The Velocity Program

Ready to test and refine your startup idea? Apply now to join our MAP Velocity pre-accelerator program. Applications close Sunday 9 March, 2025.

Velocity is MAP’s part-time, pre-accelerator program for earlier-stage founders. The program comprises 11 workshops centred around customer discovery and market validation with specialised experiences for both for-profit and for-purpose entrepreneurs.



Over the 3 months, Velocity provides support through evening workshops featuring expert speakers, founder stories and group activities. Surrounded by a cohort of high-potential founders, our carefully designed program aims to propel early-stage startups and their founders forward, increasing the likelihood of founder success. To enhance the journey, Velocity boasts a diverse and supportive community that ensures participants have a support system, a collaborative environment and a safe space to be challenged and test their startup.



The program costs $500 per founder, and a University of Melbourne affiliation is preferred for this program, with a small selection of places available for social impact, external participants and scholarship positions.

The Velocity founder’s journey

Online application

Complete a series of short questions about your startup and team, and upload a 2 minute pitch.

10 Mar - 14 Mar 2025

Interviews

Shortlisted startups will be invited to Stage 2 which is a 20 minute interview with one of the MAP team.

Apr - Jul 2025

Velocity program

The Velocity Program runs on Thursday evening (5.30pm – 8.30pm) at Melbourne Connect

10 Feb - 9 Mar 2025

Why MAP?

Because high performance requires the right environment.

We’ve seen the impact of our program time and time again. We'll provide you with the support you need, at the moment you need it.

About MAP

M

Mindset

Embrace a commitment to continuous learning, curiosity, and embracing challenges. MAP nurtures a mindset that propels founders to unprecedented heights.​

A

Accountability

We're not just a program; we're a commitment to the process. MAP founders embrace accountability, driving continuous improvement and tangible business outcomes.​

P

People

Your success is our priority. At MAP, we prioritise people and implement structures to ensure that YOU, the most crucial asset, operate in the high-performance zone.

Frequently asked questions

Eligibility

  • The program is industry-agnostic and is open to both for-profit and impact startups. This is because we believe in creating an environment where startup and impact founders can influence and support each other with their business, technical and impact acumen.

    University of Melbourne affiliation is preferred for this program, with a small selection of places available for social impact, external participants and scholarship positions.

  • MAP defines startups as organisations that are scalable, have potential for high growth and or high impact, that use innovation and or address scalable markets.

    ‍
    For startups that are already too large (in terms of employee count) or need to work from dedicated offsite facilities due to the nature of their work, we are flexible, but active participation is still required to be eligible.

  • No, to be eligible for Velocity programs, the participating founder must be located in Victoria.

  • First-time founders
    Yes. We have had many first-time founders in the Velocity program. We support you by surrounding you with people running companies at similar stage to yours and founders who run similar companies to share networks and expertise.

    Solo founders
    Yes. While we focus on a startup's team, we do take solo founders who have deep knowledge of the problem they are solving and the ability to deliver it.

    Non-technical founders
    Whilst we certainly like to see startups lead by teams with strong technical talent, it is not a requirement to be accepted into Velocity. If you don’t have a technical co-founder or employee, we encourage founders to seek out that talent while in the program.

  • Our Velocity Program supports early stage startups that are at problem-solution fit where startups are focused on validating whether they are solving a meaningful problem and pressure test the biggest assumptions in their business model. We accept startups with innovative solutions, transformative ideas and scale for impact. To be competitive, you will need to have a clear concept, and done some early validation prior to entering the program. We also need to see a strong commitment from you and your team - demonstrate an ability to execute.

Selection

  • The interview stage is for the MAP team to better get to know you and your business, and understand how the Velocity Program could help you. We don't expect you to prepare a pitch; just be ready to have an open and honest conversation about your business and be yourself.

  • Our Velocity Program supports early stage startups that are at problem-solution fit where startups are focused on validating whether they are solving a meaningful problem and pressure test the biggest assumptions in their business model. We accept startups with innovative solutions, transformative ideas and scale for impact. To be competitive, you will need to have a clear concept, and done some early validation prior to entering the program. We also need to see a strong commitment from you and your team - demonstrate an ability to execute.

  • No you don’t. We understand that you may not be at this stage just yet. Even if you do have a demo ready to go, we encourage you to chat to our team about when in stage two (the in-person interview) if it would be most appropriate to show it off.

  • We understand that you will be very keen to hear back about the status of your application, and we will endeavour to process applications as soon as we can. At each stage of the process you will be notified about when you can expect a response by.

Application

  • You can, and office hours is probably the best way. You can book Office Hours with our team once you’ve expressed your interest.

  • You are welcome to submit more than one application if you want to submit multiple startups for consideration, but please note that we will ask you to select only one if both make it past the second round of applications (MAP Team Interview).

  • Unfortunately we can’t accept applications past the deadline.

Program

  • The program runs over 12 weeks. Workshops run live at our Melbourne Connect office on Thursday evenings from 5.30pm - 8.30pm.

  • Equity or ownership
    No. MAP does not take any equity or ownership in your company. Instead, we expect MAP founders to join our community, which means giving back by supporting the next generation of startup founders, and being a mentor and ambassador for MAP. This may include contributing to workshops, mentoring a startup in a future cohort, or making a helpful connection to a fellow founder in our community.

    Intellectual property
    No. You retain full ownership of all intellectual property (IP) your startup creates.
    ‍

  • It is $500 per founder to participate in the program. If you have a multi-founder team, we recommend at least 2 founders participate and/or set up a process to feedback information to the rest of the team so key learnings are shared.