Launch "The Lab"
The Lab is a 10-week program teaching entrepreneurs strong research skills + providing grant funding to small businesses!
Project Description
Here's the quick version: the money from this campaign goes towards funding and educating small business owners that are at the beginning of the journey.
We know this is a lot to read, so here's a quick video to learn more!
- Our Mission: We believe in democratizing access to scientific research skills and startup funding to build better businesses.
- The Problem: Many founders jump right into building a product without understanding their customers or testing the idea first. This passion is what gets things moving -- but sometimes in the wrong direction. We help entrepreneurs harness that passion and give them the tools they need to stay on the right path. Teach a founder to build and they will build for life!
- What is your company/product about and how does it solve the problem? The Lab is a 10-week pre-accelerator giving founders the research tools they need to build and launch successful companies. We focus on ideation, design and validation, all based on a science-backed methodology. We also aim to democratize the early-stage funding process by allowing members to directly contribute to a grant fund and vote for winning pitches.
- About us: My name is Allie - I'm a team of one with some part time support! I began my career in the sciences (Ph.D.) and transitioned to working with startups. One of the biggest issues I have observed is that few founders have a re-usable and direct toolkit to conduct research about their ideas. It's my goal to merge the two worlds by conducting science at the speed of a startup!
- Why are you seeking funding and how will you spend the funding? I am seeking funding to build our scholarship fund for founders. It's my goal to provide 10K in scholarships with every cohort. 70% of the funding that I raise will be used to fund founders, and the remaining 30% will help keep the lights on while we launch our first cohort!
Thank you so much for reading our campaign until here! As we all know, raising capital is a huge challenge for founders at all stages, which is one of the main reasons that I am building The Scientific Startup. So many wonderful small businesses are not venture-backed and struggle to find capital to get the ball rolling - please help me change this!
Updates
The Campaign FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions:
How will you decide which founders win the grant funding?
We believe in a democratic approach to investing, both to decrease bias and to increase founder empathy towards fundraising. All cohort members contribute to the scholarship fund (in part) through their membership fees, making them directly involved in the process. Everyone can then vote after learning about what a successful business looks like, supporting the community and elevating each other.
Why are you the right team?
After beginning my career in academia and teaching hundreds of students, I became passionate about creating impact. I moved into the startup space after finishing my Ph.D. and realized that there is STILL room for disruption. I aim to apply my scientific expertise, along with my experience as a co-founder and partner at a VC firm, to build a better ecosystem for founders.
How will I know how the funding is distributed?
Every dollar raised will be split 70/30, with 70% going directly to our scholarship fund. If we exceed 10K raised, we will use the remainder for upcoming cohorts. Any donor wishing to learn more about the founders, get a sneak peak, and remain directly involved can be added to our cohort as a mentor/observer to remain as involved with the process as they would like!
For any donation, we will send you exclusive access to our pitch competition and one vote!
Bronze sponsors will receive 5 extra votes to cast in the determination of who receives the funding! Feel free to spread the love OR cast all of your votes on a single founder!
Gold Sponsors will receive 10 extra votes to cast in the determination of who wins the grant money! Spread the love or cast all of your votes on a single founder!
Gold Sponsors will receive 15 votes in the pitch competition, have a huge sway on where the funding ends up! Spread the love or cast all of your votes on one founder.
Rewards
For any donation, we will send you exclusive access to our pitch competition and one vote!
Bronze sponsors will receive 5 extra votes to cast in the determination of who receives the funding! Feel free to spread the love OR cast all of your votes on a single founder!
Gold Sponsors will receive 10 extra votes to cast in the determination of who wins the grant money! Spread the love or cast all of your votes on a single founder!
Gold Sponsors will receive 15 votes in the pitch competition, have a huge sway on where the funding ends up! Spread the love or cast all of your votes on one founder.