Startup Leadership Program

Established in Boston in 2006 by Anupendra Sharma, Startup Leadership Program is an accelerator for entrepreneurs and innovators. It is a not-for-profit educational program and professional network for founders that kicked off with seven fellows.

The program began with seven Fellows and expanded to twenty-seven cities in fourteen countries. Annually, fifteen to twenty-five Fellows join the program in different cities. Participants can start in one city, but can choose to attend any class in another city. Throughout and after the program, participants can also apply to pitch at investor demo days, which are held in three different continents. Participants, who are referred to as SLP Fellows, have founded about 2000 startups including ixigo, Innoz, Momelan, Runkeeper, SideTour, Shareaholic, Ubersense, Savored, Voicetap, and others, and have collectively raised up to $2.4B+ in funding.

The program admits about fifteen to twenty five fellows in each chapter. The admission rate rate averages between 20-30%. Applications can be made in several languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. The program does not record age information. It accommodates about forty-two subsectors, including but not limited to technology, lifesciences, fintech, manufacturing, consumer, food & beverage, cleantech, and social enterprises.

Interested parties require a record of leadership and achievements, enthusiasm about the program, and activities indicating a potential to contribute to the community. An indication that the applicant either established or operated a startup, is an innovator or possesses an idea for a company, or is a VC seeking connections with entrepreneurs is also required. Fellows admitted in the program are required to volunteer twenty hours of their time to assist with program operations over six months by assisting with one or more tasks like running a simulation, building or facilitating a class, blogging about a speaker, holding a social, or brainstorming organization or feedback sessions for the Fellows. The program is run without full-time staff. All activities are carried out by the program teams with support from the Fellows.

The program schedule varies according to location:

The start-up leadership program starts by mid-September and concludes around mid-March. The program runs for six months with twelve classes in all, which total eighty hours of classroom activity. It includes ten, three-hour classes that are held from 6-9 pm every three weeks on a weekday. In addition, there are two, day-long classes that are held on Saturdays at the beginning and the conclusion of the program.

The start-up leadership program lasts for five months with fourteen classes in all, which total about eighty hours of classroom and other activities. It includes twelve, three-hour long classes that are held every week on a weekday evening from 6-9 PM. Additionally, there are two, day-long classes which occur on Saturdays at the beginning and the conclusion of the program. The program starts by October 15 and concludes by March 15, with a break over Christmas/New Year.

There are ten classes in the program held over the course of six months. In India, the classes are day-long and are all held on Saturdays from 9 am-5 pm. The program starts by March 15 and ends by September 15.

In China and Taiwan, the program lasts for four months with twelve classes in all, which add up to about eighty hours of classroom activity. It also includes three-hour classes, held every two weeks, usually on a weekday evening from 6-9 PM. There are also two, day-long classes that occur on Saturdays at the commencement and the finish of the program. The program in China and Taiwan begins on September 1 and is over by December 1.