Santa Monica, CA (PRWEB) January 18, 2017
Silicon Valley clings to an unwritten but long-held theory that 98% of startups are destined to fail. Expert Dojo is challenging this theory. They acknowledge that most startups fall short of success. But they believe these failures are often the result of an unfair playing field.
Expert Dojo founder, Brian Mac Mahon explains: "Many large accelerators and investors follow bad practices. Lean Startup, for instance, contributes to premature jumps to market without validation and planning."
Expert DOJO ties long-term success with proper preparation and milestone planning. Their Peak Performance Center trains companies to reach incremental growth milestones. This philosophy is in stark contrast to the swing-for-the-fences approach of most accelerators.
Expert DOJO launched its first cohort in Q1 of 2017. More than 80 companies, local and international, have earned acceptance into the program. Non-local startups attend remotely via streaming technology.
Applications remain open here – Accelerator Application.
The Expert DOJO story has been evolving for two decades. Founder Brian Mac Mahon has owned successful businesses in more than forty countries. During that time, he noticed foreign startups enjoyed a higher five-year success rate than their US counterparts.
Mac Mahon says, "It was a red flag that US-based entrepreneurs had an unfair playing field. Investors, big private business, and local governments weren't doing enough to help startup innovation succeed."
He decided to create Expert DOJO as a way to even out the playing field. He opened a 10,000 square foot laboratory where entrepreneurs could work for free, with the understanding that Expert DOJO staff would study the failure and success traits of each community member.
"What we found is that a lot of the approaches of the Lean Startup movement don't work in reality," says Mac Mahon.
With this insight, a new startup training foundation was born. Mac Mahon shared the resulting ideas in a TEDx talk in Irvine, California in 2016.
Many experts in various fields have joined forces with McMahon to expand the level of resources offered to the Expert DOJO community. Santa Monica Place, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and Cort Furniture have been big supporters of the startup community from the start. In addition:
- ENKI Technologies developed a unique, crowdsourced training platform.
- Venture legal team Harvey Esquire provided the legal structure.
- Jonathan Wallace developed the largest startup-investor pitch event in the United States.
- Dustin Dye "the startup guy" built an accelerator program that connects startups with 400 expert mentors.
Expert DOJO's goal for the next 18 months is to help members achieve the highest success rate in the US. They'll do this by helping startups keep more equity and focus on reaching milestones, all with the wider community fueling the success of each member.
According to Mac Mahon, "Expert DOJO puts startups and investors on equal ground. This equality leads to stronger brands, more creativity, more opportunity, and more success for everyone."
About Expert DOJO:
Expert DOJO is a business accelerator based in Santa Monica, with offices in Vancouver. A San Francisco and New York office will open in 2017, with further expansion plans expected. For details, please contact info@expertdojo.com, call +1 (310) 745-9580 or visit online at http://www.expertdojo.com. Media contact is Brian Mac Mahon and can be contacted at brian@expertdojo.com