Block‑and‑Tackle Innovation for Family Companies

Yeah, so the Fire Accelerator is an example of a type of entrepreneurial program.

It's just one of many.

So we run a 10 week cohort driven program, which brings together capital investment, mentorship, curriculum, as well as access to our network.

So those are the four things that we do.

There's lots of other kinds of programs.

There's longer term ones like incubators.

There's sort of more one off like resource providers and things like that.

So when I think about how a multigenerational family business could leverage a short term program like an accelerator program, ideally it's for something like you've identified or you know that there is something in your business that could be bigger.

Whether that's a product line, a service line, something like that.

And you think maybe there's an opportunity to commercialize this more effectively than we already have.

Either spinning it out, growing it into a larger portion of the business.

A program like an accelerator program or thinking about your business in the way that we do during a program.

can help you think about and tackle those problems, break them down into bite-sized pieces and really tackle those.

So I would say if you've got a process, a business line, or a product that's part of your offerings, but it's not part of the core offerings, that might have an opportunity to spin out, grow, where it's got some more juice in it, that might be something where partnering with an accelerator program or program like ours might make some sense.

looking at the business as a whole and saying, this portion right here could be better.

Or is this something that could grow into a new business related from what we're doing? And when we talk about succession related ventures, I think that's something that's often overlooked in family businesses.

Somebody else takes over, they develop this new portion of the business and the idea is, well, it stays in the business.

Okay.

might do better on its own can still be part of your business, can still be owned by your family, can still be operated by it.

It just might do better on its own.

That's right.

It's not about changing the core, what makes your business your business.

It's about finding the opportunities for growth or expansion and then capitalizing them on those in the way that makes the most sense.

And an accelerator provides some framework around how to capitalize on those opportunities.

So