Accelerating startups, the MIT way
Startup accelerators — programs that provide financial and other support to early-stage businesses — have sprouted across Boston, and the nation, over the past decade. Add to this list MIT’s Global Founders Skills Accelerator (GFSA), a summer program that provides teams of MIT and, now, international student entrepreneurs with the skills and wherewithal to commercialize their innovations. By practicing what GFSA organizers call “disciplined entrepreneurship,” the teams have demonstrated substantial progress in their businesses — and show no signs of slowing down. Initiated last year by the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship to accommodate 10 MIT startup teams, the 12-week accelerator this summer expanded to include six international teams — believed to be a first for an accelerator in an academic setting. One goal is to help the global teams use their newfound knowledge to foster an entrepreneurial ecosystem in their homelands, organizers say. From June through August, the...