Venture Founder

Take the next step to transform your invention into impact through Venture Founder

Venture Founder is a 16-week program that supports UBC’s community of UBC students, faculty, staff and researchers who want to build transformative ventures based on their innovative solutions to critical (and often global) problems. The program offers experiential workshops to define and validate your venture opportunity, support from our experienced mentors, and covers foundational and operational topics to establish a viable startup company and build your team’s capacity in leadership, management and business skills.
 

In Venture Founder, we'll guide you to define and validate your venture opportunity and to begin to build traction in your venture’s industry.  

Who is eligible to apply?

  1. The key applicant and co-founder must be an existing UBC student, staff or faculty member.
     
  2. We strongly recommend that a team of at least two participants apply to join Venture Founder to pursue a start-up opportunity, due to the intensity of the Venture Founder process. Solo founders are typically not accepted, but will be considered on a case-by-case basis.


Program Highlights:

  • Mentorship and support: Access to over 250 mentors in our Mentor Network who will encourage you to push the boundaries of your thinking and help ensure you have the necessary building blocks of your venture opportunity.
  • Session Topics: Define and validate your venture opportunity covering fundamental and operational topics such as:
    • Defining your venture business model and crafting a compelling story
    • Refining your value proposition(s), including defining initial market segments and the customer buying process)
    • Estimating  the market potential by using top-down and bottom-up market sizing methodologies 
    • Developing and practicing effective hypothesis testing techniques
    • Building the core ingredients and fluency in financial literacy
    • Learning the basics for team building, branding and marketing, and storytelling 
  • Duration: 16 weeks 
  • Format: Weekly virtual workshops for 3.5 hours, with in-person sessions during session 5, 10, 15 and 16.
  • Commitment: Teams can expect to spend 25-35 hours on your venture with hands-on support from multiple mentors and Innovation UBC support staff.

 

Interested? 

Applications are now closed. Venture Founder has two cohorts a year, starting in February and September. Please join our waitlist to learn when applications open again and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.

 

The Application Journey 

1. Application

The application form involves in-depth questions ranging from your team composition and initial traction, to understanding your value proposition, technology and funding situation. Submitted applications are then reviewed by our evaluation team. 

 

2. Interview

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview with our team to discuss your solution and interest in being part of the program. Following this, candidates will be notified whether they are invited to join the cohort. 

 

3. Onboarding

The Venture Founder journey begins with onboarding, including an orientation and social events to meet the wider cohort, our team and mentors, along with a review of the curriculum syllabus and expected commitment. 

 

4. Schedule

The Venture Founder experience consists of 16 weekly 3.5 hour sessions, which take place online with the exception of sessions 5, 10, 15 and 16 taking place in person.

 

 

 

 
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