Australia’s leading online startup incubator

+ What's a "Pre-Accelerator"?

A pre-accelerator is a structured training and mentoring program for early-stage startup founders. Think of it as an online incubator that you can tap into while working on your startup part-time.

It aims to give founders (and aspiring founders) an understanding of core startup conpcepts, help them expand their network of founders, investors and others who can help them on the journey, and provide them with individual guidance in the form of mentoring from people with deep startup experience.

Pre-accelerators operate at an earlier stage than most startup accelerators, which generally use a competitive application process and accept (and invest in) a small number of startups that already have a product launched and some initial customer traction.

In contrast, the Startup Onramp Pre-Accelerator works with idea-stage and pre-launch companies - including "projects" that are not yet an incorporated entity. Many of our graduates have gone on to be accepted into world class accelerators such as Slingshot and Techstars.

+ Is this a good investment?

By investing a small amount of time and money at the beginning of your startup journey you can massively increase your chances of success.

We’ve seen many successful startup founders exhibit common behaviours that have directly led to success of their companies. We’ve also seen plenty of first-time startup founders make mistakes that have caused their startup to fail. A lot of these mistakes are predictable - and avoidable - as long as you know what they are.

A major focus of the Pre-Accelerator is to help you create a successful company by emulating the behaviours of successful startup founders, and avoiding the pitfalls that cause more than 90% of startups to fail.

It's a lot more cost-effective to do this program now than to spend months (or years) of your life and many thousands of dollars building the wrong product, or to try and fix a fundamental mistake that you’ve baked into your company.

+ Who is it for?

The Pre-Accelerator is for first-time startup founders and anyone working on an idea for a startup.

If you have an untested startup idea it will help you figure out whether your idea is any good and how to get started on execution.

If you’ve already started something, the program will ensure your startup is well positioned to grow and avoid common execution mistakes.

+ How do you define a “startup”?

By "startup" we mean a high-growth, scalable company that is addressing a large market, typically reaching customers online. These businesses are commonly referred to as “tech startups”. We include startups with a physical product or a service, as long as it's based on innovation and you're not just selling undifferentiated products online.

If you have an idea for a tech startup, we’d love to hear from you.

If you’re interested in starting some other kind of business, this isn’t the program for you.

+ Do I need to have a startup idea?

Yes, we want you to have an idea to work on. However, we recognise that most startup ideas change over time, so don’t be concerned if your idea is still embryonic, you have doubts about its potential, or you have more than one idea.

You know that YouTube starting out as a video dating site, right?

+ Do I need a team?

The Pre-Accelerator is open to individuals or teams of up to three co-founders.

+ Do you have successful graduates?

Glad you asked! Yes, we have a growing list of amazing companies that we're proud to call our alumni - including SurePact (raised $2m), Hoops (raised $700k) and Replica Studios (the founder, Shreyas Nivas, met his first investor through the Startup Onramp Pre-Accelerator). Read about our alumni here.

FWIW - We also consider a success to be any founder who uses the learnings from the Pre-Accelerator to avoid wasting a large amount of time or money pursuing the wrong idea, or doing something else in their startup that's likely to cause it to fail.

+ What does it cost?

The cost to do the Pre-Accelerator is $1,995 (incl GST) per startup. Up to three founders may take part.

+ What do I get?

Everyone who does the Startup Onramp Pre-Accelerator receives:

1. Eight weekly group mentoring sessions including masterclasses with experienced startup founders and investors
2. Two individual mentoring sessions with Colin Kinner (scheduled to fit your calendar) to make sure you're getting quality guidance specific to your startup
3. Online Founders Course with 8 hours of video content and deep-dives with experts
4. A comprehensive pack of course materials and readings
5. Partner perks including US$5,000 worth of AWS credits and 90% discount on HubSpot software

+ What exactly are the partner perks?

1. Startup Onramp is an AWS (Amazon Web Services) Activate partner, so can provide all Pre-Accelerator graduates with AWS credits worth US$5,000. See https://aws.amazon.com/activate/
2. 90% discount on HubSpot software. See https://www.hubspot.com/startups
3. Free 1-year LawPath account (valued at A$348) with unlimited legal guides and documents. See https://lawpath.com.au/

All partner perks are subject to partners' terms and conditions

+ Who delivers the Pre-Accelerator?

The Pre-Accelerator is led by Startup Onramp’s founder, Colin Kinner. Colin has worked with more than a thousand startups over the last twenty years - as an early-stage investor, running startup accelerators and incubators, leading Silicon Valley immersion programs, and as a mentor, advisor and board member.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinkinner/

The Pre-Accelerator also features deep dive discussions with a diverse group of successful startup founders, early stage investors and subject matter experts, who share their deep experiences on specific topics.

+ Do I have to attend anything in-person?

No, the entire program is delivered online using Zoom (for workshops and mentoring) and our learning management system for the online course content.

+ Does it matter where I'm located?

No, as long as you can join the discussion via Zoom. All group discussions and masterclasses are held Tuesdays from 5pm to 6:30pm AEST via Zoom.

+ Do I need to be a programmer?

The Pre-Accelerator is open to anyone regardless of their technical skills.

If you're building a tech company you will need to bring tech skills into the business at some point. If a lack of technical expertise is holding you back from pursuing your startup we can help you with strategies to identify reputable developers and potential technical co-founders.

+ What if I can't make it to all of the group mentoring sessions / masterclasses?

All sessions will be held via Zoom. We'll be recording them, so if you miss a session you'll have access to the recording to catch up on the discussion.

+ Is this better than other startup programs?

Startup Onramp exists for the sole purpose of providing quality guidance to early-stage startup founders. It’s what we do, we live and breathe this every day, and we couldn’t be more passionate about it. We’ve had over 500 founders complete our Pre-Accelerator, and we are constantly refining our teaching methods and resources.

The Startup Onramp Pre-Accelerator provides a unique mix of broad experience (from our work with hundreds of startup founders, reflected in the core course content) and deep insights into specific topics (via masterclasses with experienced founders, investors and subject matter experts).

Unlike other programs, the Pre-Accelerator gets into the nuts and bolts. We don’t believe in interviewing celebrity entrepreneurs for “inspiration”. We’d rather get into depth on topics that you actually need to know about, and provide you with step-by-step guides that you can follow.

+ What is the online course?

The learning component of the Pre-Accelerator is based on Startup Onramp's Founders Course - a high quality online course covering essential startup concepts and featuring deep dives with a diverse group of successful founders, investors and subject matter experts.

The course has now been taken by over 1,000 founders from around the world, and consistently receives five star reviews.

+ Is there a Demo Day or pitch event?

We don't hold a Demo Day at the end of the Pre-Accelerator, for two reasons:

1. The rest of the Pre-Accelerator is online, and although it's possible to hold an online Demo Day, our experience is that an online pitch event isn't worthwhile for most founders. There's generally limited scope for networking and interaction (which is where most of the value comes from), and it's often hard to get the right people to attend as your audience.
2. The Pre-Accelerator is for early-stage startups including people working on startup ideas. We recognise that after an eight week program many of the startups will still be embryonic - so the founders may not yet have much that they're ready to talk about in public.

Having said that, we're big fans of Demo Days where startups can pitch (and interact with) investors and the rest of the startup community. We're working on plans to hold a high-profile in-person Demo Day where some of the most promising Startup Onramp graduates will be able to pitch to an audience of investors and startup community. Timing will depend on the COVID situation.

+ Do I have to give up equity in my business?

Absolutely not. We want you to be successful but we don't believe you should have to give up equity in return for knowledge and guidance. We don't charge success fees or commissions either - we just want you to go and build an amazing company.