Ready to hit the gas on your startup?

Accelerate is a eight- to ten-week program open to community members and OSU researchers, students and staff who intend to establish a privately held, high-growth entrepreneurial venture. This stage focuses on developing a minimal viable product and engaging in customer discovery to validate your product market fit.

The regular Accelerate program runs three times a year (fall, winter, and spring). Through the scheduled program events, one-on-one sessions with the directors, meetings with mentors, and access to intern assistance on projects, startup teams will receive the support they need to get their concept into the marketplace.

The next session of Accelerate will be a condensed, remote program that meets every week for nine weeks, starting Tuesday, April 13th. Each session runs for two hours from 3pm-5pm.

The Spring 2021 Accelerate application closed March 31st. 

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Entrance Requirements

  • Intent to establish a privately held, for-profit organization
  • Amenable to advice from staff and mentors
  • Apparent growth prospects as an innovative traded sector entity
  • Comply with all responsibilities in duties as outlined in client agreement and exhibits
  • Intent to drive economic growth and create jobs

Program goals

  • Develop a process for finding and interviewing your target customers
  • Define your minimal viable product
  • Validate your product market fit
  • Create a repeatable sales model
  • Identify team needs and build accordingly

Graduation Portfolio

  1. Product Market Validation
  2. Elevator Pitch
  3. Five-minute Pitch Deck
  4. Social Media Presence
  5. 50+ customer interviews conducted

Through OSU's I-corps grant, the Accelerator has potential funds to distribute to select Accelerate teams for attending trade shows to accessing customers and/or prototype development.

Fees

  • Administrative: $100
  • Equity: 1%
  • Royalty: 2 & 1/2% of sales. This is payable when annual sales reach $200,000. Lifetime cap on payments is $100,000.