Now Accepting Applications!

ID8 focuses on teaching participants the foundational skill set to become entrepreneurs: to validate ideas with potential customers (product-market fit), estimate the size of the potential market for their product, and determine and validate the elements of a business model that will serve as the platform to launch and sustain their business.   Just as NASA’s months of preparation lead to the start of a countdown, participants coalesce everything they have into a final presentation before an audience.  ID8 meets weekly in the Spring and Fall of each year for 8 weeks.  

As an integral part of ID8, participants are matched with members of our community’s deep pool of experienced mentors, entrepreneurs who have walked the path participants are just starting. Discussing lessons learned, asking the difficult questions, and challenging assumptions, mentors help the early stage entrepreneur avoid mistakes that they themselves have made.  (Contact Onward Eugene at info@onwardeugene.org if you’d like to become a mentor!)

Graduates of ID8 who are prepared to “start the countdown” will be encouraged to apply to the next EUG Launchpad Accelerator.  Accelerators are organized in the Winter and Summer of each year.  Since 2015, ID8 has resulted in the creation of 41 companies and 124 new jobs in our region, and we are proud of the diversity represented by the entrepreneurs leading these new companies.

ID8 is limited to twelve participants. Applicants will be selected based on the strength of their application: a one page summary of a market problem, their solution to that problem, and why their solution addresses that problem better than currently available solutions.  Interested participants can learn more or apply by contacting Startup Community Director, Caitlin Vargas at caitlinv@onwardeugene.org.

ID8 is only offered once a year in Spring. 2023 dates will be posted soon – please email caitlinv@onwardeugene.org to get on the waiting list. 

Interested in the ID8 Pre-accelerator?

Reach out for more information