Answered questions

Do you take a stake in the company?

No, we don't take a stake in your company – it will be 100% owned by you. Once your startup is established, we might make an offer to invest in your company but you are under no obligation to accept investment.

I've already started my company, can I still get help?

Of course, we specialise in helping early stage startups that have not yet secured outside funding. If you have already secured funding, we can introduce you to our partner company that can help you secure R&D funding for your company.

I already have investors, can I apply?

We only work with companies that have not yet secured outside funding (bootstrapping and friends and family funding is ok). If you have already secured funding, we can introduce you to our partner company that can help you secure R&D funding for your company.

Do you work with non-UK companies?

Not at the moment, we only work with UK based companies. We are looking to expand our services to other countries in the future.

What's in it for you!?

We only work with the companies where we see the most potential. We know that being involved with high-potential companies and founders from the start builds loyalty and offers opportunities later down the line for investment, consultancy and other services.

I have co-founders, is that ok?

There are plenty of accelerators and incubators that will support founding teams, we specialise in working with solo founders because we believe they are not well catered for. We've also found it's far simpler to work with one founder. However, if your team are comfortable assigning one person to be the main point of contact, we are happy to consider it.

I thought being called an Upstart was a bad thing!?

Usually, it's the large established incumbent that considers their scrappy challenger an upstart. Often, they don't take you seriously because you don't have what they see as the pre-requisite qualifications, expertise or experience. We think that's a good thing, it means you're not constrained by the same groupthink, rules and limitations as they are. We believe that being an upstart is a badge of honour.

What does it cost me?

Nothing. We carefully select Upstarts that we believe can secure grant and/or angel funding and invest our time and expertise to get you to that stage at no cost to you. Once you're funded, you'll use company funds to execute our joint plan to build your MVP. After that, we'll offer you a support package to continue our journey together, we hope you'll want to do that, but you're under no obligation.

How many companies have you worked with?

We're just getting started, but we've built our own companies using this Upstart methodology and have very high confidence in it.

What type of funding do you provide?

Each case is unique but we often provide startups with startup capital to establish and communicate their vision and built their prototype. We can also provide gap funding for grants and may also invest in the first ouside funding round.

What type of people do you help?

We typically work with ambitious founders with a big vision, they're usually solo founders with vast domain expertise but not little to no software engineering skills. The biggest opportunities right now are in industries where AI can have an outsize impact and this is our main focus.

Still didn’t find your answer?

We realise everyone's circumstances are different and you might have lots of questions, contact us and speak to a member of the team within a matter of hours.