Startup Accelerator
What It Is
The Accelerator is a support program for early-stage startups. It provides mentorship, education, and resources to startups so you can raise an initial round of capital.
We teach and mentor our teams in three areas:
We teach and mentor our teams in three areas:
- Product. A startup needs to understand their customer's needs, then set and hit product milestones.
- Sales. Startups in the Accelerator learn how to sell/market their product, and how do build a sales pipeline.
- Financing. Startup founds need to build a pitch deck and pro forma, and learn how to pitch for funding.
Success for our teams is raising the capital needed to devote themselves to their startup full time.
Why It Matters
We believe that we can build prosperity through educating entrepreneurs and starting companies. Notre Dame is blessed with many good ideas and high-potential entrepreneurs among our students, faculty, and community. When we connect them with the right resources, their likelihood of success is multiplied.
Go Deeper
Our list of resources is pretty extensive. Here is a shortened list:
- $24k in funding
- High-quality mentorship from industry experts in the ND alumni / faculty network, and the IDEA Center team
- Market and customer research
- Problem-Solution fit education (Jobs-to-be-done framework training)
- Branding, marketing and digital presence creation
- Pitch deck creation assistance
- Pitch practice with mentors and friendly VCs
- Pro forma / budget creation assistance and training
- Education in building an effective team; vision, hiring, and goal setting
- Hiring assistance for co-founders, early hires, and contractors
- Access to an extensive contractor network for marketing, sales, product engineering, etc.
Eligibility and Application Information
We work with Notre Dame Faculty and Staff, South Bend community members and Notre Dame students. For more information, contact Ryan Kreager rkreager@nd.edu.