Startup Accelerator Program Application

Streamline Your Accelerator Applications with Paperform

Running a startup accelerator program means sifting through hundreds of applications to find the next breakout success. You need to capture detailed company information, assess team capabilities, evaluate market traction, and gauge founder readiness—all while maintaining a professional brand experience that matches the caliber of your program.

This Startup Accelerator Program Application template is designed specifically for accelerators, incubators, and venture studios that need to standardize their intake process while collecting rich, actionable data about each applicant.

What Makes This Template Perfect for Accelerator Programs

Built for program directors, investment committees, and ecosystem builders, this template captures everything you need to make informed decisions about which startups to accept:

Comprehensive company profiling including business model, industry vertical, incorporation details, and elevator pitch that gives you an instant snapshot of each venture.

Team assessment capabilities with fields for founder backgrounds, technical capabilities, domain expertise, and equity distribution—because you're investing in people as much as ideas.

Traction and metrics collection that captures current revenue, user numbers, growth rates, and key milestones so you can evaluate product-market fit and momentum.

Pitch deck and supporting document uploads that let founders submit their materials directly in the application, keeping everything organized in one place rather than scattered across email threads.

Funding and investor readiness evaluation including previous fundraising, current runway, investor commitments, and capital needs that help you understand where each startup sits in their funding journey.

Program fit assessment with questions about goals, expectations, time commitment capability, and what founders hope to gain—ensuring mutual alignment before selection.

Built for the Realities of Accelerator Operations

Accelerators often receive 200+ applications per cohort. This template is structured to make your selection process more efficient:

The conditional logic means you only ask relevant follow-up questions based on previous answers—for instance, if a startup has raised funding, you'll ask about investors and terms; if they haven't, you'll skip those questions entirely.

The file upload fields accept pitch decks, financial models, and product demos so application reviewers have everything they need without chasing down attachments.

The structured data format means you can export all applications to spreadsheets or Airtable for side-by-side comparison, scoring, and committee review.

And because first impressions matter, the on-brand design capabilities mean your application form reflects the professionalism and innovation your program represents.

Automate Your Application Workflow with Stepper

Once applications start rolling in, Paperform works seamlessly with Stepper (stepper.io) to automate what happens next:

• Automatically score applications based on criteria like revenue, team size, and market opportunity, then route high-scoring submissions to your investment committee.
• Send personalized acknowledgment emails immediately upon submission with next steps and timeline expectations.
• Create dedicated Slack channels or Notion pages for each promising application so your team can discuss and evaluate collaboratively.
• Trigger calendar invites for interview slots with shortlisted founders, integrating with your team's availability.
• Update your CRM or Airtable database with structured applicant data, tracking each startup through your selection pipeline.

This automation means your team can focus on evaluating startups rather than managing spreadsheets and email workflows.

Perfect for Accelerators, Incubators, and Venture Studios

Whether you run a corporate accelerator, university-backed incubator, vertical-specific program, or early-stage venture studio, this template adapts to your specific thesis and requirements.

For tech accelerators, the template captures technical stack, development milestones, and engineering team composition.

For social impact programs, you can emphasize mission alignment, impact metrics, and stakeholder benefits.

For industry-specific accelerators (FinTech, HealthTech, CleanTech), customize the questions to focus on regulatory considerations, domain expertise, and market validation specific to your vertical.

The flexible structure means you get a professional starting point that you can customize to match your program's investment thesis, timeline, and evaluation criteria—all without touching code.

Trusted by Innovation Programs Worldwide

Over 500,000 teams worldwide use Paperform to run their most important processes, and accelerator programs are no exception. With SOC 2 Type II compliance and GDPR readiness, you can confidently collect sensitive business information and founder details while maintaining security standards that match institutional expectations.

The platform scales from early-stage accelerators reviewing 50 applications per cohort to global programs processing thousands of submissions annually—with predictable pricing and generous submission limits at every tier.

Get Started in Minutes

This template gives you a complete, professional accelerator application in minutes. Simply customize the questions to match your program's focus, add your branding, and share the link with your startup community. Applications flow directly into your Paperform dashboard where you can review, score, and export data for committee review.

Whether you're launching your first cohort or refining an established program, Paperform gives you the professional intake process—and workflow automation—that ambitious founders expect from world-class accelerators.

Start accepting better applications today, and spend less time on administrative overhead and more time identifying the next generation of successful startups.