Founder Friday is a weekly guest post written by a founder who is based in or hails from the Silicon Prairie. Each month, a topic relevant to startups is presented and founders share lessons learned or best practices utilized on that topic. June’s topic focuses on sharing experiences from and lessons learned in accelerators.

About the author: Luis Lopez is co-founder of CardioSys, a data science startup that combines advanced predictive analytics with powerful data visualization to provide actionable insights toward improved health outcomes and data guided research. Lopez and his co-founder went through Straight Shot accelerator in Omaha last summer.

I’ve lived in a few countries, but the one that has marked my entrepreneurial spirit the most is Belize.

At age seven, along with my family, I relocated to Belize for four years of missionary work in some of the poorest areas of the country, aiding the less fortunate with food, housing, education and healthcare. Exposed to this environment at an early age, I grew up with the idea of building something with enough influence to touch the lives of millions and radically change the world for the better.

Years later, while living in Madrid, Spain, I ran across a tweet from Bill Gates that called desperately for innovation in healthcare, which became the tipping point to start a company with my younger brother, Danny.

This is how CardioSys was born. That same day I was accepted into Omaha’s Straight Shot startup accelerator.

At the same time, Corporate America knocked on my door. While a corporate job was secure, long-term and comfortable, it didn’t fulfill the foundation of the idea I had while in Belize. I didn’t want to work on a better marketing campaign, advertising play or whatever.

I wanted to build a company from the ground up and would help solve some of the toughest problems in healthcare. So we took the leap of faith and joined Straight Shot. To say it was an incredible experience would be an understatement. Joining an accelerator took us from an idea to what is now a growing startup that’s solving real-world problems through data science for various organizations.

While the number of lessons learned at Straight Shot is incalculable, here’s a short list of some of the most memorable and impactful:

Drive

Starting a company is difficult, risky and requires a lot of dedication and drive. If you don’t mind a great challenge, then starting a company is a good idea; otherwise, it’ll stress you out and make you miserable. 

Focus

It’s challenging to keep your mind on the main thing when 10 mentors are telling you how to do the same thing 10 different ways. Be teachable, listen, and consider every bit of advice—just don’t forget that the ultimate decision is yours and you will held be accountable for it. 

Pivot

Most founders start with good ideas to solve specific, unsolved problems. Great ideas, however, usually emerge from small discoveries that you run into along the way. Your idea will change—and the sooner, the better. 

Homework

An accelerator is not to figure out if being an entrepreneur is something you’d like to do. It’s to accelerate your business or to take your idea to the next level. Be sure to do your homework before, during and after the program to maximize utility and not waste the most valuable of assets: your time.

Quitting

The startup life is a roller coaster. The highs are very high and the lows are very low.

You’ll probably pivot, your product may fail or things will seem to hit a dead-end during the time in the accelerator. There were plenty of times when Danny and I walked out of meetings wanting to throw in the towel and give up, but we decided to stick it out and it’s been incredibly rewarding.

If one door closes, 10 more will open. Never give up. 

Neighbors

During Straight Shot, we really bonded with the other teams and would often go out to lunch, see movies, have poker nights or stay up late in deep conversation. The mentors, speakers and network members were incredibly helpful during the three months, but some of the best startup advice, best practices and wisdom came from the other founders in the room.

Play

Work to live. Don’t live to work. 

We worked really hard during those three months, but also knew when it was time to decompress.