LAUNCH your business into the real world

March 13th 2023 – Applications open 

April 9th 2023 – Applications close

April 28th 2023 – Acceptance confirmed by 

June 2nd 2023 – Program kick off 

September 22nd 2023 – Pitch Day 

Dates applicable to all cohorts

To apply simply fill out the online application form and outline the following details:

• The team

• Their idea

• The problem they are trying to solve, and how they were inspired to solve this problem

• Their proposed solution, and how they believe this solution might support a sustainable, stand-alone business.

Applications are reviewed by a team of evaluators. Shortlisted teams will be invited to interview with us during the review phase and will be confirmed by the end of April. The Lab2Market Launch program runs virtually from June 2 to August 31. The program concludes with a Pitch Day at Dalhousie University, Halifax on 21 September, 2023.

Please note: Applications should be written in a manner that does not reveal any proprietary information or disclose information that is not yet publicly disclosed or covered by a patent/provisional patent.  Consider any information that you disclose to be non-confidential.

• Teams must contain at least two members and no more than five members.

• All team members should be founders or founder-level (so don’t list any interns or others who are not committed to becoming full-time entrepreneurs through this project).

• At least one participating team member must be a current student, post-doctoral student, or recent graduate (i.e. graduated within the past two years as of March 2023) of an Atlantic Canadian academic institute (or Canadian academic institute in the case of the National Health Cohort).

• Teams must commit to working on their start up for the summer, for a minimum of 25 hours each per week (roughly 10 hours of workshops, 15+ hours of asynchronous time) and must present at the Pitch Day event in September.

• Teams must have some understanding of the entrepreneurial process and must demonstrate familiarity with common frameworks including Disciplined Entrepreneurship, Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas, and the like.

• Teams should have done initial customer discovery to validate their idea (a minimum of 50 interviews).

• Teams must disclose in their application all sources of funding that the team has received.

• There are no restrictions on whether a team has funding going into Lab2Market Launch, however, be advised that we are looking for teams that can significantly gain from the program — we’re not just taking the teams that are the closest to being full-fledged companies.

   

• * Participants interested in the National Health cohort must be working on a health-based venture.