IDEO CoLab’s Blockchain Accelerator Supported by Amazon, Deloitte, Fidelity

Major firms Fidelity, Deloitte, and Amazon have partnered up with IDEO CoLab in support of a new blockchain accelerator program dubbed Startup Studio, according to an IDEO CoLab blog post published on 11 July.

IDEO CoLab, which is a subsidiary of design firm IDEO, has partnered up with 20 blue chip and crypto firms to build on the distributed web incubator that it launched in early February this year. Other firms to back this program include the Ethereum Foundation, ETH Global, Stellar Foundation, Messari, and NEAR Protocol, among others.

The aim of Startup Studio is to unbundle the traditional startup accelerator model into a collection of programs and workshops, which will be offered by IDEO and its new partners. This will help with some of the specialized needs of blockchain startups, such as testing, branding, hiring, financing, law, engineering, and smart contract development, among others. Ian Lee, managing director at IDEO CoLab, explained in the post:

“In comparison to traditional startup accelerators or incubators, IDEO CoLab’s Startup Studio unbundles the startup accelerator model into half and full day workshops run by IDEO and our network of partners focused on a highly specialized need – like product validation, brand design, hiring, user testing, or conflict management. That way, entrepreneurs and startups can quickly get the help they need when they need it, then go back to their home offices to keep building great companies, teams, and protocols.”

Some of the programs that Startup Studio offers include an IDEO brand design workshop, an organization scaling workshop offered by Electric Capital, and a legal and regulatory workshop with law firm Perkins Coie.

According to the blog post, blockchain entrepreneurs and startups can already start applying for specific acceleration programs, through Startup Studio’s website. Some of the companies that have already participated in Startup Studio’s workshop include crypto lender Dharma, decentralized protocol 0x and crypto derivatives exchange dYdX.