Venture For America’s mission is to create economic opportunity in American cities by mobilizing the next generation of entrepreneurs and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to create jobs. Becoming a full-time founder poses a financial burden and risk that many early-stage founders are unable to take. Our Accelerator is an opportunity for Fellow Founders to more comfortably take big leaps towards launching and growing their businesses.
Fellow Founders can join the Accelerator after they’ve completed our two-year Fellowship and participated in programming: ideation sessions to identify problems and brainstorm solutions; validation challenges to validate their product or idea; and pitch opportunities to further validate their business in the market.
What is the Accelerator?
The Accelerator is a three month program for Fellow-Founded Companies that are pre-Series A and have a minimum viable product. It’s also zero-equity and provides a $2500 monthly business stipend, access to a network of peers, mentors, subject-matter-experts, and investors, and a chance to win up to $10,000 in prize money at a Demo Day.
The 13-week curriculum is broken down into four blocks: product, growth, operations, and fundraising – all ranging from two to four weeks in length. Each block is designed to optimize the Founders’ ability to learn a new skill, tool, or process with a blend of virtual workshops, templates, exercises, mentoring sessions, peer-to-peer counseling, and a capstone event. Each of the 13 weeks allows for flexibility, but holds a rough structure that requires between 10-12 hours of programmed time from the Founders and 1-10 hours of at-home application exercises.
After the program, Fellow Founders will be able to: build and maintain a personal ecosystem that can be leveraged at any moment; grow in healthy confidence and mindset to sustain them on their founder journey; and have a habit of iteration and testing in service of creating founders that can contribute anywhere, not just build what they entered with. We endeavor to instill an iterative mindset within each entrepreneur that leaves the Accelerator; with the ability to apply it to sales, product, fundraising, hiring, and more for the entirety of their career.
This Year’s Cohort
After receiving an unprecedented number of applications, and an intensive selection process, we’re excited to announce our 2022 cohort of six companies:
Cardii.io | Destin Bell ‘20, San Antonio – A gamified fitness app helping make cardio fun, engaging, and addictive by making it a giant team game of turf war.
Kahenmei | Kylie Long ‘19, Charlotte and Baltimore – The first better-for-you Asian American baking mix brand.
Developmate | Christian Garcia ‘17, Denver – Creating an all-in-one solution for streamlining the real estate development process, starting with site selection.
Encircle | Ben Weinberg ‘18, Birmingham – A grief wellness app that helps grievers get sustained support from their closest friends and family.
Humblebrag | Chukwudi N. Kanu ‘20, San Antonio – A collaborative workspace where innovators can get help with their key business needs from their network of advocates.
Slay Naturals | Breonna Massey ‘20, Baltimore – A skincare line focused on simplifying skincare routines with moisture-focused products.
Stay Connected
Stay tuned to Venture For America’s social channels for more information and updates on this year’s Accelerator cohort..