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The Flywheel Foundation administers accelerators and bootcamps to help you get started on your entrepreneurial journey. We have amazing programming to get you started on your entrepreneurial journey. Get ideas. Get exposure. Get funded. Get going. Get started.
New Ventures Tech Accelerator
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1-3 Companies selected per year (per region)
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Designed for early-stage founders who do not have a technical cofounder, New Ventures Tech Accelerator is a services-based tech accelerator that will offer $50,000 worth of free software and business development for Greater Charlotte Region and Triad Region tech startups.
The program is operated under the Flywheel New Ventures accelerator framework with the software development firms Induro and Sightsource, LLC providing the tech acceleration services. It includes a free residency at the Cabarrus Center or Flywheel (Winston-Salem) for selected companies as well as the opportunity to enter the New Ventures equity-based investment network.
The application site for interested founders is open year-round. Applications will be reviewed quarterly and up to three companies per year will be selected for acceleration and incubation.
Open Runway
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Average 75 applicants per year
Open Runway is an acceleration-on-demand program offering one-on-one matching of needs with developmental and capital opportunities. This is a year-round rolling application program where companies can apply for design sprints and individual investment asks. In addition, the program provides services for corporate innovation programs.
Retail Lab
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Average 30 applicants per cycle
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Offered in the Spring and Fall
The Retail Lab serves early-stage retail business owners and was developed in our Concord location at the Cabarrus Center. It is an application-based, six-week immersive boot camp.
The program curriculum was refined after survey results of pilot program launched in Fall 2021 to hone in on the needs of early-stage retailers (brick and mortar or e-commerce) in the areas of retail products, retail services, and retail food and beverage products.
Following completion of the Boot Camp, participants are given the opportunity to pitch for available grant funding.
Spark Bootcamps
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One cycle per year
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Average 25 applicants
The Spark program responds with an application-based process, six-week bootcamp, and opportunity to pitch for micro-grants. All applicants are required to enroll for free in the instructor-led “Applied Lean Startup Practices” on www.flywheel.courses.com in order to qualify for the grants. Through the course, applicants learn how to move ideas to repeatable revenue models as quickly as possible.
Techstars Startup Weekends
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Annual Startup Immersion Event
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Facilitated by Techstars
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Attendance averages 50 per event
Techstars Startup Weekend is an intense 54-hour immersion in startup methods and is the best way to meet potential collaborators, mentors, investors, and leaders in the startup ecosystem. It’s an experiential model that takes you out of books and into the real world with the experts you need to know.
This event primes the ideation and entrepreneurship pump in the ecosystems served by the Flywheel Foundation. It attracts new entrepreneurs, immerses them in lean startup methods, and can even produce new companies that move into commercialization.
Now in in our 8th year of hosting these events, the crash-course is facilitated by the global experts at Techstars. These business builders have a passion for sharing experiences from their success and failures so that you can model what works and avoid what doesn’t on your road to a scalable business.