• We are NOT an investment firm. As the name suggests, the Founders’ Program is focused on founders as an individual. Free from the pressure of investment timelines, founders work with us to build resilience, enhance their capabilities, and gain the confidence needed to run valuable ventures. We help them prepare for sustainable growth and taking in investment to fuel their ambitions.
• We are NOT an accelerator (pre-accelerator). Starting and building a startup to scale is a marathon. Nurturing, developing, and seeing results takes more than three months. GFP bakes that into its structure, fitting into startup cycles. 
• We are more akin to a venture studio and incubator. All our capabilities and talent network are at your disposal. We are your interim cofounding team as long as you want and until you assemble an official one. You bring in a problem statement only you want to and can solve. We give you the guide, navigation, and resources that you find challenging to accumulate to start a venture.  
• We operate as a network, a battle-hardened operator community. Isolation stifles innovation. By being part of a program, you plug into a larger network that provides all the business connectivity, knowledge access, case studies, capital, encouragement, and support you need to operate at a regional level. 
• Venture caliber network. We are highly particular about the caliber of people we bring to disseminate knowledge and work with founders. They went through the same scrutiny as you, so you only get the best and most relevant from the innovation ecosystem to nurture success, nothing less.
• We are investor/VC agnostic. We present them our best founders at your readiness to raise. 
• Lastly, we never take money away from founders when they get funded. Our operating principle has been trying to help founders achieve optimum capital efficiencies by stretching every dollar they can for the runway, whether it is their own money, an investor’s money, or an investor’s investor's (limited partner's) money. 

For very selected few startups throughout a year, we take a bet on the founders potential, ability and character by buffering their first year cost in enrolling into the Guided Tier access through a financial instrument called Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE). Our version is called a 1% Capped SAFE. We use this as a form of a scholarship grant.   

If your enrolment into GFP is accepted via 1% Capped SAFE, you will get:

• Operating at the principles of a scholarship grant, we buffer your first year of cost in joining our program when we see big potential in you and wish to take a bigger bet on you by working with you on your startup;
• Application is a two-step process: Direct application by the founder and recommendations by nominators. 
• The 1% Capped SAFE waives your 1st-year membership-only access to all our resources, and you will get a perpetual 30% off on your annual subscription with us until you exit. You only pay an administration fee of $300 as a document processing fee; 
• It is conditional to our discretion. 

What are the key terms in our 1% Capped SAFE?

Application Process

• Access is on an individual basis. Please apply at the individual level. You may apply for more than one access from a single startup/company.
• Application is a two-step process: Direct application by the founder and recommendations by nominators. 
• To be considered for GFP and eligible for our 1% SAFE option, you will need two recommendations from two separate nominators.  
• Important Note: The Application and Nomination are separate yet concurrent processes that should be done together by both the Founder and the Nominator. Once you have made the application as a founder, please search for two Nominators. Read our guidelines to search for qualified nominators. We DO NOT review applications that do not come with Nominators’ recommendations. 

We accept any full-time entrepreneurs that fits into the Idea Validation stage of company building. See below for how we define that:
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Idea Validation stage of a company is defined by a company which,

• May or may not have incorporated a business entity (local or abroad)

• Has zero or unstable revenue

• Has full-time working and operational founder(s)

• May not have a specific product or service yet. Has a business idea or hypothesis

• May or may not yet received any investments or grants from any institution and/or friends and family

• Solution may or may not be tech product

The Nomination System
To GUIDE, an entrepreneur's success is a collective outcome of an healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem. We require all aspiring and existing entrepreneurs that are interested in our program to submit their application along with a strong recommendation from those who have been in the process of encouraging and supportive of their early journey.

The Nomination process is part of a two-step process to complete the Application stage, before we start to review all the materials in the Screening & Shortlisting stage where we the Admission Team will reach out for an interview.

Why do we do this?
‍The nomination process allows us to recognise those may have been earlier than us in identifying developmental needs and talents while taking an objective view on the potentials we may missed in processing the program application from the Entrepreneurs. That way, we are able to maximize our program's impact on entrepreneurs' businesses and accelerate entrepreneurs' growth as an individual by taking account of their personal needs and differences. Read more about our values here
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Parallel Nomination And Application Process

Step 1: Start the application and nomination process

For Nominator: Start nomination process by filling up the Nomination form.

For Founder applicants: Start application process by filling up the Application form.
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Step 2: Application stage is done

You have done your part if the Application and Nomination forms are submitted. Please wait for the Admission Team to reach out for a scheduled interview by the GUIDE team.

You can reach out admission@guide.works for any inquiry related to GFP.