5 best Disco Alternatives for Incubators and Accelerators in 2024

Startup accelerators and incubators are essential for nurturing startups and providing them with the support needed to scale and succeed.

Choosing the right software for accelerators is essential for streamlining processes, facilitating effective coaching, and enhancing communication, enabling incubators and accelerators to manage these programs effectively.

In this blog, we will explore five software alternatives to Disco, each offering unique features that cater to different needs within the startup accelerator, innovation, and incubator ecosystem.

What we will learn in article: 

• Understand what disco is all about, identifying its core features, benefits, and robust tools. This includes learning tool suites, community and engagement, and productivity tools.
• Look at AcceleratorApp, the leading tool in developing startup ecosystems used by global accelerators and incubators such as KAUST, German Accelerator, MIT, E4Impact, CGIAR and Hultzprize. AcceleratorApp offers custom solutions for managing startup applications, community management, learning management system, and startup data portfolio tracking built around their processes.
• Acknowledge that both platforms play a crucial role in growing communities. However, AcceleratorApp stands out due to its application management system, personalized coaching system, and emphasis on providing startup portfolio data and analytics, positioning it as a superior alternative for acclerators, incubators and innovation centers.
• Explore other disco alternatives, such as Teachfloor, Babele, Skipso, and Evalato, and compare their best use cases for startup accelerators, incubators, and innovation centers.

What is Disco?

Disco is a comprehensive platform designed specifically for social learning. It aims to enhance the user experience by offering tools that facilitate practical course management and provide immersive experiences.

This software is designed for organizations needing a social learning platform to create personalized learning environments for their students. It provides robust tools for:

• Cohort based learning
• Virtual academies and schools
• Certification programs
• Paid membership communities

Here are the features you can enjoy on Disco:

Immersive learning experiences: Offers modules and tools that create engaging and interactive learning environments.

Cohort management: Simplifies the administration of participant groups with powerful management tools.

Curriculum builder: Allows you to design and deliver the proper collaborative learning journeys.

Customization and branding: Allows programs to build the platform to reflect their brand identity and user needs.

Disco AI: Allows you to create personalized learning content for your cohort to build lessons and courses.

Disco helps manage cohorts, build curriculums, and create personalized content. However, it lacks several features required to run accelerator and incubator programs seamlessly. Due to the demanding nature of these projects, it's preferable to use more robust tools such as AcceleratorApp to manage your programs effectively.

With that said, let's look into the six best alternative startup incubator and accelerator softwares to Disco.

Alternative #1: AcceleratorApp - Fully Customizable Software Built by an Incubator Manager for Incubator and Accelerator Managers.

It's not news that AcceleratorApp is trusted by leading global incubators and accelerators such as German Accelerator, Impact Hub, University of Toronto, MIT, HultzPrize, and many more.

AcceleratorApp was built by an incubator manager for incubator, innovation center, and accelerator managers, and is designed around their processes. We personally know your struggles, and which is one of the many reasons why leading organizations trust us.

Disco vs AcceleratorApp Key Features

Application and Selection Process.

Disco allows you to create forms and collect applications for their product courses and social learning programs. It turns application data into engagement thanks to personalized AI content recommendations and learning experiences, but these features are built around something other than the process accelerators and incubators need.

On the other hand, AcceleratorApp's application processing feature offers a comprehensive way to create and automate your application selection process. It lets you save time utilizing multiple tools like Disco, Airtable, Google Forms, and Gmail by consolidating everything you need into one platform to streamline your application process.

With AcceleratorApp's application and selection process, you can:

• Build your selection process through our round-by-round funnel builder.
• Create any number of selection rounds.
• Assign judges to evaluate startups in each round.
• Schedule evaluation meetings integrated into your calendar.
• Set automated acceptance or rejection emails for each round sent to your applicants or personalized emails sent to your candidates, judges, evaluators, and meeting hosts.

Our application management tool also features a simple drag-and-drop form builder with various question types, such as text, numerical, single-choice, multiple-choice, tables, audio, and video recordings, allowing you to collect the necessary application data.

We also let you set flexibility in data validations, such as compulsory or optional questions and conditional rules, and display application form questions in relevant order.

With AcceleratorApp, you get an all-in-one platform to manage your processes from the application stage to the consideration, rejection, acceptance, and evaluation stage. This saves you countless hours and allows you to focus on what really matters: capturing high-quality startups and coaching them to their next milestone.

Startup Data Tracking

Disco is excellent for understanding learner behavior, tracking cohort performance, and making informed decisions to propel businesses forward. With Disco, you can track and gain valuable data insights to refine cohort content, pricing, and marketing strategies.

AcceleratorApp takes the above one step further with data collection features built just for incubators and accelerators.

Accelerator App helps you:

• Simplify and automate startup data collection.
• Create data collection forms tailored to each startup's business model and stage of development.
• Choose multiple question types and add conditional rules to each question to track startup progress.
• Customize your startup data metric to track and compare through against time on a visualized graph.

Personalized Coaching System

AcceleratorApp stands out with its coaching tool, which allows you to automate meeting scheduling for coaches, mentors, experts, and startup founders. We sync with your calendar in two ways for an easy booking process and instant notifications.

Additionally, startups or mentors can initiate coaching sessions, allowing for easy access between the parties. These sessions also feature note-taking capabilities for both the mentor/expert and the startup to document their discussions, facilitate proper evaluations, and assign clear action items.

AcceleratorApp has numerous features aside from the ones mentioned above, including:

• Learning Management System
• Events and Community Management
• Application Management and Evaluation System
• Resources and Course Articles Section
• Startup Data Tracking
• Coaching Tools
• Customization and Branding

AcceleratorApp offers six plans based on your organization's size: Application Only, Starter, Starter Plus, Essential, Premium, and Enterprise. Visit our pricing page for a quote.

Success Stories

Many accelerators and incubators have leveraged AcceleratorApp to improve their operations and have reported significant growth in managing their programs.

German Accelerator specializes in helping high-potential German startups in the growth phase understand, discover, and access the leading innovation hubs in the US, Asia, and South America. With a track record of over 850 nurtured startups and a staggering $15.6 billion raised by program participants, German Accelerator's network of over 500 expert mentors has played a pivotal role in scaling the startup ecosystem in Germany and beyond, instilling confidence in the program's effectiveness.

Learn how AcceleratorApp helped German Accelerator to expand and streamline their processes globally.

The Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP) is the venture space that leverages CGIAR’s legacy in research and innovation to co-design, accelerate, and de-risk the development and deployment of science-based solutions for sustainable agriculture and climate action. A4IP entrepreneurs pioneer models to bridge research products from lab to market, create demand for CGIAR science, and strengthen its role in the innovation ecosystem. The initiative plays a catalytic role for entrepreneurial scientists, startups, and other strategic partners driving innovation that will make our agri-food systems healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable. A4IP is an initiative powered by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; a CGIAR research center.

Alternative #2: Teachfloor

Teachfloor is especially suited for educational accelerators. It offers specialized tools that focus on academic outcomes and teacher-student interactions, enhancing the learning process within accelerator programs.

Key Features

• Cohort-Based Learning Modules: Teachfloor enables collaboration among participants through features such as group projects, peer reviews, and discussion forums, creating a supportive learning community where participants can learn from each other.
• Interactive Discussion Forums: Teachfloor provides an integrated community space within the platform, enabling seamless connection, collaboration, and resource sharing among participants, instructors, and administrators.
• Customization and Branding: Teachfloor lets instructors personalize their courses by incorporating branding elements such as logos, colors, and themes, guaranteeing a uniform and polished learning experience.

Alternative #3: Babele

Babele is a comprehensive platform designed to meet innovation's administrative and strategic planning needs. It helps innovators manage their programs efficiently and encourages collaboration and innovation among their cohorts.

Key Features

• Application funnel: Assist innovation managers in building application funnels to plan hackathons, launch pools, and evaluate applicants.
• Collaborative Project Management: Enable startups to plan and execute projects with mentor oversight.
• Impact Measurement: Track the progress and impact of startups, providing valuable insights for both participants and administrators.
• Community Engagement Features: Encourage a collaborative environment for sharing resources, insights, and support.

Alternative #4: Skipso

Skipso is a comprehensive platform designed to support the entire lifecycle of innovative ideas within a single innovation management system. It offers a robust suite of features tailored to enhance application management, track portfolio progress, and foster mentorship opportunities.

Key Features

• Application Management: Skipso offers a user-friendly application management system that streamlines startups' intake and review process, ensuring a smooth operational flow.
• Portfolio Tracking: Skipso enables innovation platforms to effectively monitor the development and performance of their portfolio companies, providing the insights needed to offer precise support and strategic guidance.
• Mentorship Programs: Skipso helps to connect startups with seasoned mentors, creating an environment of productive and enriching interactions that support startup growth and learning.

Alternative #5: Evalato

Evalato is a next-generation awards application management platform that excels at managing large volumes of applications. It streamlines the judging and review process and enhances decision-making.

Key Features

• Application Management: Evalato helps award management teams create application portals to manually or automatically review them.
• Payments: Accept payments right away and directly into your merchant account. Set your entry prices and easily collect fees from applicants for your program.
• Branding and Website: Customize and style the various elements of your program – no training or technical skills are needed to make your brand the centerpiece.

Our Final Note

When looking for the right tool for your accelerator or incubator, you consider multiple touchpoints such as features, pricing, customer support, and brand value. AcceleratorApp and Disco have powerful features, but AcceleratorApp emerges as the superior alternative.

Its user-friendliness, ease of use, customer service, and excellent customizable features, built by an incubator manager for incubator managers, make it stand out from every other alternative. AcceleratorApp is the top-recognized platform for incubators and accelerators.

Still trying to decide what platform to build your processes on? Book a short call with our team for a free 14-day trial for your organization.