Applications Are Open for the 2026 Invest In Women Founders Accelerator & Summit
- The Startup Ladies
- 17 hours ago
- 7 min read
We’re searching for the Top 9 women founders building scalable companies with validated markets, viable solutions, and the commitment to grow.
Applications are now officially open for the 2026 Top 9 Women Founders Accelerator and the 5th annual #InvestInWomenFounders Summit hosted by The Startup Ladies.
Application Timeline
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 – Applications Open
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET – Applications Close
Tuesday, June 30, 2026 – Top 9 Founders Notified
Thursday, July 2, 2026 – Top 9 Participation Confirmation Due
CLICK HERE to apply now!
Each year, The Startup Ladies selects nine women founders from across the United States to participate in a multi-month accelerator experience designed to strengthen investor readiness, executive communication, visibility, and long-term growth potential leading up to the Invest In Women Founders Summit on Thursday, November 5, 2026, at the Skyline Club in Indianapolis, Indiana from noon - 6pm.
Unlike traditional pitch competitions, the #InvestInWomenFounders Summit uses an interview-based format designed to move beyond memorized pitches and help investors better understand how founders think, solve problems, communicate, and lead.
The Summit itself is only one part of the experience. The real value comes from the months leading up to it:
investor readiness training
interview preparation
executive mentorship
strategic introductions
visibility
founder coaching
relationship building
and the hundreds of hours invested by volunteers, executives, investors, exited founders, mentors, and Startup Ladies Board Members who believe deeply in helping women founders grow scalable companies and access capital.
Over the past four years, we’ve learned something important.
The founders who benefit most from this experience are not necessarily the founders with the most polished pitch decks. They are the founders who have done the difficult work of understanding their customers, validating their markets, testing assumptions, listening to feedback, and staying committed to building solutions people genuinely want and need.
Over the years, we’ve learned that founders who engage deeply in customer discovery are often the founders best positioned to succeed. Founders who take the time to survey stakeholders, interview potential customers, identify patterns, test assumptions, and gather meaningful feedback are building with far more clarity and intention than founders operating purely on instinct.
Customer discovery takes time and hustle.
It requires founders to actively seek feedback, ask thoughtful questions, listen carefully, collect data, and use those insights to shape early versions of their products, services, positioning, pricing, and go-to-market strategies. Today, much of that work can happen through the networks founders are already part of, both online and offline, but regardless of where those conversations happen, this is the moment when founders need to show up. They need to engage directly with the people experiencing the problem, be willing to hear difficult feedback, ask better questions, and continue refining their thinking based on what they learn.
Those conversations often become the foundation for stronger messaging, better decision-making, early traction, and eventually, first customers.
As a result, we are intentionally focusing this accelerator on founders who have already begun that work before applying. Founders who have completed meaningful customer discovery are better positioned to take full advantage of the accelerator because they already have real market feedback, stronger insight into customer behavior, and a clearer understanding of the problem they are solving. That foundation allows us to spend more time helping founders strengthen investor readiness, refine communication, improve positioning, and prepare for meaningful growth and investor engagement.
We are looking for founders who are:
coachable
committed
curious
adaptable
willing to reprioritize their time during the accelerator
and serious about building scalable companies grounded in real customer demand
Because ultimately, investors are not simply investing in ideas. They are investing in founders who demonstrate the discipline, resilience, communication skills, and market understanding required to build and grow a company over time.
This does not mean founders need to have everything figured out.
In fact, they shouldn’t.
The purpose of the accelerator is to help founders become more investor ready through education, preparation, mentorship, practice, and relationship building. Many founders selected into the Top 9 are still refining their investor materials, strengthening their fundraising strategy, improving communication, or continuing to gather traction.
But the founders who benefit most from this experience are the ones doing the difficult work of validating ideas, talking to customers, gathering feedback, refining their solutions, and building real momentum - not simply staying in the romantic phase of talking about starting a business.
CLICK HERE to explore last year's Top 9 founders and get a sense of the caliber of companies, founders, and growth potential this accelerator is designed to support.
This year’s application reflects that evolution.
The application is intentionally designed to help us better understand each founder’s company, customer validation, growth potential, communication style, and readiness to participate in a high-impact accelerator experience. We are not looking for perfection. We value clarity, honesty, evidence of learning, thoughtful reflection, and commitment.
The application now includes questions such as:
Company Overview
In one sentence, tell us about your company.
What is your solution to the customer’s problem?
What customer problem are you solving?
Who are your ideal customers?
Validation & Customer Discovery
What evidence do you have that customers want this solution?
Approximately how many stakeholder or customer surveys were completed?
Approximately how many stakeholder or customer interviews/conversations have you completed?
What is the most important thing you learned through customer discovery?
Business Model & Scalability
How does your company make money?
Why is NOW the right time for your company, solution, or market opportunity to exist?
Why do you believe this company can scale?
What is your company’s unique value proposition (UVP)?
Who are your primary competitors?
Capital Readiness
Are you currently preparing to raise capital?
How much capital are you seeking?
Have you taken on any investment already?
What will you use the capital for?
Founder Strength
What experiences, expertise, or insights uniquely qualify you to lead and grow your company?
Why are you uniquely qualified to build this company?
What is the hardest decision you’ve made as a founder?
Why This Opportunity Matters
Why do you want to be selected as one of the Top 9?
The 2026 accelerator experience includes:
live Zoom trainings
asynchronous learning
office hours
independent assignments
interview preparation
executive mentorship
investor readiness support
and repeated practice leading up to the Summit.
Participation in the Top 9 requires full commitment to the process. Founders selected into the accelerator must attend all required trainings, complete assignments, participate in interview preparation, and attend the Summit in person on November 5, 2026.
2026 Training Schedule
AUGUST
Tuesday, August 18 | 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. ET | Zoom | Orientation
Week of August 24 | Asynchronous Learning
SEPTEMBER
Tuesday, September 1 | 4–6 p.m. ET | Zoom | Training 1
Week of September 7 | Asynchronous Learning
Friday, September 11 | 4–5 p.m. ET | Zoom | Office Hours
Tuesday, September 15 | 4–6 p.m. ET | Zoom | Training 2
Week of September 22 | Asynchronous Learning
Friday, September 25 | 4–5 p.m. ET | Zoom | Office Hours
Week of September 28 | Asynchronous Learning
OCTOBER
Tuesday, October 6 | 4–7 p.m. ET | Zoom | Training 4
Tuesday, October 13 | 4–7 p.m. ET | Zoom | Training 5
Week of October 19 | Asynchronous Learning
Tuesday, October 27 | 4–7 p.m. ET | Zoom | Training 6
NOVEMBER
Thursday, November 5 | Noon–6 p.m. ET | In Person | #InvestInWomenFounders Summit
Thursday, November 12 | 11 a.m.–Noon ET | Zoom | Feedback Session
The Startup Ladies Investor Network has already invested more than $1,000,000 directly into women-owned companies, demonstrating what is possible when founders are given the right preparation, visibility, relationships, and support.
And perhaps most importantly, this accelerator exists because of an extraordinary community of people who continue showing up to support women founders:
investors
executives
mentors
ecosystem leaders
exited founders
Startup Ladies Ambassadors
and Startup Ladies Board Members
These individuals collectively invest hundreds of volunteer hours helping founders strengthen communication, improve investor readiness, expand their networks, and prepare for meaningful growth opportunities.
There is zero cost for founders selected into the Top 9 to participate in the accelerator and Summit. The estimated value of the Top 9 experience exceeds $20,000 and includes investor readiness training, executive mentorship, interview preparation, strategic introductions, visibility opportunities, and months of accelerator programming leading up to the Summit. Please note that founders are responsible for their own travel and lodging expenses.
If you are a woman founder building a scalable company grounded in real customer demand, committed to growth, and ready to engage deeply in the accelerator process, we encourage you to apply.
If you are an investor, executive, mentor, or ecosystem leader, we encourage you to share this opportunity with founders in your network who are serious about growth and preparing for investor engagement.
And if you believe in helping women founders access capital, build stronger companies, and expand economic opportunity, we invite you to attend the 2026 #InvestInWomenFounders Summit and become part of this growing movement.
We help more women founders access capital
Startup Ladies LL was created in 2014 to help address the very real gaps that still exist in access to capital, mentorship, investor networks, and visibility for women founders building scalable businesses. For decades, women founders have remained dramatically underfunded, with all-female founding teams typically receiving only 1–3% of U.S. venture capital funding in most years.
The #InvestInWomenFounders Summit was created because too many talented women founders were building innovative companies without access to the relationships, education, investor exposure, and strategic support often required to successfully scale and raise capital.
What began as a bold idea to create more visibility for women founders has evolved into a much larger effort focused on building long-term infrastructure that helps founders become more investor ready, strengthen executive communication, build meaningful business relationships, and access opportunities that can accelerate growth.
Our mission is to help more women founders access the education, relationships, mentorship, and visibility needed to build sustainable companies, compete for investment capital, and most importantly, secure the funding needed to grow and scale their businesses.
CLICK HERE to apply now!
The application closes on Wednesday, June 17 at 11:59 p.m.
