Year One Labs

Year One Labs launched publicly on September 6, 2010. Work on the accelerator started months before that, when the four of us got together to figure out how to build a program and a system that could find, assess, accelerate and help build great startups. We focused on a lean startup methodology, heavy in customer development and learning. We coined the term “co-create” because of how closely we wanted to work with companies.

From the outset, we planned to fund 5 companies. We did so in about 6 months from when we launched. It’s been a fantastic experience working with each and every founder that joined Year One Labs. Three of those startups have since gone on to raise follow-on capital, which is our initial (but certainly not ultimate) measure of success. This concludes the incubation phase of Year One Labs.

We now move into the active management phase. This means we will not be investing in any new startups. And we have no plans for making future investments. We’re very pleased with the results so far, and continue to work with the companies on a regular basis, but less actively than before when the companies were inside the accelerator. Much of our responsibility now is to open up our network, help the companies raise follow-on capital, recruit and scale.

We want to take this moment to thank all of our investors and mentors. They’ve been an incredible asset to us as partners and to the startups as well. And they continue to participate, working with and mentoring the companies. Those relationships will last for many years to come.

We’re excited to see how the Year One Labs’ graduates evolve and ultimately create successful companies.

Ben, Ray, Alistair and Ian