How to assess if Velocity is right for you.

By Jay Shah

There are a lot of different programs (incubators, accelerators, and others) that support startups. Understanding which programs are a good fit, and at which time, can be challenging. To help you make that decision, here’s the real-deal on how to assess whether Velocity is the right place for you:

[O]ur programs and principles of serving founders will evolve as we learn, grow and adapt to changes. The guiding light is always “what will support founders best?”, and you can always rely on us to prioritize that first.

• We’re committed to you if you’re committed to your start-up. What this means is that you need to be (or will be) focused full-time on your startup. We’re not measuring hours. Your startup just needs to be your primary work focus.
• We care deeply about minimizing product development until after you’ve validated (as much as feasible) that what you plan to build is highly desirable (See: Stage 1)
• We feel strongly that you should be in the driver’s seat. We don’t believe that building a startup can be prescriptive; every founder has their own journey. We know that we don’t have all of the answers, but with our deeply engaged community (past and present) of founders and Business Advisors, we can help you wrestle through some of your deepest and complex challenges. If you’re looking for a step by step plan, we’re not the right place. If you’re looking for a peer group, sounding boards, committed advisors, proceed with excitement.
• We’re differentiated when it comes to product development, with both the infrastructure and advisors. Are you building a product based on complex technologies that spans software, hardware, science, or all three? We can help in ways that most incubators/accelerators can’t. (See: Stage 2)
• We’re not a forever home but we’re setup to support you longer than most; our goal is to support your path and get you running on your own with the momentum needed to achieve scale. Get in, move fast and focused, and move out. However, we’re willing to work with you longer than most programs, up to two years if that’s what it takes to set you and your startup up for scale. 
• We often find this incubator is particularly suitable for startups building deeptech products. Deeptech startups definitely require more than singular-digit-months-long program to incubate.
• We aim to be ruthlessly helpful. This means that you might not like what we have to say. Of course, it is never personal. We want you to build a business worth building and if we think you’re wasting your time, we won’t hesitate to tell you. In this spirit, we expect you to be transparent, open, and candid with us as well—we can’t help if we don’t know what you’re facing.
• We’re a community that helps each other. If you’re engaged, you’ll get a lot from your peers and the alumni of the program. And we expect that you’ll pay that forward.

All of this said, our programs and principles of serving founders will evolve as we learn, grow and adapt to changes. The guiding light is always “what will support founders best?”, and you can always rely on us to prioritize that first.

If this sounds like the right place for you and your startup, go ahead and apply! We look forward to reviewing your application and meeting you at the interview.

Be warned! The energy in the Velocity incubator is infectious! The incubator program provides an environment of (somewhat controlled) creative chaos, married with a product focus that allows founders to realize their maximum potential.