This is a big part of it. I advised a founder who has gone through 9 startup accelerator programs worldwide (I told him to stop after the first one but he didn’t listen).

Each one gives him some new way to ‘level up’ in the game that is startups, without having to launch a real product or business. It’s all about grooming the startup to look good to VCs.

I joked with him that his real business should be consulting with startups that go through accelerators since he’s a veritable expert at it now.