The Program Page

The program will accept applicants who are working full time on a tech start-up, featuring a first or second time CEO.  The application is free and, if admitted, there's no charge to enroll.  We don't ask for equity either.  At First Growth, we believe that the venture/tech community is vitally important, and we seek to support it.  Our remuneration comes from enhancing our own networks, as well as benefiting the local economy, as we help accelerate these companies and attract investment dollars, innovation and jobs to the local tech community.

We will conduct the program in two semesters.  Applicants need not have raised any third party capital for their start-up and should not have raised more than $1 million in outside capital.  Applicants should have some sort of executive summary of a business plan, even if only one or two pages, and a PowerPoint deck (even if rough and short) explaining the start-up, the target market, what they plan to do, why they will win, the bios of those involved, the capital raised to date and from whom (we don't need specific names, but a general description), and provide the bios/resumes of those involved.  Click here for the application.

Each applicant who is selected will be assigned a First Growth Advisor Team consisting of a VC, an angel and/or successful senior C-level executive, and an advisor from Lowenstein Sandler's Tech Group and/or from GCA Savvian. The First Growth Advisor Team will work with the start-up throughout both semesters of the program. 

The sessions will include substantive teaching from VCs, Angels and successful entrepreneurs who've obtained funding and exited.  Each applicant who is selected will pitch their plan to active VCs and successful C-level executives/angels twice -- once at the beginning of the first semester before the substantive sessions and once at the end of the second semester after the sessions and after working with a First Growth Advisor Team.  We will also have a graduation at the end of the second semester.

Substantive topics will include:

1. what we as investors want to see in your pitch (both written and oral) and in our initial meeting, as well as strategies that worked in pitch-crafting from funded entrepreneurs,
2. how to read and prepare the types of financial statements and projections you'll need to get funding and to actually operate the business, including the reality check, what investors actually think about projections and how they use them,
3. top mistakes we see start-up entrepreneurs make that we'd really like to help you avoid,
4. pacing and how to figure out your realistic timeline on operations and milestones for the first (or next) 12 months so that you manage investor (or pre-investor) expectations and grow the company, and
5. the vocabulary and tools you need to understand, discuss and evaluate a term sheet and an investment deal, including how these deals impacts founders from a personal financial perspective.