No. Regarding Tech, you don’t need to be a tech company to qualify. We welcome product companies, service companies, and brick-and-mortar companies to apply. In the case of services, your service must be productized (or on the way to becoming productized) to apply and be accepted into this program. This means you can deliver the service without relying on person-hours to serve each client. This generally requires building software to automate services.

Regarding VC, we care about supporting significant and bold entrepreneurs who want to compound growth. How you fund that growth is up to you. Part of the program is to expose you to all the different types of capital available to entrepreneurs so you can find the right one for you. We also want you to help us develop new ways to create more capital options that are right-sized.

Different people have slightly varying definitions, but the consensus is that a company is designed and intended to scale — in other words, to grow its revenue substantially and relatively quickly. VCs typically look for large, specific, addressable markets (generally $2B in annual revenue or larger) and business models that achieve substantial economies of scale (in other words, the relationship between person hours and revenue is not linear).

While we would love to see more unicorns led by women and minority founders, ayana is not solely interested in finding the next unicorn. We would rather spend our time helping hundreds of women and minority-led companies make their first million dollars in revenue; the impact is more likely to compound.

No. Your IP will be fully protected if you are selected as an awardee. Applicants must disclose the status of any intellectual property (IP) relevant to their submission. Do not submit confidential information in the application process.