For the past three years, NDRC has been trying to lift the level of support for founders in Ireland to a global level. By all standards it has been a success but sometimes it can be difficult for founders to understand what’s on offer, if they are at the right stage and how do they go about applying to give themselves the best chance of getting accepted.

Over 300 founders, investors and supporters atended the latest Demo Day in Dogpatch labs

Why should you apply?

Money? Support? Network? Yes to all of these. We are tasked with investing and supporting high growth startups and generally this means companies that have the ability to grow quickly. More often than not this requires startups to raise venture capital so a large part of our focus is on helping companies at the very earliest stages understand their fundraising future.

The programme itself is very hands on. There are two distinct phases, the first three months has a structured approach followed by a more individualised support for an additional three months. During the first phase we expose founders to over 40 experienced operators, mostly founders who have been through the journey before. This helps stress test the business and increases a founder’s network twenty-fold. From there we go through sales and go to market, narrative, pitching, financial planning, fundraising and finally investment readiness. A core part of each programme is the weekly interaction with our experienced entrepreneurs in residence. Every single time this stands out as the most valuable part of the programme.

As well as the content, startups will get:

€100k investment on an uncapped SAFE
1 years office space in Dogpatch Labs and access to Republic of Work, RDI Hub and Portershed if they are traveling
>500k in credits from companies such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, Open AI, Stripe, Intercom and more
Access to our investor network
Global hot desking via Google for Startups partnership

“I’ve done 4 accelerators with 2 different companies so I feel like I am in a reasonable position to give an honest opinion. I don’t say this lightly but the NDRC was by some distance the best accelerator I have ever taken part in.”
Founder, April 2023

Who is it for?

Ambitious, globally focused startups. I often get asked what stage does the company have to be? Can we apply if we’ve raised money? Do I need a team? Do we need customers? The answer is nuanced but broadly we are looking for companies that:

Have a strong team — we do accept solo founders of course but they have to be able to answer for the question of how they are filling the gaps and a clear plan on how they are going to do it.
Have a product that is in market or will be within the next 6 months
Have strong proof points of customer validation. Users/paying customers preferred but not essential.
Have not raised institutional venture capital — you can have raised angel rounds.
Are Irish or are looking to have a material presence in Ireland.
Will be looking to fundraise in the next 6–9 months

We are sector agnostic and while we predominantly invest in software, we will also accept hardware companies provided they are at the right stage for acceleration. There are exceptions to every rule. We have taken exceptional founders who are earlier but have in depth experience in their field and the capacity to move quickly. We have helped younger founders who are a little further on. So the above rules are not hard and fast but they are largely true for over 90% of the companies we work with.

If your startup fits into the categories above, we’d love to hear from you!

“Extraordinarily impressed by NDRC. Programme was phenomenal. So much good advice, dealing with people, customer segmentation, focus on outbound, design proposals, so class!! Defeated my imposter syndrome and helped me see I can build the company in different ways”
Founder, October 2023

Ann Hunt, CEO Chasing Returns, helping a founder during Mentor Madness

How can I give myself the best chance of selection?

We have hundreds of applications for only seven places so it is a highly competitive process. I wish we could take way more. The criteria above show what stage of company we are looking for but at evaluation we are looking at three main areas — Team, Product and Market. There is a magnifying glass on the team. Quite simply, is this a great team or founder who has experience in the space or a unique insight into how a sector is unfolding and how they can take advantage.

Market is important. To get to venture style returns you have to be building something in a potentially large and growing market. We understand that defining a market at the early stage is imprecise. More often than not your market will change as the product evolves but there has to be global opportunity.

Product is really a test of the teams ability to deliver. Can you build something good enough to prove your early hypothesis?

While we don’t qualify on it, I always think timing is important. A founder being able to articulate why now is the best time to build this company shows a real understanding of the customer segment you are building in and the macro technology environment.

Building a startup is extremely hard. The market changes in the past 18 months means it is even harder to reach escape velocity with capital becoming further constrained and potential customers watching their bottom lines. However Ireland is still excelling. Great founders are building interesting companies and we want to help as many of them as we can. If you are an ambitious founder and would like investment, support and a global network, we’d love to work with you.

Find Out More

We are running a virtual meetup on 21st November at 12:30 where you can come and hear from the programme team, get an overview of whats on offer and ask any questions. Sign up below

Register for the Lunch and Learn

Applications are open for the next cohort and you can apply here

. . .