Twelve weeks of shipping discipline. We work alongside your team on architecture, scope, and the cuts that get an MVP into customers hands. The program ends with a Dragons Den-style pitch finale in partnership with Dialektos Investments — founders pitch live for a shot at up to P50,000 in investment, alongside a demo to our wider investor circle and Venture Pulse OS distribution.
Ideal candidate
A founding team with a validated problem and a rough prototype, ready to make weekly engineering and design tradeoffs in public.
What you get
Weekly sprint reviews with operating mentors
Engineering and design office hours
Beta cohort recruiting support
A Dragons Den-style pitch finale, in partnership with Dialektos Investments, where founders pitch for up to P50,000
Programs run on a cycle — onboard now and we’ll notify you the moment applications open.
4 weeksUp to P1,200
Go-To-Market Sprint
Four weeks built around a single question: who pays you and why. We help you tighten ICP, ship the smallest defensible offer, and instrument outbound so by week four you know which channels actually work. The cohort closes with curated demo days that put you in front of market leaders, including a pitch to Dialektos Investments for up to P50,000.
Ideal candidate
A team with a working MVP, a defensible wedge, and capacity to ship sales experiments every week.
What you get
A pricing and packaging review
Outbound playbook tailored to your wedge
Weekly pipeline reviews
Demo day introductions to market leaders, including a pitch to Dialektos Investments for up to P50,000
Programs run on a cycle — onboard now and we’ll notify you the moment applications open.
4 weeksUp to P900
Investor Readiness
Capital follows clarity. We work on the narrative, the deck, the model, and the data room — then open the floor for founders to pitch Dialektos Investments directly, with a chance to gain up to P50,000, alongside warm intros to investors who actually write checks at your stage.
Ideal candidate
Founders preparing a round in the next two quarters with at least early traction and clear use of funds.
What you get
A narrative and deck teardown
Data room template and review
Financial model stress test
A pitch opportunity in front of Dialektos Investments, with a chance to gain up to P50,000, plus warm intros into the wider Startup Lab investor circle
Programs run on a cycle — onboard now and we’ll notify you the moment applications open.
12 weeksSMEs: P9,000Corporates: Up to P20,000
Venture Build
Most digital projects fail at scoping. Venture Build pairs you with senior engineers who treat your product like their own — discovery, scope cuts, and twelve weeks to a working MVP in production. SMEs join at P9,000; corporates at up to P20,000, depending on scope.
Ideal candidate
A corporate, SME, or government team with a clear problem, a buyer, and a budget to ship a v1 with engineering support.
What you get
Discovery, scoping, and architecture
A senior engineering team for the build
Weekly stakeholder reviews
A working Minimum Viable Product (MVP), with handover to your in-house team or a managed-services contract
Programs run on a cycle — onboard now and we’ll notify you the moment applications open.
2 weeksVaries
AI Upskilling
Most AI training is theatre. This program is two weeks of measurable productivity — your real workflows, instrumented, with a system that survives after the cohort ends.
Ideal candidate
Founders, operators, and team leads who use AI casually and want a system for getting real work done with it — also open to corporates and C-suite executives looking to understand how to practically use AI today.
What you get
Personal workflow audit
A library of prompts and patterns for your role
Hands-on sessions on agent tools and document workflows
A measurable productivity baseline before and after
Programs run on a cycle — onboard now and we’ll notify you the moment applications open.
MonthlyFree
Founder's Tribe
Once a month, we move the room. Founder's Tribe is the standing community gathering for Startup Lab and Gaborone's broader founder community — revolving venues, peer-led, and intentionally not a lecture.
Ideal candidate
Any founder in or visiting Gaborone — pre-idea, pre-revenue, or scaling. The room is built for honest conversation, not theatre.
What you get
Peer conversations with the city's working founder cohort
Venture Pulse OS