Student Focused Summer Accelerators

Yes! We are a fully licensed 501c3 non-profit, and we welcome individual and corporate donations. Please email emil@launchchapelhill.com

We do not. Our mission involves supporting innovators and new ventures and—thanks to our partnership with the town, county and campus—we can focus on doing good not on making money.

No! Anyone can apply to the Fall and Spring Launch Chapel Hill accelerators—you do not have to have an affiliation with the town, county or campus .

* Summer accelerators focus on student teams with at least UNC-student founder.

We do not. The Launch Chapel Hill accelerators are industry-agnostic: we welcome ventures of any industry, function or focus.

We accept all types of scalable companies from high tech to no tech, commercial to social. We seek to support high-potential, high-impact businesses that can have national or worldwide reach.

Successful applicants must have performed some customer discovery and market analysis in order to have a solid sense of product/service to market fit.

Full disclosure: we’ve not had the best luck expanding local restaurants, consultancies, or other service-oriented companies. However there are plenty of resources for these types of businesses to which we would be happy to direct you.

We prioritize ventures that have passed the ideation stage and that are at, or very near, the MVP (Minimum viable product), wireframe (for technology) or preliminary sales stage. Having completed significant customer discovery is essential.

Our sweet spot are early stage ventures who are past the idea phase and in product development or product release. You should already have a validated market and completed significant customer discovery when applying to the program.

Not sure if you meet these criteria? Reach out anytime to info@launchchapelhill.com

We prioritize getting your company ready for investment, and the growth path often works differently for non-profit and not-for-profit ventures.

And the broader instruction, networking and access the accelerator provides can help in any case.

Let’s talk first if your venture is a non-profit or not-for-profit to ensure that we can provide you the support you’ll need.

Yes! All cohort members receive 1 year of free membership at Launch Chapel Hill’s coworking space.

This is a floating desk membership that includes these free amenities: parking, wi-fi, coffee, tea, printing, and conference rooms.

We meet you where you are and strive to get you and your venture investor-ready which involves too much to and here and includes:

* Value Propositions & Mission Statements
* Goal Setting
* Market Analysis and Product Fit
* Branding, Marketing, Social Media
* Sales Strategies
* Basics of Running a Business
* Legal Issues
* Product Testing and User Experience
* Pitching to Investors
* Funding & Financials

Exactly timing varies, and accelerators tend to run in 14-16 week cycles.

The accelerator fee is $1500 per team to support operations during the accelerator—Launch is able to offer a small number of subsidies to reduce this fee as teams need.

We admit 10-12 teams into each cohort. Applications are very competitive.

We realize and respect that innovators’ lives are busy—and we still expect full commitment to our accelerator program which, typically, includes

Monday mornings: weekly check-ins with the cohort to share successes, strategies, problems, pivots, advice and collegiality

Mid-week (generally Tuesdays or Wednesdays): workshops and curriculum from UNC Kenan-Flagler business school faculty and other area experts

On-demand (generally Tuesdays and Thursdays): Our EIRs (Entrepreneurs-in-Residence) hold office hours to allow for 1:1 meetings with teams for specific advice, goal-setting, progress reports and other advice

Friday midday: Pitch scrubs and mentor matching where we expose you to 2-3 new mentors a week who are committed to helping you grow your business.

Sometimes. We never invest directly in our ventures as our mission focuses on supporting innovation, not on profiting from those ventures.

We do, though, sit at the nexus of an extensive network of angel investors, grant-issuing agencies, and venture capital companies in the area. And we are, occasionally, able to offer small scholarships and subsidies

There is immeasurable value in the connections and advice that you’ll receive as you build your company at Launch Chapel Hill.

We don’t steal ideas, and your application information goes no further than to our team of application readers.

We see lots of applications and many of them include similar ideas. Our application does not ask for your “secret sauce” and there is no reason for you to disclose this to us if you’re not comfortable doing so. And, 9 times out of 10, success depends much more on implementation than idea.

Additionally, whether we know you as part of the accelerator or more casually, we want to help you make connectionss. For this and other practical reasons, please don’t ask us to sign an NDA.

We hope that our reputation speaks for itself.  

Nope.  Just fill out the online application and start practicing your pitch. 

Our application has both text- and video-based portions (so we can get the data and feel your passion and commitment), and we’re always up for chat.

We look for great founders and teams who are working on solutions to real problems and creating meaningful innovations.

Our accelerator is rigorous, high-touch and high-impact, and with that rigor in mind, we strongly encourage lone-founders to try to assemble a team before applying.

The best things you can do to strengthen your application are:

* Round out your team with business, technical, and other necessary skills.

* Make progress on your prototype or product and reference it in the application.

* Show us you’ve really thought about your business and have gotten off your butt to do something about it : )

We cannot overstate the value of directly sharing your experiences with others, having that support and motivation—not to mention the random insights we exchange as we’re physically co-located.

We had some amazing all-virtual cohorts in the early covid years—and we realized in-person works better : )

What we do now: very strongly encourage as much in-person interaction as we can—with a Zoom option for most meetings.

Success or failure, your current venture will likely not be your last.

We think you will leave smarter and will have hopefully failed smarter, faster and cheaper than if you had not been part of the Launch Chapel Hill accelerator program.

Also, you will have met a large number of smart and well connected people who can help you tremendously with whatever you do next.

Launch Chapel Hill is a unique collaboration among UNC and the Town of Chapel Hill.

Our mission includes developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region, and we want entrepreneurs to build and grow their businesses here.

We all have entrepreneurial experience and believe in giving back. We’re convinced you’ll love the area as much as we do and want to grow your company here after you complete the Launch Chapel Hill accelerator program.  We also believe that, as your business grows and succeeds, you’ll reach back to help those who follow in your footsteps. 

We win when you win, and we’re all-in for the win!

Sure thing! Email info@launchchapelhill.com to schedule time for a visit, phone call or virtual meetup.

We hope to host occasional open houses—otherwise, please prioritize scheduling an appointment: like many of our ventures, we run pretty lean and we want to ensure we’re here to meet you!

136 East Rosemary St #100