thoughtbot
Incubator
If you've got a business idea that involves a web or mobile app, we encourage you to apply for our 8-week program. We’ll help you get the proof points you need in order to move forward with confidence.
September 5th
October 5th
October 15th, 2023.
thoughtbot will be your co-founding team for eight weeks, helping you connect your market opportunity to:
Continuous customer discovery practice
A near and long-term product strategy
One or more proof-of-concept experiments that will prove the value of your idea
What will we do together?
Market Validation
Product Validation
Product Strategy & Vision
Team Building
Confidence & Momentum
Why thoughtbot?
thoughtbot is your expert strategy, design, product management, and development partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care.
In working with countless startups over the last two decades, we’ve
seen first-hand how difficult it can be for non-technical founders to communicate their product and
technology vision, find a technical co-founder, make their first product and technology hires, and work
effectively with their technical team.
What past participants have to say
Examples of early-stage success we achieved with start-up teams.
HealthMatch360
We validated HealthMatch 360's product assumptions and confirmed the most impactful user journey which helped them win a grant to fund development.
Healthify
Using Healthify, social workers can search for the right social services for their patients, share data with other social services more effectively, and track patient outcomes.
Oneyum
After the design workshop, thoughtbot created a polished clickable prototype based on the final storyboard. Using InVision and Slack, everyone was able to communicate and iterate quickly as a remote team in a short amount of time.
TrueVisa
We spent time properly challenging technology assumptions and vetting third-party options to handle features where possible. Utilizing some third parties, allowed the thoughtbot developers to focus their time on critical features that needed to be unique to our experience.
We fundraised earlier and bigger
thoughtbot helped us quickly build the groundwork for our product, which enabled us to fundraise earlier, and for a larger round. If we hadn't worked with them, we could be a year behind where we are today.
Logistics & Investment
What are the terms?
What are the terms?
Founders can pay for our incubator in cash, equity, or a combination of both. The value of the program is $125,000 USD.
We want to set founders up for success after the program. If that means having thoughtbot on your cap table, great! But if at some point our stake in your company becomes a liability, we want to be bought out. Our equity agreement with founders therefore explicitly includes a buy-out provision.
Any additional tools and services used during the incubator – e.g. Google Ads, Webflow, AWS – should be owned and paid for by the founders.
What is required of participating founders?
What is required of participating founders?
We expect each member of the founding team to participate in incubator activities for at least 20 hours a week during the eight weeks of the program
We also expect our participating founders to “work in public” with us. We want you to benefit from thoughtbot’s platform and audience, and we want to be able to talk about our work together on our blog and on social media.
Who can apply?
Who can apply?
You have a business idea that involves building a web or mobile app
You will be working within GMT-10:00 to GMT+4:00 during the program
You have an incorporated business entity
How do I apply?
How do I apply?
You can apply using the form right here on this page (above, once applications are open).
Stay up to date
The next session will start in early 2024. Sign up here to be notified when applications open.