Founder's Lunch at SuperNova, a year on

Startup SuperNova is an accelerator that runs an eight-week programme for startups. We took part last year, and this August the next batch started. Þórður, CEO and co-founder of Atlas, went along to the Founder's Lunch to talk about our experience of the programme and look back at the road travelled.

It is good to look back and see what Atlas has achieved in a single year. Here is what we passed on to the group now starting out.

Is an accelerator a good use of time? We were hesitant about taking part at first, unsure whether it was worth spending eight weeks on work that is not directly tied to development and going to market. We decided to pick and choose talks, to attend what suited us best and skip the rest. That plan did not survive the first week, and every doubt disappeared. The time turned out to be best spent on the programme in full, and we did not want to miss anything.

The problem, not the solution. The biggest lesson was to focus not on the solution and whether it holds up, but on the problem itself. To be able to name specific people who have that problem, talk to them, and point every search and every conversation at the real problems of potential partners. This took a few weeks to sink in, but once it did we completely changed the conversations we were having.

The community welcomes you in. The startup community in Iceland is small, and it runs on support and goodwill. At all the events that come with the programme you get to know the people in that community well and become a full member of it.

The connections paid off. The people we met through the accelerator opened the door to the partnerships that have served us very well. We would not be where we are today if we had not taken part.

Good luck to those of you starting out now.