founders

One cohort.
The best terms in Australia.

Concentrated, selective, high touch. We back 11 to 13 founders a year, run a fully in-person program, and focus on helping founders become leaders worth following.

Register interest

They built something bespoke, and veered FAR away from the generic accelerator template to ensure the program was tailored to the DNA of each founder.

Michelle Reeves

 Xillions

$200k

Investment

7%

Equity

100+

Mentors

2027

Applications open

11 to 13

Founders per cohort

Why join Ampere

Leadership is our
#1 focus.

Measure 200 traits

We use psycholinguistics to measure 200 different psychological traits. Your baseline, blindspots, and best qualities are known from day 1.

Executive coaching

Work 1:1 with an executive coach throughout, included for free.

Train with elites

Learn from the best leaders in sport, special forces and startups.

Retreat week

Step away from the office and spend the week focused exclusively on leadership in week 1 of the program.

Plus, these
non-negotiables

Investment

We invest $200k in your company, at the best accelerator terms in the market. We're almost always the first cheque in.

Peers

The fastest way to raise your standards is to surround yourself with other elite humans.

Mentors

The best athletes in the world have coaches. The best founders do too. So we give you 100.

Fundraising

We make 100+ personalised introductions to Partners at top VC funds, and run a fundraising sprint post-accelerator to help you manage the process.

Customers

Every company needs customers. We give you introductions from day one.

Knowledge

We personalise your learning with the exact knowledge, mentors and focus areas you need. This isn't school with a classroom.

HOW TO JOIN

Six steps to an offer.

1

Apply

Pitch deck, 1 min video, and answer  a couple of questions. Every founder gets personal feedback on their application.

2

Round 1 interview

Meet our team on a video call. Share your founder story and problem space.

3

Round 2 interview

Deep dive into your problem, solution, traction, market and more.

4

Diligence

We'll look at your cap table, customers,
and financial model.

5

Round 3 interview

Pitch to a panel of investors.
6

Offers

We make our decision and extend offers.

Program overview

3 months, in person,
run in the following phases.

Pre-accelerator

Discover your gaps

Once you have an offer, deep dive into what you most want help with. We use it to plan your program, and recruit specific mentors for you.

Week 1

Bond with your cohort

Spend the first week on retreat. Vision, goals, leadership, and your chance to meet the cohort.
Weeks 2 to 3

Match with your mentor

Mentor matching sessions with 40+ mentors. Pick the lead mentors you'll have relationships with well beyond the program.
Weeks 3 to 11

Find your rhythm

The weekly cadence includes workshops, 1:1s with the Ampere team, executive coaching, and your mentor meetings.
Weeks 12

Perfect your pitch

Now we nail the pitch. You'll be a pro on the stage and in an investor meeting. We host an investor lunch so you can meet VCs in a social setting.
Week 13

Take the stage

Take the stage and share the future you're building with thousands of people.
Post accelarator

Fundraising momentum

With the traction and attention you've garnered, a remote fundraising sprint to maintain momentum and close your round.

Frequently
asked questions

Founders at the very earliest stage - your company could be 3 weeks old, or doing up to ~$300k in revenue. We are industry agnostic - everything from AI to deep tech to consumer. We are as interested in how you think as in what you have built, so you do not need a polished company yet.

We believe that better leaders build better companies. So whilst we'll work with you on your specific tactical challenges, a large part of the program is focused on leadership development. We also offer the best investment terms of any Australian accelerator.

Ampere is led by Christie Jenkins (CJ). All founders selected work directly with her. She previously led Techstars (#1 accelerator for founder experience) for Australia, was an investor at Blackbird Ventures, and top 10 in the world in 3 different sports as an athlete.

Rather than only using our 'gut feel' as investors, we've added science to how we meet founders. Psycholinguistics allows us to map 200 different psychological traits based off a transcript of your interview. This helps us see your super strengths, and check our own bias. We're completely transparent and share your traits back with you too.

$200,000 for 7%. That is the best cheque and valuation of any Australian accelerator, and the program is fully in person.

One intake a year, 11 to 13 founders.

Yes. We're completely committed to this as we believe sitting next to another founder will help both of you raise each others' standards. Interstate founders are able to fly in Monday morning, and fly out Thursday late afternoon.

Most founders get judged on proxies and stereotypes: your school, where you worked, who introduced you, what you look and sounds like. We use psycholinguistics to measure how you think, meaning we can check our own bias as investors with data.


Especially then. We back founders from all different origins: repeat founders, bootstrapped, spinning a product up as a side-hustle, running an agency and turning it into a product, acquiring a business to start, immigrating to Australia and starting something new, solo founders, students and more. We know that the best builders may not even call themselves founders yet.

Through the wider Ampere community. We run dinners, retreats and a flagship summit throughout the year for founders, mentors, investors and operators who want to be around ambitious people. Register your interest on our Events page and we'll keep you posted.

Ampere runs a $10M fund that will backs 37 companies over 3 years. There are unique benefits (and returns) to backing an accelerator that we'd love to tell you more about. Tell us you're interested on the Invest page. cc

The best thing to do is ask the founders who completed the Techstars accelerator program under GP Christie Jenkins. Several of those founders had previously done Startmate, Antler, and international Techstars programs before. They'll tell you which is better.

Founders

receive

Equity
amount

Implied

valuation

Program

$200,000

7%

$2.9M

In-person

$185,0001,2

12%

$2.2M

Hybrid

1. $260k investment less $75k program fee.


2. Investment made at end of program, not guaranteed.

$120,000

8%

$1.5M

Remote1

1. First and last weeks in
person

Founders
Receive

$200,000

Equity
amount

6%

Implied
valuation

$3.3M

Program

In-person

Founders
Receive

$185,000

Equity
amount

12%

Implied
valuation

$2.17M

Program

Hybrid

1. $260k investment less $75k program fee.


2. Investment made at end of program, not guaranteed.

Founders
Receive

$120,000

Equity
amount

8%

Implied
valuation

$1.5M

Program

Remote1

1. First and last weeks in
person

Applications
open in 2027

Want us to let you know when?

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