Plus Eight Sprint is a six-week, skill-building and business growth program. It is exclusive and free for businesses owned or operated in Western Sydney, comprising of 14 local government areas. This program connects founders with a community of successful mentors, investors and advisors to help you take your business idea to the next level and provides the content and environment to grow your skills.
Applications have now closed for the 2023 Western Sydney Pre-Accelerator program.
The Plus Eight Sprint program provides you with the connections, support and program content to help scale your startup.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Each Sprint session is divided into three sections: mentor presentations; working on your business; and weekly project reviews.
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.
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.
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.
We draw on the very best contemporary approaches to build sustainable technology businesses, straight from the innovation capitals of the world.
Developed by Google, design sprints is a proven model to test, iterate and improve your product in collaboration with your customers.
The foundation for many modern startup approaches, the Lean Startup is a critical part of any new businesses toolkit.
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.
Over the 6-week Sprint program you will have the opportunity to focus on your business through a practical curriculum of topics critical to any successful new business . By the end of the program you'll have a stronger business and be a stronger business owner.
Week 1 - Wednesday May 24
How to build an enduring business
Business model development
Week 2 - Wednesday May 31
How to make a product your customers will love
Validation and customer testing
Week 3 - Wednesday June 7
How to turn your idea into a reality
Product & prototyping
Week 4 - Wednesday June 14
How to make your business into a rocketship
Growth & marketing
Week 5 - Wednesday June 21
How to stay sane while changing the world
Team, mindset & legal
Week 6 - Wednesday June 28
How to keep going up and to the right
Fundraising & pitching
celebration evening
From family members, to industry professionals, this is a chance for you to showcase your business and what you've been working on and where you're going.
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.
- Dave Newman, Founder and CEO @ Ovass
Plus Eight Accelerator Alumni