How I got accepted to a pre-accelerator 🎉 getting up to $50k in funding without giving up equity 💸

A few days ago, I got this email letting me know Browse AI was accepted to Startup Edmonton pre-accelerator program. 😍

Startup Edmonton is a non-profit funded by the government of Alberta, Canada 🇨🇦. They provide founder coaching and mentorship, a workspace, and up to $50k equity-free government funding. All of these are much needed for a solo-founder at a self-funded startup like mine!

Here's what the process was like:

1. I heard about the program just a few days before the sign up deadline from someone I met at a friend's (outdoor, socially distanced) birthday party. Filled out a form on their site about the business and the founders.
2. They contacted me after a couple of weeks to schedule an interview.
3. Had a 30-minute interview with the director and the head of program two weeks later. No pitching needed. It was just quick personal intros + Q&A. They asked a lot of questions about where the business is at, what kind of traction we've been getting, our customer discovery and user research process, our roadmap & vision, how we'd spend the gov funding. At the end of the meeting, I asked whether they see any red flags in my application or anything not meeting their criteria. They said no, in fact, startups with technical founders are ideal for them, but they have limited capacity.
4. A week later, I got the acceptance email! 🎉

I can't wait to get started and see how much value I can get out of it. The orientation is in a week. I'll probably do another post in a couple of months (or after the program) to explain what it was like.

Advice for those who live in Canada 🇨🇦: Every province has similar programs. Make sure you apply if you qualify. Even if you can't find any open programs, I'd follow the non-profits/gov agencies on Twitter and sign up to their newsletter to stay updated in case they announce a new cohort or open a new program. Also, when you go to birthday parties, socialize. Meetups aren't the only networking events! 😀

At the same time this was happening, I was working on repositioning the business and redesigning almost the entire marketing site. I launched it yesterday and got 10 newsletter & user signups within a few hours by just posting a comment on a Facebook group post! I wrote more about the new site in another IH post and asked for feedback.