Startup Next Toronto, an offshoot program powered by Techstars, is accepting applications for its spring cohort.
Startup Next Toronto is partnering with The City of Toronto, The Working Group, and MaRS to help prepare eight startups for markets, accelerators, and seed investment. BetaKit is also a proud media sponsor.
Its five-week program is meant to provide startups with resources to navigate the early stages of building their companies, including a customer development strategy, completed market and competitive analyses, a minimum viable product, and an investor-ready pitch deck.
Founders receive mentorship through a global network of investors and founders, and no equity is taken from companies.
“The City of Toronto is proud to partner with Startup Next,” said Chris Rickett, manager of entrepreneurship services for the City of Toronto. “As part of the city’s goal to make Toronto the best place globally to build and grow a business, we focus on ensuring entrepreneurs have access to the best resources for starting their businesses. Startup Next and resources like startupheretoronto.com are key parts of that plan.”
What’s unique about this spring cohort is that it is also accepting later-stage startups that are looking for critical feedback on specific feature designs, go-to-market channels, team building and scaling. This is the first Startup Next program to include both later-stage and early-stage founders.
“The most beneficial part of my Startup Next experience was having all of these mentors expecting me to deliver new and quantifiable results each week,” said Marie Chevrier, founder and CEO of Sampler and a Startup Next Toronto 2015 alumna. “I was part of one of the lucky teams that realized early on that this is an important process and I’ve been rewarded over and over again for fully embracing it.”
Startups interested in applying can do so on the Startup Next Toronto website.