Iowa Startup Accelerator

Iowa Startup Accelerator (ISA), supported by ISA Ventures and powered by NewBoCo, is a unique 6-month accelerator with rolling admission and access to four distinct stages of investment for Iowa-based startup businesses. The accelerator program provides investment capital and a stage-specific bundle of resources appropriate for scaling your startup.

Companies begin the Accelerator at the Foundation stage with a $25K investment with potential for an additional $75K investment as mutually established benchmarks are achieved. Unlike most accelerators, ISA grows with companies, and provides a progression of resources appropriate for each stage.

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Resources & Perks

Benefits include:

1:1 coaching by our staff, including regular reviews of your business performance, including review of your business KPIs;
Strategic planning and review with a small cohort of companies at a similar lifecycle stage;
CEO roundtable discussions with peer CEOs in your cohort;
Educational workshops with industry experts on topics like sales, marketing, operations, finance and more;
Founder Fireside chats, in which we interview founders who’ve built, grown, and exited companies about their stories privately for you and your cohort;
Regular office hours with ISA Ventures staff;
Access to ISA’s extensive mentor pool when and where needed.
Priority access to NewBoCo’s staff of experts including advanced software engineers, digital marketers, user experience professionals, graphic designers, videographers, and more, available on a discounted contract basis and subject to scheduling constraints;
Access to technology perks worth hundreds of thousand of dollars in discounts, including AWS and Google Cloud credits, CRM systems like Hubspot and Pipedrive, payroll software like Gusto, email systems like Sendgrid, cap table management in Carta, and payment processing via Stripe

Who Qualifies:

Established Startup (pre-(or early) revenue)
Must be Iowa-Based
Scalable on a national level with a realistic and visible path to a successful exit and or ROI
Team of experienced co-founders (preferred)
Demonstrated customer knowledge
Demonstrated product / service knowledge
Able to articulate / demonstrate a competitive advantage and value proposition.

Application Process for the Spring 2022 Cohort:

Complete and submit the application (deadline: February 11, 2022)
Participate in at least two “interviews”
Give a product/service pitch (no longer than 10 minutes) followed by Q&A
Selection will be made by March 15 at the latest

Key Dates:

Applications are due February 11, 2022
Selection will be complete by March 15^th at the latest
Program starts March 21-23 (face-to-face in CR)
Majority of programs* will be Virtual (Zoom)
One day of programming in Des Moines (tentatively, May 17)
Demo Day Activities at EntreFEST, June 9-10 in Iowa City

* Courses Include: Agile, Customer Discovery, Product Positioning, Traction Channels, Sales, Legal Contracts, Building Your Leadership Team, Pitching Your Startup, Story Telling, Crash Courses in Financial Models (4), and Investor Readiness (4)