Iowa Startup Accelerator

Iowa Startup Accelerator (ISA) is an intensive 14-week program that matches tech-based startups with world-class mentors, Midwestern work ethic, seed funding, and product development expertise to accelerate their business to a successful exit. ISA is powered by NewBoCo, a 501(c)(3) organization, and startups are funded by the ISA Fund I. Startups must be located in Iowa.

Key dates

• Applications open, Monday, December 14
• Applications close, Friday, February 5
• Selection announced February 26
• Program begins March 15
• Program ends June 10/11 (Entrefest)

Format

The program is a full-time commitment, requiring attendance during orientation week in March and thereafter on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for scheduled sessions. On the other days each week, you’re working on your business priorities as needed. We expect the program to be mostly or entirely virtual, unless conditions change and we can meet in-person safely. 

Capital Provided Through the $30 million ISA Ventures Fund

If accepted to Iowa Startup Accelerator, you'll receive:

• Seed Capital For pre-revenue companies: $25k in initial capital and potentially an additional $75k if milestones are met; for revenue-generating companies, negotiable terms for capital from $25k to $1 million
• Coaching: Weekly sessions with experienced entrepreneurial leaders;
• Education: Workshops on everything from budgeting & financial modeling, sales & marketing; raising capital, and more;
• Mentoring: Access to an extensive mentor pool of experienced founders and industry experts;
• $1 million worth of software and other perks: including AWS and Google Cloud credits, massive discounts on CRM systems like Hubspot and Pipedrive, payroll software like Gusto, email systems like Sendgrid and payment processing via Stripe;
• Technical services: Hardware prototyping support in our labs and software prototyping support.

Iowa Startup Accelerator is proud to be part of GAN, a highly curated community of accelerators, all over the world. Being a part of the GAN network means that our startups have access to things like more than $1M in perks, opportunities to work out of any GAN Accelerator around the world for up to two weeks each, connections to corporate partners, possible investment from GAN Ventures, and more.