Applications to McGill X-1 Accelerator‘s 2017 cohort are open until April 30th at 11:59 pm EDT.

Hosted by the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, the McGill X-1 Accelerator is an intensive 10-week summer program designed to accelerate later stage McGill startups towards investment readiness and launch.

“In terms of programming we are going to focus on offering a tailor-made approach to the cohort by working closely with each founder and connecting them to our McGill ecosystem of mentors and investors,” Maher Ayari, X-1’s Program Manager told MTLinTECH. “As this is the third iteration of the program and the McGill Dobson Cup is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary next year, we are at a point where we want to leverage the graduates of our various programs (McGill Lean Startup, McGill Dobson Cup and McGill X-1 Accelerator) more and more and have them involved as mentors and speakers this summer.”

Applications are now open for the McGill X-1 Program! More details here: https://t.co/pEPmsCnfWz #entrepreneurship #mcgill #student

— McGill Dobson Centre (@DobsonCentre) March 31, 2017

The McGill X-1 Accelerator 2017 program will take place from June 5 to August 11, 2017. Demo Days will take place in Montreal, Boston, and San Francisco in Fall 2017.

“After the success of our Boston and San Francisco Demo Days in September 2016, this year we want to connect our startups more with our international network of McGill alumni. As the program is growing, we want to offer an experience where the startups and the founders can grow their network beyond the Montreal entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

Potential applicants should fill out an online application, submit two videos (a team presentation video and a product demo video) that are each two minutes long, read the business plan guidelines available here, and attach their five-page startup business plan to the application.

Maher had this advice for interested applicants:

“First of all, each startup needs to have a McGill affiliation (student, faculty, staff or recent alumni - within the past five years). They need to demonstrate early traction with customers and/or revenue, and have a minimum viable product. We focus a lot on the founding team — showing commitment, grit and willingness to learn are things that we look for. Finally, you need to show us that your vision is BIG and that you are ready to work in order to get there.”