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Founderships Eligibility 2023

START UP Founderships Eligibility Criteria

If you can see yourself leading an innovative, impactful business that makes a difference to the world, Founderships is for you. You might have an idea that isn’t established yet or you might have a business you’re already working on. Your potential is what is most important to us. We know you’ll still have a way to go and that’s what we want to help you with.

To apply, you must:

  • be graduating by the programme start date or be a graduate within the previous 2 years of the programme start date (from any course)
  • be prepared to be selected on the strength of the opportunity you’ve identified as well as your personal commitment to achieve scale and significance
  • be eligible to start a business in the UK - if you are an international graduate, you must provide evidence of your Right to Work, including your eligibility to be self-employed
  • be willing to stay in, or relocate to, the North East of England for six months
  • own the intellectual property related to your business idea/business or have written authorisation from the owners to use it to establish a business in the UK
  • be committed to, and able to make time for, the full Founderships programme from start to end

You may be ineligible, if:

  • you have already achieved significant sales (your business may be too advanced)
  • you’re an independent professional - this programme is about company creation; unlike all other opportunities from START UP, it’s not designed for independent professionals/freelancers

Please note:

  • your business should be in the later stages of development or early stages of trading
  • you can make an application to Founderships as a final year student approaching graduation, but we can only award a Foundership to graduates on a pass list
  • previous Foundership applicants are eligible to submit a new application, but previous Founderships recipients are not eligible to apply, even with a new business idea

START UP Founderships Selection Criteria

START UP Founderships is a competitive opportunity. To be selected you must show potential in line with: Innovation, Viability, Growth Potential and Entrepreneurial Effectiveness. When applying to Founderships, please evidence how you (and your team, if applicable), are:

Striving to be new and different | Innovation

  • how is your opportunity a new or significantly changed process, product, service, model or method that will add value and impact to its industry, whether B2B or B2C?
  • how is your business solution adding value and impact to what already exists in its market, with potential to outrun the competition?

Pursuing what is practical and possible | Viability

  • do you know the size of your opportunity and the credible routes to market?
  • what progress have you made already e.g., through research and customer development, prototyping, assessing the competition, developing a network?
  • what is the level of funding you require to demonstrate product-market fit?

Thinking big | Growth Potential

  • what potential avenues have you identified to achieve large-scale adoption, create new jobs, and grow into national and international markets?
  • what advantage do you have that could enable you to outrun your competition? Committed with the right attitude | Entrepreneurial Effectiveness
  • what necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and market awareness are you actively developing to fully capitalise on your business opportunity?
  • why do you want this opportunity and why is it right for you and your business?
  • what personal drive and motivation do you have to make the most of this opportunity?
  • do you have the capacity to take on this ambitious programme and can you accept being constructively challenged?
  • are you committed to attending all training sessions, adviser, mentor, and board meetings that form part of this programme?

PDF version

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Founderships Eligibility_Sep23 (PDF: 135KB)