Techstars Is No. 1 on TIME and Statista's 2026 Accelerator List
August 20, 2026
Techstars has been named No. 1 on TIME and Statista's America's Best Incubators & Accelerators of 2026, a ranking in which founders accounted for 85% of the score.
Techstars is No. 1 on TIME and Statista's America's Best Incubators & Accelerators of 2026, out of 80 programs evaluated.
Founders drove most of the score. Eighty-five percent of it came from people who've been through Techstars programs, 40% from a single question: would you recommend this program on a scale of zero to ten, and 45% from founders rating six things they actually received: mentoring and training, facilities, legal help, access to funding, network, and business advice. The remaining 15% rewarded outcomes. Startup track record, the top companies to come out of each program, counted for 10 points, and the only reputation input, investors and experienced entrepreneurs naming programs they rate highly, counted for five.
More than 2,000 alumni from the 2020 through 2025 cohorts weighed in. The survey ran from January through early May, and programs had to be based in the U.S. and running since 2022 or earlier to qualify.
As Techstars Founder and CEO David Cohen told TIME, Techstars tends to attract founders who need significant hands-on support, from sharpening their pitch to building the right network connections to reach market. That's the heart of our model. Our three-month programs are intense by design, but the support doesn't stop when a class ends. We stay connected with our companies because building a company doesn't happen on a fixed timeline.
Mentoring and training were one of the six things founders rated, and it's the piece of our model we hear about most. Our mentors are experienced operators who bring hands-on knowledge of regulation, data, and the hundred small decisions that can make or break an early-stage company. That's Give First in action. Our mentors show up because someone once showed up for them.
We started as one of the first accelerators to bring the membership-driven model to startups, an alternative to traditional angel investing. Almost two decades later, that same idea, connecting founders to the people and resources they need, still drives everything we do.
Congratulations to every founder who's been through a Techstars accelerator program. This ranking is really about you.
Read more about the ranking from TIME.
