Two years ago, we started Character, a new seed fund supporting founders with capital and sprints. Since then, we have invested in more than 20 startups and worked hand-in-hand with the founders, using our Sprint method to help them build the right product for the right people.
Now we’re expanding, with a new program helping pre-seed founders accelerate progress toward product-market fit. If you’re just getting started, working on something new, we think you should apply for Character Labs today.
⚡️ Applications are due February 18 for pre-seed founders to join Character Labs ⚡️
📁 Applications for Character Labs are closed. You can read the story behind the program or sign up here to get an email when we open applications again.
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⚡️ Applications are due February 19 for pre-seed founders to join Character Labs ⚡️
The next edition of Character Labs (starting March 30) is optimized for AI startups. Major technology shifts create unique challenges for product and marketing — and we can help you solve them in Character Labs. Learn more about our AI focus ↓
Everyone in Character Labs works directly with our team: Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, creators of the Design Sprint, bestselling authors of Sprint, and former design partners at GV; and Eli Blee-Goldman, our co-founder and general partner leading all investments at Character.
As investors and designers, we have worked closely with more than 250 startups, including Flatiron Health, Gusto, YouTube, Miro, and Slack, through pivotal moments in their growth.
We’ll be there the whole time, personally leading you through four intense weeks of sprints.
We’ll also be joined by AI experts like Veda Panneershelvam, Adam Ghobarah, and Josh Haimson; Character advisors Nir Eyal and Jeanette Mellinger; plus a few other secret guests that we can't name here 🤫
In Character Labs, you’ll rapidly test hypotheses and validate your product and go-to-market strategy in a sequence of back-to-back sprints. You’ll leave with realistic prototypes and a detailed scorecard of validated risks.
Most importantly, you’ll find out whether you’re on the right track in four weeks — not the four months or more it can take to build and ship a proper MVP.
Character Labs combines everything we’ve learned from working with 250+ startups. It expands on the proven method from our book Sprint with dozens of new exercises and techniques that we haven’t shared publicly.
Every startup in Character Labs gets a $100,000 investment from Character in exchange for 3% equity. We make our investment on the first day of the program, and it‘s not contingent on any milestones.
We’ve carefully designed this offer. We believe it’s a better value than anything you will find from an accelerator, and it’s small enough to sit alongside capital from other sources with minimal dilution.
Plus, you’ll immediately become a member of the Character portfolio and have access to our network of founders, advisors, and coinvestors. We’ll work with you on fundraising, additional sprints, or whatever else you need to build on the momentum from Character Labs.
We only accept five companies into each Character Labs group. This is an elite, hands-on, high-quality experience for pre-seed founders — not a startup factory.
There are plenty of great accelerators that will help you with fundraising, hiring, and customer introductions. We know those programs can be valuable at the right moment, and we’ve invested in many of their graduates.
But we also know none of that stuff matters if you don’t get the product and go-to-market right.
That’s why Character Labs is 100% focused on helping you find product-market fit, and why it’s all about doing — not talking.
⚡️ Applications are due February 18 for pre-seed founders to join Character Labs ⚡️
📁 Applications for Character Labs are closed. You can read the story behind the program or sign up here to get an email when we open applications again.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
Character Labs is designed for pre-seed startup founders who have identified an opportunity or market, but have not found product-market fit.
That could mean you have an early product in the market but it’s not quite working, or that you haven’t shipped your v1 yet.
Either way, you know how important it is to build the right product for the right people, and you love the idea of a focused effort to figure it out.
The next edition of Character Labs is optimized for AI startups. That doesn't mean you shouldn't apply if you're not 100% focused on artificial intelligence; it just means we've made a few tweaks to the program to tailor it for founders working on AI-centric products.
If you’re not sure whether Character Labs is a good fit — apply! (Please note that we only invest in software products and software-enabled services.)
Magical things are possible with artificial intelligence, but it can be difficult to build trust and understanding with customers who don’t understand how that magic works. This is especially true when advanced AI reaches beyond the realms of research, startups, and tech optimism and into the real world.
We’ve seen these challenges firsthand, as investors and designers in healthcare, personal finance, manufacturing, and consumer apps, and more— where the amazing power of AI can be overshadowed by questions, doubts, or simple confusion.
We have led Design Sprints for successful AI products since 2009, when Jake designed Gmail’s Priority Inbox. We worked with AI teams from Flatiron Health, Digit, Orbital Insight, Phaidra, and more. Our portfolio includes startups founded by AI engineers from Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and Amazon. And we look forward to adding you to the mix!
We know how important it is to de-risk the product and go-to-market strategy for new AI advances so the technology can have its greatest possible impact on the world. In the words of Phaidra co-founder Katie Hoffman: “It doesn’t matter how good the technology is if our customers don’t understand it or trust it.”
We think it’s the perfect time for a program that helps AI founders bring their work closer to the humans they are building it for.
Plus, we’re nerds at heart, and just love being part of what’s next in technology 🤓
Technically no, but ideally yes.
Character Labs is not an incubator. Our goal is to support and empower you and your team to accelerate progress toward product-market fit — not replace or stand in for your team.
We may accept solo founders but have a strong preference for teams.
Character Labs is also a great opportunity to build your team. You can use the four weeks to test out working with potential co-founders or teammates.
We recommend teams of 2–4, including people who can rapidly build scrappy prototypes and are comfortable talking to customers.
Yes! Character Labs is 100% remote, so we welcome teams who live anywhere!
However, please keep in mind that all synchronous sessions will take place on USA time, roughly 10am to 4pm CDT (that's UTC–5) on most days of the program. (See below for details.)
Also, at this time we are only able to invest in companies incorporated in the USA.
Applications are due at 11:59pm Central Time on February 19, 2023.
During the week of February 20, we will review your application and get in touch to schedule an interview for the week of February 27.
If you’re selected for Character Labs, you’ll find out the week of March 6.
The program begins on Thursday, March 30 and runs for approximately four weeks. (See below for more details.)
Character Labs is 100% remote. We meet on Zoom, Miro, and Slack.
During Character Labs, the Character team (Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Eli Blee-Goldman) will lead you through a sequence of sprints that’s designed specifically for early-stage startups.
March 30–31: Program introduction and Foundation Sprint to build clarity on target customers, market positioning, and the why behind your work.
April 3–7: First Design Sprint. Build a rapid prototype and test with target customers.
April 10–14: Second Design Sprint. Iterate on your prototype from the first sprint, or start over, and test again with a fresh batch of target customers.
April 17–20: Third Design Sprint. Continue iterating, or start over, and test with a fresh batch of target customers.
April 21: Build your “risk roadmap,” a detailed scorecard of what you’ve de-risked and which important risks are still open. Make a plan for your next steps and celebrate the end of Character Labs with your fellow founders!
By the end of your four weeks in Character Labs, we hope you’ll have enough conviction and confidence to build your product and bring it to market. (Or not! If you reach a dead end, it’s better to find out quickly than after you’ve launched.)
We also hope you’ll continue to use the Sprint method. You may not need the intensity of the four-week Character Labs, but we know the process is valuable any time you’re starting a new project or facing a high-stakes decision.
Remember, you’ll be a full member of the Character portfolio and have access to our network of founders, advisors, and coinvestors. We’ll work with you on fundraising, additional sprints, or whatever else you need to build on the momentum from Character Labs.
Character typically invests $500k–1M into the seed rounds of companies who have products in the market and growing customer adoption. We run bespoke sprints with our portfolio, spending a week or more working hand-in-hand with one company at a time.
With Character Labs, we invest $100k into pre-seed startups who have not yet found product-market fit. We run sprints with these teams as well, in a cohort format where five companies are working in parallel with direct support from our team.
Following the program, we may make larger investments in some of the participating companies. But the focus of Character Labs is product-market fit — we’ll help you get ready for customers, and ready to go raise money in the market, if that’s the right next step for your business.
Not necessarily.
We designed the program to complement other sources of capital or startup support. At only 3% equity, your dilution is minimal relative to the value you‘ll receive in the 4-week sprint program.
Previous Character Labs founders have raised a pre-seed round before joining the program. Others incorporated for Character Labs, and we were their first investors. Many have gone on to raise pre-seed or seed rounds within the months following the program. A few have also participated in specialized accelerator programs before or after Character Labs.
We’d love to hear from you anyway! Please get in touch via our website.
⚡️ Applications are due February 18 for pre-seed founders to join Character Labs ⚡️
📁 Applications for Character Labs are closed. You can read the story behind the program or sign up here to get an email when we open applications again.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
