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Experienced founders often rely on StartX’s ability to provide educational training for theiremployees, access to industry & domain experts, and are given a peer group of otherexperienced founders in the same stage/role/industry to compare notes with.

We’ve had a ton of successful StartX repeat founders. Repeat founders often appreciate thevalue of community, and the program is customized each time and a different and moreadvanced program is provided for second / third time founders.

Solo founders are very welcome in the StartX community. Make sure during your application &interviews that you are very clear to the judges about what you will do, and what you willdelegate if you intend to operate this company as a solo founder for its full duration. Similarly, ifyou are thinking about potentially adding future co-founders, make sure to express that as well.

Having said that, the statistics show that 17.5% of StartX’s admitted startups are solo founderstartups. And, while the general success rate of solo founders in Silicon Valley is quite weak, wehave found that StartX’s solo founders perform very well — we believe this is because thesupport of a community can often offset the difficulty of not having day-to-day co-founders.

StartX typically admits serial entrepreneurs, industry or domain experts, Stanford professors,first-time founders, and well-funded/growth-stage companies. However, we do often acceptespecially high-potential first-time entrepreneurs as well.

We support all industries, historically ranging from biotech, informatics, medical device,hardware, fintech, cleantech, and non-profit to the more traditional consumer/enterprise/healthIT & deep tech.

The community has companies at all stages, whether you have only recently developed aninitial prototype or have already raised Series B+.

Our community offers access to networking events, educational workshops for startups,discounts on vendor services, two investor demo days per year, 1:1 mentorship opportunities,and more! Let us know if you have specific questions about our resources.

This is difficult to say as the significance of the equity is relative to the number of founders onthe founding team and each of their equity. For example, if one founder has 95% and theStanford-affiliated founder has only 5%, our expert judges would question the validity of theStanford affiliation with regards to the company’s application to the program.

A Stanford-affiliated founder is someone who was/is a Stanford undergraduate student,graduate student, faculty member, postdoctoral scholar, academic staff member, or fellow in arecognized Stanford fellowship program. Short-term executive/educational programs, continuingstudies, and certificate programs do not currently qualify.

We’re looking for the best entrepreneurs who believe in the model of what we’re trying to buildat StartX. A great way to find out what you need to be admitted is to have applied in a previoussession. Teams not admitted are always offered customized advice & feedback on what stepsthey can take to reach the next level. For companies earlier in their journey we recommendjoining our Student in Residence, Professor in Residence, or Entrepreneur in Residenceprograms.

An applicant mixer is an exclusive event for the founders that have submitted an application. It’s a unique opportunity to not only learn more about the program but also to meet and interact withStartX startups, staff and other fellow applicants.

Only applicants who’ve submitted an application are granted entrance.

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Yes! We always encourage you to apply again. Our judges love being proven wrong. The application process itself can a learning opportunity of its own. Incorporate the advice & feedback that you receive, and continue to make progress in those areas!

Every company that applies is offered customized advice & feedback on their specific company(from VCs, serial entrepreneurs, and StartX alumni) regardless of the outcome of the application!

You’ll receive an email near the end of the application process with the details.

Yes, please submit separate application for each of your companies.