Manchester Venture Builder

Manchester Venture Builder is a hands-on accelerator designed to help students, graduates and researchers turn early-stage ideas into validated, market-ready startups. 

 

Over a structured 12-week of support, founders test assumptions, build MVPs and gain real customer traction. The most promising teams then progress into a selective 8-week extended support phase, receiving deeper 1-2-1 mentoring and preparing to pitch at Demo Day. 

Participation in our Manchester Venture Builder Programme is based on verified applications.

 

VB Cohort 1
 
During our first programme launch of Venture Builder in 2025: 
  • 28 student founders joined the 12-week programme 
  • 100% validated their ideas through live experimentation 
  • 11 teams pitched at Demo Day to investors and ecosystem partners
VB Stats

Ready to build, test, and grow your startup? 🚀 Apply today and join Manchester’s next generation of founders.

 
As a participant of Venture Builder, you’ll also receive lots of perks including:
  • Hands-on mentoring - Structured 1-2-1 support and expert-led sessions, Venture Builder mentors act as sparring partners, not lecturers. 
  • Equity-free funding - Access of up to £140K funding pool. Our funding is released as small grants to support testing, prototyping and early go-to-market activity. 
  • £100K+ in software & tech perks - We have lots of technology perks to support you will be developing your startup, including Google Cloud, Notion, GitHub, Miro, Mixpanel and more. 
  • Hybrid founder community & workspace - Access to the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre co-working space (known as the Enterprise Zone) plus an active Slack community for ongoing peer support. 
  • Investor access & Demo Day - Pitch at Demo Day and access a curated database of 400+ investors
VB Participant Perks
 
Our Offering - Software Perks
MEC Perks
 
How the programme works:

Our Venture Builder programme is a sprint-based accelerator focused on learning by doing. 

During the VB Journey you will: 

  • Run customer discovery and test assumptions 
  • Design and execute real experiments 
  • Build and iterate early MVPs 
  • Build traction and learning 

Alongside this, you’ll gain practical skills in: 

  • Financial planning and revenue models 
  • Legal and compliance basics 
  • Fundraising strategy and early investor outreach 

By Week 12, every team will have validated (or invalidated!) their idea and built the foundations needed for investor-ready conversations. 

The Venture Builder Approach
VB Framework
 
How to apply to our Venture Builder Cohort

To apply, you will need to complete the online application form, linked here. As part of the application, you will be required to submit: 

  • A pitch deck 
  • A short video 

After applications close, a shortlisted group of applicants will be invited to interview.

 

Hear from our 2024/25 Cohort:

 

VB Cohort Quotes