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Sprint Series: Founder Support in Action

The Sprint Series is a cohort-based advising program designed to help founders tackle one urgent, high-impact business challenge head-on. Over four to six weeks, founders work alongside industry experts, peers, and advisors to move from problem to execution, emerging with a clear strategy, a stronger network, and the momentum to grow. Each cohort is built around a single focused challenge theme, ensuring every session, expert, and resource is directly relevant to where founders are right now.

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The Challenge: Early-stage founders in underserved markets are building businesses with real revenue, real customers, and real potential, yet many remain stuck at a critical inflection point. Whether it’s a go-to-market strategy that isn’t converting, a pricing model that’s leaving money on the table, or a brand story that isn’t landing with investors, the gap between early traction and scalable growth often comes down to one unresolved challenge. Without targeted support, access to the right expertise, and a structured path to execution, that challenge becomes a ceiling. The Sprint Series exists to break through it.

Sprint Pathways

Each Sprint cohort is organized around one of six high-impact business challenges. Founders apply to the cohort that matches their most pressing need:

Go-to-Market Strategy: Reach your first or next customer segment with a focused, executable plan built for your market.

Customer Discovery & Validation: Get clear on who your customer actually is, confirm real demand, and stop building for assumptions.

Revenue Model & Pricing: Structure how you make money, what to charge, and how to position your pricing for growth.

Partnerships & Distribution: Get your product or service to market through strategic partners and distribution channels.

Fundraising Readiness: Build the pitch, narrative, and financial foundation to pursue your first institutional raise.

Brand & Storytelling: Sharpen your value proposition and communicate your mission to customers, partners, and investors.

Program details

The Sprint Series is a 4–6 week hybrid cohort program with mandatory attendance at all sessions

Program kicks off with an in-person kickoff event featuring an expert panel and networking with industry leaders and subject matter experts

Weeks 2–4 are conducted virtually, combining brief instruction, peer working sessions, small case studies, and individual or group implementation time

The program concludes with an in-person Demo Day — a public-facing pitch event attended by peers, investors, and community stakeholders

Each founder receives two 1:1 coaching and mentoring sessions (45 minutes each) with professional advisors throughout the program

Founders walk away with a replicable problem-solving framework, an execution plan tailored to their business challenge, and access to Founder Forward's network of industry experts, advisors, and fellow founders across Regenerative Business, Frontier Technology, and Creative Media & Consumer Product Goods

Sprint eligibility

Located in the New York City metro area, Bronx, Newark, NJ, or Philadelphia, PA

For-profit business entity registered to operate in the United States

Generating a minimum of $10,000 in annual business revenue, or demonstrating a clear and credible pathway to revenue generation

Between 1 and 5 employees

Operating in one of the following sectors: Regenerative Business (agriculture, food production, retail), Frontier Technology (AI, robotics, quantum computing, biotechnology, renewable energy), or Creative Media & Consumer Product Goods 

Early-stage or seed-stage company at MVP launch or early revenue stage, poised for investment 

Founders who do not meet all criteria may still be considered based on demonstrated ability to contribute to and benefit from the cohort

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Applications for the next Sprint Series will soon be announced!

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