- What do we want to know?
How did successful applicants find out about the program, why did they apply to the program, and what was their perception of the program (Baltipreneurs Accelerator). Is the program effective?
- How will we know we have been successful?
More quality applications to the accelerator and a better pool of applicants. With this, a better outcome is expected with higher quality projects in the accelerator program.
- What specific kinds of data will we need?
Applications will be scored on a variety of dimensions regarding their strength. This will then be compared to last cohort’s application scoring to see if an improvement in quality has taken place.
We will also survey the businesses from last cohort to see “where are they now” and gather information on the value imputed to them by the last accelerator. Mentors will be surveyed to see how their experience was with their mentee companies. Students will be interviewed upon application.
- Do those data exist? If so, where? Who owns them? Can we get them?
Regarding the application data: Yes; Wendy Bolger, the client sponsor, owns them. We have already been granted that information for the scoring from last cohort. This coming cohort will be scored in October.
- How should we display the data?
Data on applications is put into a chart using scoring on the dimensions measured.
- How often should data be collected? How often can they be collected? Who will collect them?
Data will be collected regarding application strength each cohort (yearly). Interviews will be performed on businesses accepted one year later to see where they are now (yearly) and if progress has occurred on their key metrics (these are decided by the businesses each program). One-time questionnaires will be given to accepted businesses, and students will be administered questionnaires upon reception of their applications to find out the aforementioned data – how they found out about the program, why did they apply, etc. Surveys are administered every week regarding programming and efficacy therein – asks “did you gain value from this week’s programming? What would you like less or more of? etc.”
- Do we need permission to access the data?
Given.
- What resources do we need?
Nothing additional. Just access to Wendy’s collected survey data and application scoring data. We will administer surveys and gather data via her.
To summarize, data needed/gathered are:
- Application info and scores
- Past application info and scores
- Interview or survey with students that get in about what went right to get them to apply (AI perspective)
- Weekly surveys during the program
- Post-program with the participating businesses
- Interview mentors or businesses from last cohort
The effectiveness of the program will be evaluated qualitatively based on the Kauffman Foundation’s guidelines:
3822_Kauffman_Measuring_Accelerators_Brief_v3
The applications for the accelerator are evaluated based on the dimensions in the following rubric:
