• Public Launch and Applications Open on Jan 15, 2024
• Open house starts on January 25, 2024
• The application deadline is on February 16, 2024
• Enterprises are notified of selection into the Bootcamp by February 23, 2024
• Bootcamp starts on March 1, 2024
• Bootcamp Demo day is on March 28, 2024
• Enterprises are notified of selection into Accelerator by April 5, 2024
• Accelerator starts on April 16, 2024
• Demo day is on/around August 6, 2024

• Funding up to $3,875 to support an essential aspect of the business could improve growth and sustainability.
• Training, mentorship, and other support during the three-month accelerator program
• Lifetime access to Bloom’s resources and network of entrepreneurs, including mentors, investors, alums, and staff
• Demo day exposure and other investor connections

We provide the seed funding to get you going, but you may need more funding to continue your enterprise efforts. Near the end of the accelerator program, we’ll organize a Demo Day to help connect you with investors, funders, and organizations that could help you out in the following stages of your enterprise journey. We’ll coach you so you’re as effective as possible and do everything we can to help get you follow-on support and funding.

The primary language in verbal and written communications during accelerator activities is English. However, we can also offer support and mentorship in Arabic or French. We may adapt those during the program to respond to the needs of enterprises.

It’s your enterprise, so you’ll be hard at work on your business, the product, marketing, HR, etc. We’ll have between one and three weekly sessions, from formal workshops to informal discussions with our mentors, trainers, and guests. Some of those are “required,” but many are optional, and we expect enterprises to adapt and join the critical sessions for issues they’re dealing with in their enterprise. We’ll also regularly have required check-ins with each enterprise, usually every month. In general, though, you’ll be working on your enterprise each day, just like all of the other founders in the program. We don’t tell you what to do or when, but we create an environment conducive to helping your enterprise daily. And we’ll ensure you have many experienced mentors around to help you.

Social enterprises with specific areas of focus in sustainability, good governance, independent media, active citizenship, lifelong learning, innovation, and systems change.

This varies per program. We will use the following criteria to assess eligible applications. These are not all requirements, but preferences and enterprises will be weighed on the different elements:

1. Impact: What difference will your idea make, and for whom, how many jobs will you create, what sort of marginalized communities will you impact, and whether you align with the priority impact areas: culture, mindset, and education.
2. Capacity: What skills, knowledge, and resources do you have to develop and deliver your idea?
3. Feasibility: Whether you can realistically deliver your idea by the end of the program and within budget.
4. Sustainability: Whether your idea has the potential to become financially sustainable and last beyond the lifetime of the funding we provide.
5. Stage of Enterprise and Product: Whether the enterprise is already generating revenue and the stage of development of the specific product or branch that this program will support.
6. Inclusion and user testing: Whether the voices of your target clients have been included in the prototype/solution design, and whether your client base is inclusive of different demographics, backgrounds, sexes, etc.
7. Innovation and growth potential: Whether your idea is new and different, and where or how it can potentially grow.

Your enterprise is eligible if it meets the following criteria:

• Your enterprise is in the idea or prototype stage
• More than one person in the team, with at least two team members working full-time in the enterprise.
• No restrictions on sociographic or other parameters regarding the applicants.
• Female-led enterprises and enterprises with higher diversity (age, sex, socio-economic background, refugee/host communities, location around Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Syrian diaspora, etc.) are particularly encouraged to apply.

We are unable to support:

• Enterprises of only one individual.
• Enterprises engaged with other entrepreneurship/innovation programs/accelerators, unless there is a clear distinction between the program offerings, and enterprises can demonstrate that they have time and capacity to join this program in addition to their other program commitments.

You will get access to an empowering program that will include monetary prizes, mentoring, access to opportunities, and more.

Open House:

• Online discussions and “info sessions” with thought leaders to build awareness and momentum around the program.
• Selection process

Bootcamp:

• High-intensity two-week-long Bootcamp with workshops, mentorship, and support for all enterprises.
• 1-on-1 follow-ups with the enterprises
• Bootcamp Demo Day
• Final selection

Accelerator:

• Weekly or bi-weekly workshops adapted to the needs of the cohort and enterprises
• Regular milestone check-ins with all enterprises
• Mentorship coordination
• Online or offline Demo Day, or otherwise optimized for the interests of partners and the needs of the enterprises to help the enterprises continue their growth path.