A Leeds healthtech founder told me he was choosing between Techstars and us because, in his words, “both of you help with mentoring and getting funded.” He had read the Techstars pitch about a network of mentors and a path to investment, seen our advisory work described in similar language, and assumed the two were broadly interchangeable with different price tags. That assumption nearly cost him a meaningful slice of his company for help he could have bought without giving away any equity at all.
Here is the uncomfortable truth that the marketing on both sides obscures: SGI and Techstars are not the same kind of help, and the word “mentorship” is doing a great deal of hidden work in that confusion. Techstars is an equity-taking accelerator that runs you through a three-month programme and surrounds you with a rotating pool of volunteer mentors. SGI Consultants is an equity-free advisory and funding-facilitation partner that provides you with one accountable senior adviser and keeps your cap table intact. Both involve guidance. Only one involves giving away part of your company.
This piece breaks down what the Techstars deal actually costs in equity, what the mentorship model does and does not give you, where the programme genuinely earns its place, and how an equity-free UK alternative compares in terms of control, accountability, and access to British funding. The goal is a clear decision, not a sales pitch.
What the Techstars deal actually costs
The current Techstars accelerator offer is 220,000 US dollars, and like most accelerator terms, it is structured in two parts. The first is 20,000 US dollars, payable under a Post-Money Convertible Equity Agreement, in exchange for 5 per cent of your company’s common stock. The second is 200,000 US dollars on an uncapped SAFE with a Most Favoured Nation clause, which converts at your next priced round on the best terms you negotiate. So the total equity Techstars receives is a minimum of 5 per cent plus whatever that uncapped instrument becomes. The programme runs for three months, is mentorship-driven, and ends in a Demo Day. Techstars invests in US corporations or their foreign equivalents and runs programmes in cities worldwide, including London.
The common misreading is to treat the 5 per cent as the price. It is the floor, not the ceiling. The real cost is 5 per cent plus the conversion of the larger SAFE, and as with any uncapped instrument, that number is not fixed until your next round prices it. A 5 to 6 per cent stake in exchange for a low six-figure sum implies a modest valuation, which is exactly why the dilution maths matters: cheap-sounding capital at an early, low valuation is often the most expensive equity you will ever sell.
The SGI model does not work this way. We charge a fixed advisory fee per deliverable, starting from 400 pounds for the entry engagement, and, where we facilitate funding, we take a success fee of 1.5 per cent of the gross amount raised, against an industry norm of 5 to 10 per cent. We take no equity in any circumstance. For the Leeds founder, that distinction was the whole decision. He needed two things: a credible investor-ready plan and warm introductions to the right funders. He did not need to sell 5 per cent of a company he had spent three years building to get them.
What “mentorship” actually means in each model
The word “mentorship” is where most of the confusion lives, so it is worth being precise about what each side provides.
The Techstars model is built around the volume of mentors. The first month of the programme, often called Mentor Madness, puts founders in front of a large number of domain experts in quick succession, and you keep access to that network afterwards. This is genuinely valuable for some founders. A rotating pool of experienced operators can surface blind spots fast, and the breadth is real. The trade-off, which marketing rarely mentions, is that breadth comes at the cost of continuity and accountability. Mentors are volunteers who give their time within their own companies. Advice varies, sometimes contradicts, and no single person owns your outcome. You are responsible for synthesising a dozen opinions into a coherent plan, which is hard precisely when you are least experienced.
The SGI model is the opposite shape. You get one accountable senior adviser who knows your business in depth and stays with the engagement from diagnosis to delivery. The strength is continuity: consistent judgment, a plan that holds together, and a single person on the hook for the result. The trade-off is breadth, which we close through specific facilitation rather than a standing mentor pool. The honest framing is that these are different tools. If what you need is a wide survey of opinions and a US-style cohort experience, the Techstars pool delivers that. If what you need is one experienced partner to turn your business into something investors will back, a senior advisory relationship delivers that, and it does so without taking equity.
Where Techstars genuinely earns its place
I will not pretend the equity-free model wins universally, because it does not. Techstars is the right choice for a particular kind of founder, and if you are that founder, you should pursue it.
That founder is building a venture-scale company, wants the structure and intensity of a fixed cohort, and values the specific sector network a vertical Techstars programme can offer. Techstars runs programmes focused on areas such as space, sustainability, and fintech, and for a founder in one of those verticals, the curated access to that industry’s investors and partners is hard to replicate. The cohort format also imposes useful discipline: a deadline, a peer group, and a Demo Day that forces you to be raise-ready by a fixed date. For founders who thrive under that structure and are genuinely targeting venture rounds, the programme can be worth the dilution.
The mistake is the founder who joins for the brand and the cash without needing the cohort or the venture path. If you are building a profitable, focused UK company, or you simply need to get funded on British terms without relocating into a US corporate structure, a three-month programme that takes equity is an expensive way to buy guidance you could source without dilution. The test is whether you need the cohort itself, not just the money attached to it.
Where the UK funding picture changes, the answer
For British founders, there is a structural point that rarely makes it into the comparison. The Techstars instruments are US-style convertible agreements, and like any SAFE, they do not issue shares on the day, which means they do not qualify for the SEIS and EIS reliefs that make UK angels invest.
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme gives a UK investor up to 50 per cent income tax relief on up to 200,000 pounds a year, and lets a company raise up to 250,000 pounds. The Enterprise Investment Scheme follows on at 30 per cent relief for larger rounds. These schemes are designed to pull private money into British companies, and they are a genuine advantage that a US-structured accelerator deal asks you to set aside. There are also non-dilutive routes that sit entirely outside the accelerator question: Innovate UK grants for research and development, and the government-backed Start Up Loans scheme, which lends between 500 and 25,000 pounds per founder with twelve months of free mentoring and takes no equity at all.
The SGI approach is built around these routes rather than in spite of them. Our investor readiness work prepares founders specifically for investors who can use SEIS and EIS, and our funding facilitation introduces you to angels, grant bodies, and lenders on terms that preserve your equity. A Bristol consumer-brand founder I worked with had assumed an accelerator was the only credible path to capital. In practice, she raised a SEIS round from three UK angels and topped it up with a grant, kept 100 per cent of her equity, and never spent a day in a cohort. That is not the right answer for everyone, but it was plainly the right answer for her, and she would not have seen it if she had anchored on the famous option.
Common mistakes founders make in this decision
The first mistake is reading “mentorship” as a single thing. A rotating pool of volunteer mentors and a single accountable senior adviser are distinct products that happen to share a name. Decide which shape of help you actually need.
The second mistake is letting the cash obscure the equity. A low six-figure sum feels significant when the runway is short, which makes the 5 per cent floor and the uncapped SAFE on top of it feel abstract. Price the dilution at your expected next valuation before you sign.
The third mistake is joining for the network without checking it sells into your market. A sector-specific Techstars network is powerful for a founder in that sector and close to worthless for one outside it. Match the network to your actual customers and funders.
How to decide, in practice
Work through it in this order. First, decide whether you need a fixed three-month cohort and the discipline it imposes, or a continuous advisory relationship. Second, price the true cost of the Techstars equity at your expected next round, not the headline. Third, ask whether the specific Techstars network reaches the investors and partners who matter for your business. Fourth, map what you would forgo at home, particularly the SEIS and EIS reliefs your UK investors could claim. If you are venture-scale, want the cohort, and the network fits, Techstars may be right, and you should apply. If you want to keep your equity and raise on UK terms with a single accountable partner, an equity-free advisory and facilitation model is a better fit.
Conclusion
SGI and Techstars both involve guidance and both point toward funding, but they are not the same instrument and should not be chosen as if they were. Techstars sells venture-scale founders a structured cohort and a broad network of mentors in exchange for equity. SGI gives UK founders one accountable adviser, keeps their equity intact, and raises capital through the British routes already available to them. The deciding question is not which is more famous. It is whether you need a cohort and are willing to pay for it with equity, or a partner who can make you investable without taking a piece of what you have built.
If you are weighing this and want an honest read on which model fits your company before any equity changes hands, the right next step is a free consultation that first diagnoses your funding position.
Frequently asked questions
Is SGI an alternative to Techstars? For many UK founders, yes, but they are different instruments. Techstars is an equity-taking accelerator with a cohort and a mentor pool. SGI is an equity-free adviser that gives you one senior partner and facilitates funding without dilution. They suit different needs.
How much equity does Techstars take? A minimum of 5 per cent in common stock for the 20,000 US dollar convertible equity agreement, plus whatever the additional 200,000 US dollar uncapped Most Favoured Nation SAFE converts into at your next priced round. The full figure is only set when that round prices.
Does SGI take any equity? No. SGI charges a fixed advisory fee by deliverable and, where it facilitates funding, a success fee of 1.5 per cent of the gross sum raised. You keep your entire cap table.
Is the Techstars mentor network worth the equity? It depends on whether the network reaches your market. For a founder in a sector Techstars runs a dedicated programme for, the curated access can be valuable. For a founder outside that sector, a broad mentor pool is far less useful, and the equity cost is harder to justify.
Will a Techstars-style SAFE affect my SEIS or EIS position? Yes. The Techstars instruments are US-style convertible agreements that do not issue shares on the day and therefore do not qualify for SEIS or EIS. UK founders should take advice before using a SAFE for an early domestic round.
What if I just need to get funded, not join a programme? Then a cohort is the wrong tool. The faster route is becoming investable and being introduced directly to the right UK funders, which an equity-free adviser can do without taking a share of your company.
References
- Techstars, Investment Terms, techstars.com/newsroom/investment-terms
- British Business Bank, What is the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)?, british-business-bank.co.uk
- HM Revenue and Customs, Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme guidance, gov.uk
- Start Up Loans Company (British Business Bank), Start Up Loans scheme overview, startuploans.co.uk
- Innovate UK, Innovation Funding Service, gov.uk
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Kurt Graver is the founder and CEO of SGI Consultants, a business consultancy that has helped over 2,000 entrepreneurs establish successful startups using systematic business development methodologies. An accountant with an MBA and 25 years of commerce and consultancy experience, Kurt specialises in strategic planning, market analysis, and sustainable business growth