Iowa Startup Accelerator

Iowa’s First Accelerator

ISA is an intensive, highly focused 14-week program aimed at early stage (pre- or early-revenue) companies. Startups must be located in Iowa. The ninth cohort will be about five companies, and held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Key dates
  • Applications Open: Monday, April 27, 2020
  • Applications Close: Wednesday, July 1, 2020, at 11:59PM
  • Selection Decision: Monday, July 27, 2020 
  • Program Start Date: Monday, August 17, 2020 
  • Program End Date: Friday, November 20, 2020 
Format

The program is a full-time commitment, requiring attendance during orientation week (August 17-21) and thereafter on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for scheduled sessions. On the other days each week, you’re working on your business priorities as needed. 

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 (ISA) is an intensive 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.

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.