Accelerator Program

New cohorts of 5 to 10 startups will be admitted to a 13-week accelerator program twice per year in September and January, timed around WVU’s academic calendar. Entrepreneurs may participate in the accelerator either in-person in Morgantown or virtually. Following the counsel of research published in top entrepreneurship academic journals, the evidence-based curriculum for this program will:

• Teach entrepreneurs how to identify and test core assumptions in their business models in a scientific manner. For example, an education-technology entrepreneur may assume that university professors are the ideal target market for their new product or service when, in fact, university recruiting administrators may be a better market for the startup to target. Research has shown that encouraging entrepreneurs to adopt a scientific approach to testing their own assumptions and solving their own problems is more effective than relying on consultative mentors to prescribe solutions to the entrepreneurs' problems.
• Teach entrepreneurs the importance of taking personal initiative with mandatory weekly "board" meetings where the startups are held accountable by their peers and mentors for consistently achieving goals and getting work done. Research has also shown that helping entrepreneurs develop personal initiative—a mindset of self-starting behavior, innovation, goal setting, planning and feedback cycles, and overcoming obstacles—is associated with more successful outcomes than teaching them traditional business skills such as accounting, finance, marketing, management, etc.
• Create a cooperative, collegial culture through regular social interaction programming to foster peer learning effects which research has shown are more effective in entrepreneurial accelerators than top-down, instructor-student approaches to learning.

Screening Criteria

Vantage Ventures will be selective in admitting startups into its accelerator using criteria such as the following:

• At least one equity-holding founder must reside in West Virginia (or be a student at a college or university in West Virginia).
• Must demonstrate a plan to create jobs in West Virginia.
• Startups must be scalable enough to generate $10 million or more in annual recurring revenue.
• Startups with a technology or AI focus are preferred – but this is not a firm requirement.
• Startups with two or more cofounders (one who can build the product and one who can sell the product) are preferred.
• Startups led by hard-working underdogs with a proven ability to overcome adversity and obstacles are preferred.
• Startups led by entrepreneurs working full-time on the endeavor are preferred.
• Startups must be pursuing ideas that are at least moderately differentiated from competitive offerings.

Startup Funding

The VV accelerator will provide various sources of funding to accelerator participants, including:

• WVU are eligible to receive a $14 hourly wage from the WVU foundation to work up to 20 hours per week on their startup.
• Top accelerator graduates are eligible to receive up to $100,000 in pre-seed funding from the VV pre-seed fund.
• All accelerator participants will be eligible to receive up to $15,000 in non-dilutive technical assistance funding that can be used to cover startup costs.