We do not. Our mission involves supporting innovators and new ventures and—thanks to our partnership with KPMG, the town, and university—we can focus on doing good not on making money.

No! Anyone can apply to the Fall and Spring Launch Chapel Hill accelerators—you do not have to have an affiliation with the town or campus .

* Summer accelerators focus on student teams with at least one UNC-student founder.

No, Launch is intentionally focused on leveraging our deep network and delivering highly tailored, hands-on support within a select set of high-impact sectors. We believe that by concentrating our efforts, we can provide unmatched value to the startups we work with—connecting founders to industry-leading experts, early customers, and strategic capital in their space.

We prioritize getting your company ready for investment, and the growth path often works differently for non-profit and not-for-profit ventures.

And the broader instruction, networking and access the accelerator provides can help in any case.

Let’s talk first if your venture is a non-profit or not-for-profit to ensure that we can provide you the support you’ll need.

Yes! All cohort members receive 1 year of free membership at the Innovate Carolina coworking space.

Membership includes a floating desk membership with theses amenities: free wi-fi, coffee, tea, printing, and reservable conference rooms.

We are offering a blend of resources, industry connections, and specialized knowledge to a diverse group of companies operating across a wide variety of sectors. Each company will receive an experience that is tailored with their specific needs and growth trajectory.

Most importantly, all cohort companies share access to KPMG’s deep industry knowledge and expansive client network to unlock high-impact pilot opportunities and connect startups with initial customers. This focus on early validation and traction allows participating companies to not only accelerate product development but also establish credibility and momentum in the market.

The accelerator will run for 10 weeks, concluding in a Demo Day.

There may be a marginal fee associated with materials. More details will be provided shortly.

We admit 10-12 teams into each cohort. Applications are very competitive.

Programming is concentrated on Mondays and Tuesdays each week with cohort building events integrated into the accelerator.

We rely on public parking around our 136 East Franklin Street location. Paid Public Parking can be found at 125 East Rosemary Street. You can also find plenty of info at Park on the Hill, and the next closest locations are the Wallace Deck, 140 East Rosemary and the Mallette Street lot behind Chipotle and the Graduate Hotel.

All Town of Chapel Hill lots use Park Mobile for payment (in addition to credit cards and small-denomination cash)

We look for great founders and teams who are working on solutions to real problems and creating meaningful innovations.

Our accelerator is rigorous, high-touch and high-impact, and with that rigor in mind, we strongly encourage lone-founders to try to assemble a team before applying.

The best things you can do to strengthen your application are:

* Round out your team with business, technical, and other necessary skills.

* Ensure your product is ready for enterprise pilots/testing.

* Help us understand your beachhead market and how we can help take your product to market.

Remember: the aim of this accelerator is to help get enterprise customers.

This is primarily an in-person accelerator. We cannot overstate the value of directly sharing your experiences with others, having that support and motivation—not to mention the random insights we exchange as we’re physically co-located.

We had some amazing all-virtual cohorts in the early covid years—and we realized in-person works better : )

What we do now: we ask that companies attend in person whenever possible. We very strongly encourage as much in-person interaction as we can. We also understand you are running a business and the occasional conflict arises and can provide a Zoom option for most meetings.