How Build Club is built different to fix ‘broken’ accelerator models
Annie Liao’s Build Club program for Australian AI startups kicks off this week. But she’s keen to steer clear of the traditional accelerator tropes.
Later today, 18 startups will head to a beach cabin for the weekend and map out goals for the next six weeks. Their ringleader is Annie Liao, who has selected each of them to join Build Club, a Sydney-based accelerator program where founders of AI-focused startups will develop their products, connect with industry experts and pitch to VCs.
At first glance, Liao’s program doesn’t appear to stray far from the blueprint. But after recent trips to San Francisco, she is eager to shake up an accelerator model that she thinks is “broken”.
“Compared to the Australian ecosystem, Build Club is very, very different in what we do,” Liao told Capital Brief. “I think the best founders don’t need an accelerator where they’re matched with a co-founder and then have to go through like 10 workshops in the first week. I think the best founders know how to figure things out by themselves and are super ambitious.”
Liao, who quit her VC job at Aura Ventures last year to build a Sydney hub for AI founders, has whittled down the attending startups from 156 applicants. She said the cohort will include breakaway alumni from the likes of Google, Eucalyptus and Canva, and one founder who has been accepted into Silicon Valley’s prestigious accelerator program Y Combinator later this year.
