Apply to Accelerate
Unlock Your AI Executive Team + Human Coach
Six AI executives running on sovereign infrastructure. Bi-weekly human coaching. Monthly playbooks. Zero equity. No cloud dependency. No platform lock-in. Cancel anytime.
THE PROBLEM
Founders operate with gaps.
You’re the visionary, but you’re also the CMO, the CRO, the COO, the CISO. You make decisions in isolation. You miss patterns. You stall.
Most founders don’t need more advice. They need an execution system — one that works between coaching calls, remembers every decision, and doesn’t let things fall through the cracks.
THE SOLUTION
Accelerate gives you a complete C-suite — AI-powered, human-guided, sovereign.
Six specialized AI executives, each owning a function. A human coach who meets with you every two weeks. Monthly deliverables you can act on. And infrastructure that keeps your data in your control, not someone else’s cloud.
YOUR AI EXECUTIVE TEAM
Sage — Chief Strategy Officer
Strategic plans, financial modeling, board materials, OKRs.
Maya — Chief Revenue Officer
Pipeline tracking, lead scoring, outreach priorities, deal reviews.
Kai — Chief Information Security Officer
24/7 monitoring, threat detection, compliance alerts, audit trails.
Imani — Chief Operating Officer
Campaign operations, workflow automation, task processing, SOPs.
Zara — Chief Marketing Officer
Audience building, channel optimization, content strategy, campaigns.
Ayo — Chief of Staff
Team coordination, tool sync, escalation management, cadence.
All six run locally on sovereign Jetson hardware (Nano + AGX Orin). Air-gapped. Zero cloud. Your data never leaves your control.
YOUR HUMAN COACH
Accelerate isn’t just AI. It’s AI + human judgment. Your coach is the bridge between agent insights and executive decisions.
Garry Johnson III — Managing Partner and Coach
Princeton I-Corps Propelus graduate, later I-Corps Coordinator for NSF I-Corps Hub Northeast
Adjunct Professor at University of Delaware and former Workshop Lead at Howard MBA program
BS + MS in Entrepreneurship (University of Delaware), Former MBA Candidate (Howard University)
Founded Bison Venture Partners, BVP Coffee Co. (265% YoY growth), First Founders Inc. 501(c)(3)
Helped portfolio of 300+ entrepreneurs secure $500K+ in funding
Specializes in: Strategy, capital readiness, board prep, ecosystem navigation
Works with: First-time, technical, mission-driven, underrepresented founders
Coaching philosophy: Strategy without execution is hallucination. Execution without strategy is chaos. My job: make sure your AI team gives you both — and you act on it.
B Bass — Growth Partner and Coach
Princeton I-Corps Propelus graduate
BS in Psychology (Texas A&M), Former MBA Candidate (Howard University)
Division I Football — Texas A&M walk-on to full-ride scholarship to honorary 12th Man
Founded Just B Better (fitness/lifestyle brand, Dallas)
First African American $1M seller at Schneider Logistics
Specializes in: Revenue architecture, pipeline velocity, sales process, community-led growth
Works with: Sales-led, community-first, B2B, marketplace, DTC founders
Coaching philosophy: Revenue solves everything. But you can’t sell what you can’t explain. My job: make your value undeniable — to customers, investors, and your own team.
Why two coaches? Different lenses. Same standard. Garry sees the boardroom: strategy, capital, governance, long-game. B sees the trenches: sales, hustle, community, now-game. Your venture needs both. You get one as primary, both as backup.
HOW IT WORKS
The Weekly Rhythm
Weekly update: You report what you did, what you learned, what’s next
Plan refresh: The system regenerates priorities based on actual progress
Task tracking: Next 10 Actions with status updates
CoachAgent: On-demand coaching with full context of your history
The Monthly Deliverables
Every month you receive:
1. Custom Playbook — 5-10 page execution guide: priorities, actions, owners, timelines
2. Metrics Dashboard — KPIs across revenue, product, ops, security, marketing
3. Data Package — Raw outputs, agent logs, decision trails (cloud portal or encrypted SD card)
The Ongoing Cadence
Bi-weekly: 60-min coaching call
Monthly: Playbook + Dashboard + Data delivered
Quarterly: Strategic review + 90-day plan reset
Anytime: Async Substack Chat/email with coach
The Workspace Is Permanent
Unlike program artifacts from other accelerators, the Accelerate workspace persists after the program ends. Tasks, plans, coaching insights, call history — you keep your execution environment. It’s not a handoff. It’s an operating system.
SOVEREIGN INFRASTRUCTURE — YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS
Your AI runs on our hardware, not the cloud.
NVIDIA Jetson Nano + AGX Orin for heavy reasoning
NGARi kernel — zero cloud dependency, zero third-party inference
AES-256-GCM encryption — credentials encrypted before storage
Audit trails — every agent action logged, tamper-evident
Data delivery — you choose: secure portal or encrypted SD card
No vendor lock-in. No training on your data. No surprise pricing changes.
This matters most for founders in regulated industries — biotech, cannabis, healthcare, defense — where data sovereignty isn’t a preference, it’s a requirement.
PILOT RESULTS: 10 STARTUPS, REAL OUTCOMES
The pilot proved: sovereign AI coaching + structured execution infrastructure = measurable founder progress.
The Cohort
10 startups. 3 program tracks. ~35 team members. 9 sectors represented (biotech, CPG, fitness, SaaS, event tech, AI, pet tech, venture ecosystem, community).
What We Delivered
10/10 workspaces provisioned and active from day one
220+ coaching insight records extracted across all founders
11+ structured call transcripts captured
56 coaching themes identified
48 pain points catalogued
48 pieces of advice documented
45 commitments tracked
8 pitch decks digitized
The AI coach doesn’t forget. Founders don’t repeat context. Coaching compounds.
Traction Across the Cohort
8/10 founders actively raising capital
Combined capital sought: $3M+
Non-dilutive funding secured across multiple founders (grants, credits, convertible notes)
Sectors attracting capital: biotech, CPG, fitness tech, AI, event tech
Real-World Proof Points
One CPG founder has product in 40+ retail locations and 20+ salons, featured in national media, with a distribution agreement for major retail chains
One fitness tech founder has 150 active pilot users in their home market, with B2B licensing conversations underway with national retailers
One biotech founder holds NSF STTR Phase I funding, 2 patents, 3+ peer-reviewed publications, and is pursuing FDA pathway
One SaaS founder has 3 paying pilot customers with measurable retention results — 26% email open rates, $900 recovered revenue per campaign
One AI coaching founder built a working MVP in 4 days with 50 beta testers
One event tech founder has 11 team members across locations, with national press coverage
Infrastructure Optimization
One founder’s cloud costs were reduced from $150-200/day to $0.03/day — a 99.98% cost reduction delivered as part of the program. Another founder’s AI token usage was reduced ~90% through intelligent routing, saving thousands in operational costs.
Cross-Portfolio Synergies
Accelerate didn’t just deliver individual coaching — it created a portfolio network effect:
Event platform + community management — one founder’s event platform can host another’s community events
Speech coaching + pitch prep — one founder’s AI coaching tool can coach other founders’ investor pitches
Fitness app + community — group runs and events managed through a community platform
Venture ecosystem + all — one founder’s portfolio network could feed future Accelerate cohorts
100% founder retention. Zero dropouts. No other accelerator creates these kinds of cross-venture dependencies.
HOW ACCELERATE COMPARES
Equity taken: Accelerate takes 0%. Traditional accelerators take 5-10%.
Structure: Accelerate is asynchronous and founder-paced. Traditional accelerators use fixed batches on fixed schedules.
Infrastructure: Accelerate uses sovereign local LLMs. Traditional accelerators use SaaS with third-party APIs.
AI coaching: Accelerate has native, persistent AI coaching. Traditional accelerators have none or generic tools.
Post-program workspace: Accelerate’s workspace is permanent. Traditional accelerators offer alumni networks only.
Target founder: Accelerate serves underrepresented, bootstrapped, and non-traditional founders. Traditional accelerators target tech founders.
Why This Model Works
Zero equity. You keep 100% ownership. This attracts capital-efficient builders who can’t afford to give up 5-10% at pre-seed.
Founder-paced. No fixed cohort schedule. Critical for deep tech (FDA timelines = years), employed founders, and distributed teams.
Sovereign by design. Local models, not third-party APIs. Data stays in your control. Unique in a market that monetizes user data.
AI coaching that compounds. Not one-time mentor matchmaking. Persistent memory across every interaction. Scales beyond human bandwidth.
Workspace as OS. The program artifact becomes your permanent execution environment. Nothing is lost when the program ends.
PRICING
Monthly: $499/mo
Annual: $4,999/yr (save $989 — 17% off)
Both plans include:
6 AI executives (Strategy, Revenue, Security, Ops, Marketing, Coordination)
Bi-weekly 60-min coaching calls
Monthly playbook + metrics dashboard + data package
Sovereign NVIDIA Jetson infrastructure (air-gapped, zero cloud)
Flexible data delivery (secure portal or encrypted SD card)
Cancel anytime (monthly) or at renewal (annual)
No equity. No warrants. No options. No future obligation. No hidden fees.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What exactly do I get for $499/mo?
A complete AI C-suite (6 specialized agents) running on sovereign infrastructure, plus a human coach who meets with you bi-weekly, plus monthly deliverables (playbook, dashboard, data). No hidden fees.
Is there a free trial?
No. We run a 30-second application to ensure fit. If accepted, you start immediately. First month is $499. Cancel anytime.
Do you take equity?
Zero. No equity, no warrants, no options, no future obligation.
Can I upgrade or downgrade?
Monthly to Annual anytime (prorated). Annual to Monthly at renewal.
How are coaches assigned?
Based on your stage and focus (strategy vs. revenue vs. ops). You can request a specific coach.
What if I need more coaching time?
Add-ons available upon request.
What’s in the monthly playbook?
5-10 pages: executive summary, 3-5 priorities with actions/owners/timelines, key metrics, risks, decisions needed. Custom to your venture.
How do I receive data?
Choose at onboarding: (1) Secure cloud portal (AES-256, expiring links) or (2) Encrypted SD card mailed monthly. Switch anytime.
Where does my data go?
Nowhere. Agents run on our NVIDIA Jetson devices (Nano + AGX Orin) in our controlled environment. Your credentials encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage. We never see plaintext.
What if the hardware fails?
Redundancy built in. Failover to backup device within 4 hours. Data replicated daily.
Can I use my own AI API keys?
Not needed. We provide the models (local Ollama + optimized LLMs on AGX). Zero key management for you.
Is this SOC-2 / HIPAA / FedRAMP compliant?
Infrastructure is sovereign and auditable. Compliance add-ons available for regulated industries — contact us.
How do I pay?
Stripe (card, ACH). Annual invoices available for 10+ seats.
Cancellation policy?
Monthly: cancel anytime, access ends at period close. Annual: cancel at renewal, no mid-term refunds.
Refunds?
No refunds.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU APPLY
Submit application (60 seconds)
Fit review (under 24 hours)
Onboarding call — 30 minutes ( scheduled within 48 hours)
Coach assigned + agents initialized (day 1)
First coaching call (week 1)
First playbook delivered (end of week 2)
READY TO START?