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This is difficult to say as the significance of the equity is relative to the number of founders on the 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.

StartX typically admits serial entrepreneurs, industry or domain experts, Stanford professors, first-time founders, and well-funded/growth-stage companies. However, we do often accept especially 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 an initial 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.

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 will delegate if you intend to operate this company as a solo founder for its full duration. Similarly, if you 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 founder startups. And, while the general success rate of solo founders in Silicon Valley is quite weak, we have found that StartX’s solo founders perform very well — we believe this is because the support of a community can often offset the difficulty of not having day-to-day co-founders.

Yes! We have a personalized track for Professors in Residence. This is a great option forStanford professors who cannot work full-time on their start-up. Their co-founders may also participate. Please email applicantsupport@startx.com if you have specific questions about what qualifies as a professor.

To qualify for “Stanford-affiliated” as a post-doctoral scholar, you need to be either:

• A current, active post-doctoral scholar
• A past/former post-doctoral scholar who completed at least three academic quarters willqualify
  NOTE: Visiting Scholars DO NOT count.
  If you’re still not sure, get a recommendation or two! Applications with positiverecommendations have roughly 2× the average acceptance rate, historically —regardless of Stanford affiliation.

We do not restrict the way you decide to be innovative. We accept startups creating something new or repurposing old ideas/products in a new way. Being a nonprofit also does not affect your chances of being admitted to the StartX community. If you are able to demonstrate a sustainable way to cover operating costs, then you can still be considered for StartX.

After submitting an application, a team of StartX judges reviews and makes a decision. If a team is moved forward, they complete a Round 1 interview with a panel of industry-specific judges, ranging from VCs to serial entrepreneurs. If a team moves to Round 2, they will complete multiple interviews, including a Culture interview with founders and technical interviews including any relevant technical employees. Finally, StartX judges or staff may reach out with any final questions or reference checks before a final admissions decision is made.

References should be people who know one or more of the founders for your team professionally and can speak to your abilities in your roles / your personality / convictions /efforts you’ve made building your company. They should not be customers. References will only be contacted after the second round of interviews.

References are different from recommendations. A reference is someone who personally knowsyou or your team. Recommendations are required for non-Stanford-affiliated companies. If aStartX alum wants to recommend you directly, they will need to go to startx.com/recommendations (after logging in).

To be eligible to apply for the Student-in-Residence program, you must be a current Stanford student/post-doc and must be a co-founder of the company with a significant equity stake. Your application must include all co-founders of the company, even those who are not active students at this time.