The article represents the result of a practical analysis of the business accelerators operating in the Russian Federation in order to identify the mandatory components of their activities, as well as approaches to their definition and interpretation. As part of the study, the conditions of participation in acceleration programs and internal documents of business accelerators were analyzed in order to generalize and systematize the data obtained. The article summarizes and organizes the obligatory and optional elements of business accelerators, gives their legal assessment in the absence of normative legal regulation, makes non-obvious comparisons and parallels with the current normative acts. The analysis of the structural elements of the business accelerator allows for further research in the field of their classification and determination of the principles of business accelerators: for example, the allocation of financial flows within the accelerator and their legal regulation depend on the composition of participants, as well as the availability of a competitive basis for the selection of applications depends on the level of entry barriers to the accelerator and the availability of participation in acceleration programs for potential participants. The conclusions described in the paper have high practical and academic value and novelty. On the one hand, the results obtained are an actual expression of the reality and represent analytical data necessary for further research. On the other hand, the findings and collected data can be further used in the formation of the concept of the legal model of the business accelerator, including may be prerequisites for legal regulation and legalization of the business accelerator model in Russia. And finally, the results obtained at this stage of the development of business accelerators can be applied when launching new acceleration programs in such a way that newly launched projects meet the correct parameters and criteria of the business accelerator and allow them to operate based not on spontaneous principles of trials and errors, but with a stable understanding and transparent mechanism, ensuring equal and fair access for participate in acceleration programs.