Joining a startup accelerator program is an opportunity that many entrepreneurs vie for. With only 1,300 programs around the world, startup accelerators exclusively invest their time and resources into the most promising companies. A startup accelerator is an intensive, typically mentor-based, program that aims to expedite a young company's growth. Accelerators bring a plethora of knowledge and experience, which can be crucial for first-time founders and the success of their companies. Beyond the mentorship opportunities, startup accelerators can also connect founders to investors and help them with fundraising.

The Pittsburgh renaissance has been covered in many places, including in this column. One area of the tech boom in Pittsburgh that I had not covered is the investor community. Pittsburgh-based Innovation Works is one of the country's top seed investors, and CB Insights ranks it as America's most active investor in robotics. The company's mission is "to introduce, connect, support and expand the startup & entrepreneurial ecosystem within Southwestern Pennsylvania, making our region a center for innovative startups and tech investors from around the country." Innovation Works' portfolio includes companies in the robotics, artificial intelligence, medical devices, retail technologies, and enterprise software fields, among others.

Every company today is becoming in part a software company – we see this every day at Microsoft. Whether it's auto manufacturers, retailers, health care providers or financial services firms, our customers are not only transforming their own business operations with our software but collaborating with our consultants and engineers to create new digital products and services that run on our platform. As we look to the future, advancements and the adoption of cloud services, data analytics and artificial intelligence will only accelerate this phenomenon. That's why today we are announcing Microsoft's Shared Innovation Initiative. It is based on a set of principles designed to address co-created technology and intellectual property (IP) issues that give customers clarity and confidence regarding their work with Microsoft.