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What is a global accelerator
A global accelerator is a large-scale program, which provides both capital resources and expert mentorship to new startups. It is an engineering-based company that has developed a way to accelerate the growth of an early stage startup by investing in, and supporting it. It offers a three-phase acceleration program. The first phase is a seed fund, which provides capital to the startup. The second phase is venture capital, which helps startups grow. The third phase of the program is an accelerator. During this period, the startup accelerates itself in term of business scope and potential while undergoing extensive engineering training and support through technical workshops, mentoring programs and communication with investors and senior executives of the accelerator’s portfolio companies. The final outcome of this three-phase offering is a constantly growing startup, which possesses the capabilities to either become a stand alone entity or be launched into a larger tech ecosystem by becoming part of an accelerator.
While many accelerators around the world are similar or even the same, there are some fundamental differences that distinguish one accelerator from another. One way in which to make sense of these different approaches is to compare them with other kinds of service industries that provide similar levels of mentorship and capital support towards entrepreneurs. This article will compare a tech accelerator to a healthcare accelerator, and examine their similarities and differences.
At the heart of most accelerators is an engineer-centric approach aimed at helping startups succeed. While most accelerators offer similar programming that prepares the company for growth and eventually a revenue-generating exit, they are different in how this is accomplished. One common approach is setting up leaders to train entrepreneurs on technical skills that they can use to become successful in their own right, or convince them to join an incubator or an accelerator. However, this is not the only way in which tech accelerators work.

How does it work
The accelerator provides the startup with technology, mentors and capital. The accelerator’s investment has to be returned by the company either in the form of growth capital or profit sharing. Companies that have received funding from an accelerator can either pay back their investments with profit shares or return their money in the form of growth capital. The Global Accelerator Development Program (GADP) bases its investments on earning a return on investment by creating value for all parties involved. The GADP is a nonprofit organization with partners in over 30 countries.
Cloudfronts custom caching system is set up by the accelerator to provide a CDN service to startups from the program’s list of startups. The service allows Cloudfront to serve the cached content from their edge locations. The custom caching system provides accelerators with a CDN service for their own acceleration programs.

How to choose the best global accelerator for your business
To choose the best global accelerator for your business, you need to know the different types of accelerators. The 10 most popular types of accelerators are: social businesses, sustainability, humanitarian, women-focused, health and wellness, reward/gamification, military veteran focused, edtech, technology for change and Industry-Academia partnerships. If a business is trying to accelerate a company that has less than or equal to $1 million in revenue and is less than or equal to 5 years old, then it should choose Humanitarian Accelerator. It is the best accelerator if you are looking to grow a social business that has a lot of heart and soul. To choose the best global accelerator for your business, you need to know the type of investors who are looking for investment opportunities in your business.
“Social businesses, sustainability, humanitarian, women-focused and health and wellness accelerators invest in over 1,000 social enterprises. They want to help those with a heart. They invest in businesses that aim to benefit the world.”
“Social business accelerators are best for businesses with a strong social mission that want to make a positive impact on society. They focus on funding and supporting social entrepreneurs who are interested in making a change.”

The difference between a global accelerator and cloudfront
A global accelerator has a supportive environment for the startup to grow. In contrast, cloudfront is more of a community that helps startups with development of their product after a few years have passed by. Cloudfront allows the businesses to build their company on the cloud and be supported by Amazon’s infrastructure. For example, the companies can submit bug reports with Amazon and we respond to them within 24 hours. Therefore, we are able to accelerate our technology without affecting our customers’ or partners’ experience with us. [emphasis mine] ~ Jayme (“Jay”) W. Greene, Vice President, Amazon Web Services
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Overview
