One of the founders of PROnoise.com, an Indie music site that will shortly go live, confirmed that he’s getting real value out from being part of the StartEngine Accelerator.  In a conversation yesterday, Chase Smiegiel, noted that he’s getting great mentoring from two seasoned entrepreneurs.  Chase also said that Howard Marks has been able to open doors with key players with quick phone call.  Oh, and the cash investment didn’t hurt, either.

This looks like a real case of “acceleration”–an entrepreneur getting far more out of an incubator than just office space and shared services.  The team at StartEngine has been able to provide focused mentoring and connections that are allowing PROnoise to make real progress in a short period of time.  In particular, they were able to open doors at key music venues that will likely become beta partners for the company’s commercial launch.

It was also clear that Chase made a conscious decision to accept accelerator funding at a very low valuation.  He mentioned that it was “expensive money”,  but worth it.  No buyer’s remorse here.

There is a key takeaway for entrepreneurs considering an incubator–does the team at the incubator (operators and mentors) clearly have industry connections that will help you business?  If they do, you can get real value, just like PROnoise .

Photo credit: http://pronoise.com/#artists/40-the-internship