We track 34 programmes in our catalogue that take equity and 96 that don't. That ratio alone tells you something: most of the help available to early founders does not require you to give anything away. So before you sign a term sheet for a 12 week programme, it's worth asking what the other 96 are missing that the 34 have.
The actual range
Equity asks in our catalogue run from roughly 4% to 7.5%, and they correlate with cheque size, not with prestige. gener8tor Investment Accelerator writes $100,000 for 7.5%. Conector Startup Accelerator takes 4-7% for a smaller cheque bundled with services rather than a flat cash figure. Alchemist Accelerator asks for about 5%, negotiable, against a $25,000 stipend. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator is the cleanest structure of the four: $150,000 on a 6% post-money SAFE, with cohorts opening W'27 and S'27. At the top end of cheque size, Katapult Accelerator writes €150,000-€500,000, which is a different kind of commitment than a $25,000 stipend and should be judged by different rules.
The pattern: smaller cheques (Alchemist's $25,000, Conector's services-plus-cash bundle) sit at lower-to-mid equity percentages with shorter, less structured follow-on promises. Larger, cleaner cheques (ERA's $150,000, Katapult's €150,000-€500,000) come with more formal paper, because at that size the investor needs the SAFE or note to actually hold up in a future round.
What you are actually buying
Strip the pitch deck language and an equity accelerator place is two things: cash, and access. The cash is the easy part to value, it's printed on the term sheet. The access is where founders overpay without realising it. Demo day, mentor rosters, and investor intros are worth something only if the programme's actual alumni and partner network reaches the investors you need next. A programme that promises mentorship without naming the mentors, or a demo day without naming who attends, is selling you a percentage of your company for a brochure.
Compare that to what's free. Google for Startups Accelerator offers mentorship and technical support with zero equity taken. If your actual need is technical mentorship rather than a cheque, that is a straight substitute for part of what an equity programme sells you, at a 0% price. The part you cannot get for free is the capital itself, so the real question for any equity programme is whether the cheque size justifies the percentage on its own, stripped of the mentorship story.
The terms beside the percentage
The headline percentage is the number founders argue over and the number that matters least. Three terms matter more:
- Pro rata rights: does the accelerator get the right to invest in your next round to maintain its percentage, and at what size does that start eating your cap table every round after?
- MFN (most favoured nation) clauses: if you raise again on better terms, does the accelerator's paper automatically upgrade to match, diluting you twice for one investment?
- The valuation cap on the money: ERA's $150,000 is a post-money SAFE at 6%, which means the cap is baked into the percentage itself. Compare that to a programme that takes a flat percentage with no cap disclosed. A flat, stated post-money number like ERA's is easier to model than a percentage with an undisclosed cap, because you know exactly what 6% costs you before you ever raise again.
If a programme cannot tell you its cap, or whether it takes pro rata, you are not negotiating a percentage, you are negotiating blind. Ask for the actual SAFE or note template before the pitch, not after you've been accepted.
When a grant is strictly better
A grant is strictly better whenever the cash figure is close to what an equity programme offers and no percentage is attached. PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator gives $20,000 equity-free, with up to $100,000 more for winners, which beats Alchemist's $25,000 stipend on every axis except the mentor network. Grindstone Accelerator is free, full stop. FSF Accelerator Grant gives $50,000 with no equity attached at all. Arkansas Business and Technology Accelerator Grant Program offers up to $250,000 at the programme level, or $50,000-$100,000 as an SBIR match, again equity-free. Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship pays $275,000 per Fellow per year in project funding plus a stipend, which dwarfs most equity cheques in our catalogue and costs you nothing in shares.
A grant stops being strictly better once the amount gets small relative to what you need, or once the equity programme's network is the thing you actually can't buy elsewhere. Michigan Business Accelerator Fund gives $7,000 to $15,000, which won't move a seed round forward on its own, so weigh it against gener8tor's $100,000 for 7.5% if you're choosing between the two for the same six month runway problem. The rule is simple: take the grant when the dollar figures are in the same range, because free money and equity money spend the same at the bank. Take the equity cheque only when the percentage buys you a specific door that no grant application opens.
Run the comparison yourself before you sign anything: the full list of programmes that take equity, with their percentages and cheque sizes side by side, is at businesschain.us/funds/type/equity.