The form will force you to ask yourself some critical questions about your venture and yourself as a founder. Your application will be reviewed by a member of the programs team, and top applicants will be invited to interview with a panel of members within the startup community. 

Following the interviews, founders will be notified of their acceptance into the program.

You can start your application here.

It depends. If you still beta users or early customers, or if you are hitting a plateau for and can’t seem to get initial traction with your sales, the program could be a fit for you. 

The program is also a fit if you have an existing business and are now looking to validate and build a new product.

Through the 12-weeks, you will have mentorship and guidance on using customer discovery to validate new product features or changes to your business model.

You are invited to apply for the program, and if we feel that you will not benefit from the program we will provide feedback on what we think your next area of focus should be.

Possibly! While we don’t accept founders with just a back of the napkin idea to this program, if you have been taking steps to gain initial traction – for example competitor research, prototyping, or talking to potential customers – we invite you to apply.

If you’re truly just at the initial idea stage, we encourage you to take our Online Market Validation Training course as a primer to the work we will be doing over the 12 weeks. 

The application process will force you to ask yourself critical questions about your startup, which is a beneficial exercise for idea-stage founders.

The sessions are remote-first, and all calls will be held virtually with an option to join in person at our Kelowna or Vernon locations. The final Town Hall pitch event will be held in person at our Kelowna office, so you will be required to join in person on that day. 

We do see value in participating in-person to take advantage of opportunities to grow your network or deepen your relationships when it is possible for you.

We welcome founders from throughout the Okanagan (which for us is Osoyoos to Salmon Arm). This is a big reason why our program is remote-first. Great ideas happen everywhere.

The cost of joining our Venture Validation Program is $975, however AO members receive a discounted rate of just $750 for the entire program. We encourage all program clients to become members to access additional benefits of AO like discounted meeting rooms, savings on software and access to the member library and office space.

Our mission is to support startups and to provide accessible mentorship programs. If fees are a barrier, please reach out to discuss payment terms.

No. As a not-for-profit accelerator, we provide government-subsidized mentorship programs and community building initiatives to promote the growth of innovation and entrepreneurship in our community.

We do not take equity in the companies that we support.

If you are planning on raising capital, the training in this program will help you gain initial traction in preparation for attracting investment.

You may also be interested in our capital readiness programming, such as the OKGN Angel Summit. 

Absolutely. We want to work with high-growth potential companies, which can be either bootstrapped or venture-backed.

If you are bootstrapping, the validation work in this program will help you best utilize your limited resources by building something that customers are willing to pay for.