Neal Bloom explains how an accelerator program narrows hundreds of applicants to six finalists through pitch rounds and diligence, culminating in a live decision on May 29 where the winner gets funded on the spot.
So that's what the first few weeks are about. It's really getting down and cutting to the companies that we just think they're not the right fit for what we're trying to get to. And I'll talk about the framework of why they aren't a fit, uh, one synthesis later in the day. Okay. Um, then once we've gotten down to, uh, our 25 companies, we want to hear, we want to meet them. We want to hear the pitches. So we'll invite them to come and pitch us in person. And then further weed down from there. And then hear further pitches. So we'll go from a 3-minute to a 10-minute. And then once we're down selected to 6, we'll start heavy diligence. This is in all areas. Once we're in diligence, we're now really starting to eye like, we could invest in one of these companies. And so now we're also looking at, you know, what does the investment potential look like as well too? So we're laying that on in terms of terms, check size, that kind of stuff, which will all be part of the diligence. And what we'll do sprinkled throughout here is like on-demand learning that says, hey, we're about to enter this phase of the process. Let me tell you what a term sheet is, and we'll have an expert come up and walk us through what a term sheet, what terms are, what's typical, and what's market rate for investing into a company on a valuation. So we're going to sprinkle that in as learnings throughout these events. That are poignant and specific to what we're, what we're about to do as a task, as a group. Any questions on the timeline? Ultimately, this is our Super Bowl right here. So May 29th, in person. Love— this is the day if you're like, how many events should I go to? Well, this one, definitely come to this one. All of us, because this is the day where we get to showcase the companies and we make the decision real time. And hand the jumbo check, which is, you know, super fun.
