81%
Of our pre-announcement coverage calls were confirmed by official cohort announcements
Since launching in January 2023, AcceleratorWire has covered accelerator programs with an emphasis on pre-announcement reporting — identifying likely cohort members before programs officially announce. This page tracks how that reporting has held up against reality.
We define a “confirmed” call as any company we identified as a likely cohort member that was subsequently included in the official cohort announcement. We count a “miss” as any company we identified that was not selected, or any company selected that we failed to identify. Both directions matter.
Accuracy by Program
| Program | Calls Made | Confirmed | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Y Combinator | 32 | 26 | 81% |
| Techstars (all verticals) | 28 | 24 | 86% |
| ICON Spark | 9 | 8 | 89% |
| 500 Global | 18 | 14 | 78% |
| Alchemist Accelerator | 12 | 10 | 83% |
| Antler | 14 | 10 | 71% |
| Others (combined) | 45 | 36 | 80% |
Notable Scoops
Several of our pre-announcement calls stand out for timing and specificity:
ICON Spark 2025 Cohort — 6 Weeks Early
We identified 7 of the 10 eventual ICON Spark 2025 cohort members six weeks before the official announcement. Our reporting was based on source conversations and investment signal cross-referencing. This was our highest-accuracy early call.
YC W25 Batch — Sector Shift Call
In January 2025, we published reporting that YC's Winter 2025 batch would shift heavily toward applied AI over pure infrastructure. The final batch confirmed this — applied AI companies made up 40% of the cohort, up from 25% in the previous cycle.
Techstars NYC 2024 — Demo Day Standout
We flagged three Techstars NYC 2024 companies as standouts before demo day. All three went on to raise follow-on rounds within 90 days — faster than the batch median by 4 months.
Honest Misses
We publish our misses because credibility requires it. Reporting only our wins would make this page useless.
500 Global Batch 33 — Overconfident on Two Companies
We reported two companies as likely 500 Global selections based on strong source signals. Both were rejected. In one case, the company had a co-founder departure between our reporting and the selection decision. In the other, the program shifted thematic priorities mid-cycle. These misses taught us to flag timing- sensitive risks more explicitly.
Antler Residency 12 — Source Network Gap
Our Antler coverage has consistently been our weakest area (71% accuracy). The program's pre-team formation model makes it harder to identify specific companies before they exist. We missed 4 of 14 calls across two Antler cohorts. We are actively building deeper source relationships in the Antler ecosystem.
YC S25 — Missed Three International Companies
We failed to identify three international companies that were selected for YC Summer 2025. Our source network at the time skewed heavily Bay Area and U.S. This miss prompted us to invest in expanding our international source coverage. We have since added sources in London, Singapore, and Tel Aviv.
Corrections Policy
When we get something wrong, we correct it publicly and promptly. Corrections are appended to the original article with a clear label, timestamp, and explanation of what changed. We do not silently edit published articles.
If a correction is significant enough to change the thrust of an article, we publish a standalone correction notice. To date, we have issued 4 corrections across 3 years of coverage — all for factual errors brought to our attention by sources or readers.
To report an error, email [email protected].
Track record data is self-reported based on our internal methodology. A “confirmed” call requires the company to appear in the official cohort announcement. We count both false positives (we predicted, program did not select) and false negatives (program selected, we did not predict) in our accuracy calculations. Last updated May 10, 2026.