The founder blog

Compute and infrastructure credits are the easiest money an early startup can get, and the least applied for.

The real range of equity accelerators ask for, what comes with it, and when the trade is worth making.

The regional programmes open to Latin American founders, plus the global ones that actually accept them.

The funding that does not ask where you are incorporated, and what it asks for instead.

What is open to a founder in the US or Canada beyond the state programmes, and where a non-resident with a US company stands.

Impact funders measure something other than revenue, and the application turns on how you propose to measure it.

Ecosystem grants are real money with real conditions. How to tell them from a programme that wants a logo.

Public money dominates climate funding, and it is awarded on measured impact rather than growth.

The two costs that define a consumer company are stock and acquisition. Which funding is built for each.

Research-stage companies are funded on evidence of a route to market, not traction. Which programmes work that way.

Enterprise sales cycles outlast most runways. The programmes built for that gap, and how to qualify.

Money moving through your product changes who will fund you and what they need to see before they do.

Programmes outside the US that are free to apply to and currently running, grouped by region, with what each one gives.

State-level funding is the least competitive money in America and the least known. What each state offers, and who qualifies.

The routes that put money into a startup without taking a share, what each one asks for in return, and which to try first.

Equity, tuition fees, time, relocation and the clauses founders miss - what the standard accelerator deal really costs.

Hardware spends money before it earns any. The programmes that understand that, and what they will cover.

Clinical and patient-facing products are funded differently because approval, not launch, is the milestone that matters.

Which programmes take founders before there is a product, what they look for instead of traction, and how to apply with nothing built yet.

Which funding an AI founder can take without giving up a share, who qualifies, and where the catch usually is.

The real difference between a prototype, an MVP, and a minimum lovable product, and which one you need before you pitch.

What accelerator reviewers actually screen for before they even get to your deck, based on how these programs evaluate applicants.

The European programmes a founder can apply to, what they require in return, and the residency rules that catch people out.

Programmes that fund women-led companies, the eligibility rules that decide it, and how they compare with applying to open programmes.