Chinook Lab combines seed capital, hands-on help and a great co-working location with an expert team to positively impact the trajectory of early-stage startups. The Lab is powered by Chinook Capital, a seed-stage venture fund that helps founders accelerate their business through its market-validation and customer-acquisition focus incubation program, and invest in select startups that can demonstrate the ability to scale quickly.
Chinook Lab is scouting for 4 best disruptive startups & entrepreneurs in Nigeria to incubate and help them progress rapidly into exciting, viable, venture-scalable businesses. We work side-by-side with startups in the cohort in the areas most critical to the success for their new ventures –- product development, customer discovery, business development, operational infrastructure, and recruiting. From customer development, partnerships, to fundraising, we help level the playing field for our portfolio companies accelerate their ideas to market.
Program Overview
We are excited to launch Chinook’s maiden program “Founders Incubator Program” and seek startups in the cross-sector industry in Nigeria or that want to enter Nigeria market from West Africa in tech ecosystem:
- That are providing unravel innovative Tech-Fin platform for Insurance, Asset Management, Investment, Pension, Stock Trading and Micro Savings & Credits.
- That are using technology solutions to drive innovation and business model improvement in: Agriculture, Transportation, Utilities, Smart Energy, Education, Media and Health leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
- That has High growth enterprise software opportunity across functions and industries including infrastructure software, SaaS, Data Service and on-demand platforms.
- That have disruptive Innovation in Games, Blockchain, IoT and Visual Reality technologies.
What we expect:
- Existing Product and Service: Minimum viable product & generating revenue
- Market & Customer Validation: Demonstrate some sort of market traction
- Growth: Business model is new, disruptive and designed for scale
- Team: You have strong founders – with technology and business background
- Governance: Your company is for-profit and registered as an independent legal entity.
Selection Process
- Application Period
- Phone Interview/ The Call ·
- Selection Process/ Advisors review
- Three Days Bootcamp
- Pitching event and selection of winners
- Moving to Chinook Lab
What’s the Deal?
- Intensive four-month incubation program·
- 12 Months Co-Working Space·
- High-Speed Internet Access·
- USD 25,000 pre-seed funding for the four 4 winners
- USD 125,000 follow-on funding from Chinook Capital’s Fund and our Co-Investors.
- Access to our Corporate Partnership Program ·
- Access to in-kind service from our incubator partners – Amazon, Digital Oceans, Zendesk etc.
- Mentorship & Business Development Counseling·
- Networking Opportunities with a soft landing to Africa Market·
- Peer-to-Peer Meeting Sessions·
- Marketing and Promotional Opportunities·
- Access to Talent
- Access to business support services – accounting, legal and industry information
A Day in the Life
- Founder Speaker Series – West Africa most successful business builders from entrepreneurs to VCs discuss topics ranging from how they built their companies from idea to exit to details about acquiring customers and investment strategies to trends and what they mean–or don’t mean.
- Workshop Series – Outside experts, mentors and advisors cover wide-ranging and diverse specific relevant topic areas.
- Sample workshops include: Creating a Fundable Business Model, Partner Engagement and Strategy, Customer Discovery and Optimisation, Financials Narrative, Digital Marketing Best Practices by Channel, and more.
- Fundraising Sessions – Chinook partners lead sessions that cover funding categories, cap tables, understanding and preparing to meet your potential investors, tracking and follow-up meetings, investor decks, etc.
- Tech Roundtable – Problem solve with your cohort and other tech mentors in the trenches.
- Mentor Meetings – Chinook Lab mentors, who have expertise in every imaginable functional area.
- Our mentors are generous with their time and resources, available to advise our companies for the duration of our program.
- Resident Expert Office Hours – consult with technologists and other pros on specific tactical issues you encounter.
- KPI Review – You and your cohort track and discuss weekly progress together in a lively game show atmosphere that fosters teamwork.
- Pitch Practice – Practice, revise and refine your pitch; get feedback from your cohort, entrepreneurs and investors.
- Open Door to Partners & Staff – Our partners and staff are always here to help build your business.
Application Method
The application is done online. To apply for this opportunity, kindly follow the link below:
Click here to start your application
Application Deadline: October 31, 2018
