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Plus Eight Sprint
6 Week Pre-Accelerator

Designed for early-stage entrepreneurs and teams across Australia to grow their startup

We help get your startup ready for growth.

Plus Eight Sprint is a 6-week pre-accelerator program designed to connects you with a community of successful mentors, investors and advisors to help you take your startup idea to the next level. Running across Australia, Plus Eight Sprint provides both the content and environment needed to grow your skills as a founder.

Sign up below, to be the first to know when the next Plus Eight Pre-Accelerator program opens for applications.
Supercharge your startup journey with the support of Plus Eight

The support to help your business succeed.

Plus Eight provides tailored made programs for new business owners, meaning that it's all action and no fluff. This program supports you with the skills and action plan to achieve your vision.

Mentorship

We've sourced the most experienced business mentors, investors and advisors to guide you throughout Sprint. Each week new mentors will share their experience and wisdom, giving you the opportunity to learn from those that have been there and done it.

Actionable Content

Everything we cover through Plus Eight Sprint can be directly applied to your business and will have a noticeable, positive impact regardless of where you are at in your journey.

Peer-based learning

We believe some of the best opportunities to grow as a new business is by learning from other businesses going through a similar journey. Sprint provides lots of opportunities to connect and learn from other new businesses going through the program, and emphasises peer-based feedback and reflection.

Community & connection

It takes an entire village to raise a business. We believe being part of a strong community of like-minded business owners and advisors makes you a stronger entrepreneur and gives you the environment for your business to succeed.

Fit for prototype and early stage companies

Challenge yourself and your business.

Each Sprint session is divided into three sections: mentor presentations; working on your business; and weekly project reviews.

1. Expert presentations from experienced mentors

Our experienced panel of mentors draw on real life examples and provide practical takeaways that you can apply to your business through a workshop-style, interactive presentation that focuses on a new business skill area for that week.

2. Application of the content to your business

The majority of each Sprint session is spent working on your business around the weekly focus area with the support of mentors and other business owners. This includes hands-on activities and is a great opportunity to get feedback, learn from others and immediately apply the lessons to your idea.

3. Weekly projects to help push your business forward

Each week, you will be given a specific project to work on before the next Sprint session. These are always practical and aim to give your business a step-change improvement. At the start of each Sprint session, business owners share their progress and get feedback on the previous week's project work.

Discover a unique and vibrant community of founders

The best, modern business approaches.

We draw on the very best contemporary approaches to build sustainable technology businesses, straight from the innovation capitals of the world.

Google Design Sprint

Developed by Google, design sprints is a proven model to test, iterate and improve your product in collaboration with your customers.

Lean Startup

The foundation for many modern startup approaches, the Lean Startup is a critical part of any new businesses toolkit.

Design thinking

Developed by Stanford and used by many of the worlds biggest brands, design thinking is an approach to developing products that your customers will love.

The best 6 weeks you've ever invested in.

Topics

What you'll work on

Week Zero

Networking & Community

  • An informal session with the cohort to build relationships and connections

Week One

Business Model Development

  • Articulating your business model and how to make it sustainable
  • Developing your unique value proposition
  • Understanding the competitor landscape and how you plan on competing

Week Two

Validation and Customer Testing

  • Using design thinking to deeply understand your customers needs, goals and motivations
  • Undertaking research to develop key insights on what will make customers love your product

Week Three

Product and Prototyping

  • Defining design sprints to test your product proposition
  • Making your Minimum Lovable Product
  • Determining the right approach for developing your product

Week Four

Growth & Marketing

  • Finding your first customer and building a loyal customer base
  • Understanding pirate metrics and defining your growth marketing strategies
  • Selecting your digital marketing toolkit

Week Five

Team, Mindset and Operations

  • Structuring your team and advisors
  • Understanding company incorporation and shareholder agreements
  • Maintaining the right founder mindset

Week Six

Legal and Accounting

  • Selecting the right fundraising approach, timing and strategy
  • Ensuring you cross your t's and dot your i's (legal and IP)

Pitch Event!

A Final Celebration

  • Keep going up and to the right with a pitch event and celebration
Increasing access to entrepreneurial education across the country

Plus Eight Sprint Delivery Partners

Plus Eight Sprint has been delivered in a range of locations across Australia. We work alongside local Government, community groups and ecosystem to run programs to targeted communities. We are committed to growing the capacity and capability of local businesses, and our Program Partners help us do so!
Talk to us today about running a Sprint program in your community.

The question we constantly ask ourselves is "would we be where we are now had we not done Plus Eight?" The answer is a resounding no. 

Plus Eight has enabled us to not only expedite our growth but the way we think about product development and our go to market strategy.

- Ravi Nichani, Director and Co-Founder @ Ovass
Plus Eight Accelerator Alumni