After a successful spring incubator session, applications are back open for the Summer Session of the thoughtbot startup Incubator - but not for long! You have until June 7th at midnight to get your submission in. Here’s everything you need to know.
Now accepting applicants in the Americas AND Europe, West Asia, and Africa!
First, we have an exciting update. As of today, we have expanded the timezones for applicants! We’ve had a number of interested entrepreneurs from EWAA time zones reach out to us and we’ve decided to extend the potential reach of the program for the Summer Session. So if you’re in Europe, West Asia or Africa, keep reading, this program is for you too
Who is the thoughtbot startup incubator for?
The thoughtbot incubator is quite different from the typical incubator and accelerator programs you are probably familiar with. Our incubator is tailored to a founder who has a software/app focused business idea and has done some initial research. However, this founder may be feeling stuck because their concepts haven’t been completely validated and they aren’t sure how to do that validation or start creating an actual product plan.
What’s the program like?
Also unlike startup programs you might be familiar with, in the thoughtbot incubator the selected entrepreneur is partnered with a small, dedicated team of experts that works with you full-time for 8 weeks. You will collaborate with product, technical, and go-to-market pros focused on you and your idea.
Over the course of 8 weeks, you and the thoughtbot team will conduct increasingly targeted market research to narrow in on your audience and the initial product concept that will delight them. User interviews will become a part of your day to day, and at the end of the program those user interviews will include testing out your prototype.
While the program is designed to be agile and bend to the insights you uncover along the way, some activities that may take place include
- User interviews
- Messaging testing
- Website creation
- Brand voice, tone, and visual identity
- Prototyping
- Product roadmapping
- Pitch creation
- Hiring support
What happens after the program?
What happens after the program is really up to you. You may want to raise a round of funding, apply for another incubator or accelerator, hire a technical co-founder, build your MVP or all of the above. thoughtbot will help you set as much of the foundation as possible to be ready for that next step and confident in your plan.
One of the benefits of starting out in the thoughtbot Incubator is that you get to stay connected to not just your dedicated incubator team, but the whole thoughtbot team as well as past participants of the incubator. We’re currently fostering this connection in the thoughtbot Slack where founders can ask questions, share interesting resources they’re finding, as well as share their company updates.
Learning in public
Another unique aspect of our Incubator is that you are going to share what you’re doing and learning with the public week over week. A couple ways we may do this is through blog posts and livestream interviews.
At thoughtbot, we value sharing what we learn as we learn it so others can benefit. Weekly sharing is also a great way to get exposure for you and your business, not to mention honing those founder speaking skills.
But don’t take our word for it
Watch this video with Agnes Maltinszky, the first founder to go through the startup incubator.
