=
In-house operating fund? NO
*part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative, strictly a working space
*connects entrepreneurs to coworking space with hands-on mentoring
=Awesome Inc=
In-house operating fund? YES
*operates funds as a Micro VC to help startups partner with other companies
*Raised about $4.5m from 2015-2016, founded in 2016
*Focuses on education, many programs to teach high schoolers and middle schoolers basic STEM
*Reasonable to expect co-investing with these circumstances
=Learn Launch=
=Catapult Chicago=
=Velocity=
=Tech Ranch=
=ReSET=
=The Atlanta Tech Village=

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T21:07:08Z

Shrey:

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T20:57:12Z

Shrey:

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T20:50:38Z

Shrey:

Hub-Based Venture Firms

2017-02-28T20:38:56Z

Shrey: