The CoWrks Foundry: Accelerator program that powers innovation
The CoWrks Foundry was established as a revolutionary space where innovators can transform their unconventional ideas into resilient global companies. We do this through a targeted program that keeps the founder at the centre. We firmly believe that there is no one size that fits all, and we’re built to adapt and accelerate alongside our founders and their companies.
Our unique curriculum holistically re-engineers founders and their companies, focusing on building the former’s knowledge, skills, and mindsets while evolving a thriving community that stays engaged beyond our six months together. We support startups to stress test their ideas, teams, and business model, and level up.
The CoWrks Foundry Method:
1. Smart Capital and Tech Credits:
We invest in the range of $30K to $50K by way of convertible preferred shares and also offer up to $75K worth of technology credits across platforms like Amazon AWS, Google, and Recruiterflow- to support everything from data and documentation needs to hiring the first employees effectively.
We connect our startups with an elect group of veterans and industry experts to help them navigate rough waters, receive tough advice, and test for long term endurance. As a highly learner centric program, dedicated coaches are assigned based on the needs and progress of each startup. Founders have ongoing office hours and coaching conversations with their external coach, our panel of internal coaches, and program speakers.
We believe that access to diverse expertise matters, so apart from a dedicated coach, we also have a panel of external experts across all vertical and functional areas — enterprise sales, product building, branding and positioning, growth and scale, finance and legal. We vet our coaches extensively for quality, mindset, and articulation of learning.
Our commitment is towards building capacity in founders through actionable frameworks and tough practitioners, not gyaan or personal anecdotes that might not add value.
3. Programming:
Through a variety of touchpoints, we focus on building essential competencies across business, product, and pitchcraft. We believe a strong foundation sets our learners up for long term success, and we hone the basics again and again.
Founders’ Roundtable
At The CoWrks Foundry, we believe in honest insights from the field. Every week, our startups get a chance to interact with real operators at the Founders’ Roundtable — an honest and intimate conversation around building companies for scale.
Our founders have the opportunity to liaise with these practitioners on matters ranging from successfully negotiating enterprise sales to hiring and managing their first sales team.
Startup ToolBox
Despite a visible surge in India’s startup community, businesses in the Urban Tech, Enterprise Tech and Social Enterprise space face unique challenges. To begin with, there is a dearth of quality industry knowledge. The content of curriculum provided lacks depth and is rarely crafted by those in the know.
Designed for founders to identify and build the skills of highest leverage, the Startup Toolbox framework includes focused and technical workshops. The sessions are crafted to address pertinent pain points ranging from hiring the right talent to navigating investor conversations to building a great board.
Inspired by Hell Week, the rigorous regime that churns out the best Navy personnel in the world, The CoWrks Foundry puts founders’ mettle and endurance to test at regular intervals. Our founders are pushed out of their comfort zone with a combination of rigorous acid tests, design sprints, external expert juries, and real life negotiation scenarios.
4. Events:
Apart from peer and coach led learning, we curate exclusive spaces where our founders interact with the larger ecosystem
The Closed Circuit is a session tailored around solving challenges that hold promising businesses back from reaching their full potential. Startups have the opportunity to leverage practical industry-specific advice and personalised feedback from industry experts — right from hiring and legal, to product building and fundraising.
The Founders’ Conclave is a curated event that brings together founders across industries to share their knowledge and experiences. Here, we drive conversations towards what it takes to build sustainable global businesses that are resilient to any and all challenges.
Demo Day is held at the end of the 24-week intensive program. Startups that are part of the cohort have the opportunity to pitch their products, ideas and business models to a curated audience of venture capitalists, and prominent industry leaders.
5. Transformational Networks:
We go the extra mile to ensure we open doors and provide our startups with high-level access that will change the company’s growth trajectory. Apart from networking with fellow founders and the larger startup ecosystem, teams can leverage strong market access with warm, personalized introductions across the extensive CoWrks member network and coaches across our various international programs, and investors aligned to each domain.
6. Post Program Support:
We’re partners for the long haul. Our founders have the space to interact and support each other after our time together, through alumni groups, regular Founders’ Salons, access to our internal coaches, and exclusive event invites. Founders can pay it forward by becoming our next Entrepreneur Emeritus as well!
Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely and frustrating journey, and we believe that learning within a motivated, close-knit community can significantly ease challenges while accelerating one’s growth. The CoWrks Foundry’s growing network across programs, domains, and geographies paves the way for founders to be part of a vibrant, diverse alumni base and solve problems, access expertise, feel motivated and have fun, while gaining a sense of meaning and belonging in their work.
To learn more about our entire program that has been compounded from intensive research, read Program Principles Designed for Businesses to Rapidly Scale & Grow authored by Meghana Srinivas, Program Director at The CoWrks Foundry.
