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SCALE your business idea with Sheboygan County’s seed accelerator program. This program is free to the selected applicants, and each applicant will receive a total of $10,000 during this 10-week program.
The Sheboygan County Accelerator for Learning Entrepreneurship (SCALE) invests in up to six pre or early-revenue startups per cohort per year. This program is free to the selected applicants and each applicant will receive a technical assistance grant in total of $10,000. $5,000 will be available for distribution after the first week of the program, the remainder of $5,000 will become available upon completion of this 10-week program.
Applications for 2024 will open in the Fall of 2023.
Course Begins: TBD 2024
SCALE Curriculum
This is an industry-agnostic and business model-agnostic program. We accept ALL types of startups across ALL industries and business models. Our program goal is to help startups reach the point where they are ready to go to an equity-based accelerator or raise from angels, crowd investing, or pre-sales.
The program’s curriculum will utilize a unique combination of known and proven methodologies and is organized by Stephanie Hoskins HKFJ Chair of Business and Entrepreneurship at Lakeland University.
This course will run for ten consecutive weeks, in-person, at Jake's, a Lakeland Community in Sheboygan, WI.
The 10-week, 10-hour/week, program curriculum cadence will consist of two weekly curriculum-based meetings and one weekly networking event, community partner meeting, and update meeting with staff or mentors.
Curriculum Focus
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Networking & Program Goals
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Customer Discovery
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Starting Up
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Design Sprints & Experiments
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Branding
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Marketing, Promotions, & Advertising
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Product
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Capital – Fundraising
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Sales
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Strategy & Overcoming Challenges
Throughout the program, participants will be taught by subject matter experts who have professional experience. Founders will be matched with mentors to help guide and support them during their startup journey. Networking events and community partner meetings will provide invaluable contacts in the community.
Timeline
Applications Due: January 15, 2023
Course Begins: February 21, 2023
The course will run for ten consecutive weeks
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Spring Break March 13-17, 2023
Weekly In-Person Schedule
Tuesday 11 am - 1 pm
Friday 11 am -1 pm
Friday 4 - 5:30 pm
4 hours of flex scheduling for meetings with mentors, community partners, etc.
Qualification Requirements for SCALE:
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Established Startup – pre or early revenue
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Participants of the program will be asked to have their business operations in Sheboygan County or be willing to relocate if accepted into the program. To assist with this requirement participants will be provided free space for one year at Jakes, A Lakeland Community.
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Scalable beyond a local level
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Realistic and visible path to a successful ROI or exit
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Demonstrated customer knowledge
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Demonstrated product or service knowledge
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Clearly articulate a competitive advantage and value proposition
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$100,000 or less in the business, either in the form of capital raised and/or revenue received
Application Process:
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Complete and submit the online application
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Selected qualified applicants will be asked to participate in interviews and be asked to briefly pitch (no longer than 4 minutes) their product/service idea.
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SCALE application committee will select participants in the weeks leading up to each cohort
Use of Funds:
Services fundable through the SCALE technical assistance grants must address business start-up needs for planning, market research, intellectual property, agreements, technology development, prototyping, access to professional services, etc. The SCALE technical assistance grants do not support capital improvements or salaries. SCALE will monitor the use of funds by approved applicants. Funding levels will not exceed $10,000. $5,000 will be available for distribution after the first week of the program, the remainder $5,000 will become available after the program is complete.
SCALE is proudly sponsored by
