Campbell University is hunting for a few good entrepreneurs – accepting applications now through mid-December for its mentor-focused Camel Accelerator.
The upcoming cohort, which starts in February and runs for three months, is the program’s third and – unlike the first two – is open to all entrepreneurs, though there’s still a push to get minority applicants.
The terms of its NC Idea Grant included a focus on minorities for the first two iterations. The program was founded out of grants from NC Idea and the RTP Foundation and runs from Feb. 5 through April 12.
Typically, serial entrepreneur and program coordinator Scott Kelly said the program gets between 25 and 30 applications. Of those, it accepts between 15 and 20 – and it’s industry agnostic. Alumni have included a mural painter, a data analytics business and a coffee entrepreneur.
Kelly is working with other entrepreneurial groups to get the word out, such as Raleigh Founded and NC Idea.
“This is a program of experiments,” Kelly said. “We know that startups are a temporary organization on a journey to find their scaleable, repeatable business model. … We help them develop the experiment, hopefully figure out these are the processes we can go through to move from a startup to a business.”
The goal is to teach the skills to keep running experiments through the life of the business. Kelly said the preference is for a company to be out of the idea phase, with at least a few customers.
“They’re not at the stage where, I woke up last night and had this idea,” he said.
Entrepreneurs should be located within a two hour radius of Campbell University in Buies Creek, as the expectation is they’ll come to campus at least twice during the program.
The accelerator is different from some other local efforts because it’s embedded into a class at Campbell, Kelly said.
The application deadline is Dec. 20 with priority acceptance for applications received by Dec. 10.