Applications now open for Spring 2022 Cohort
RAMP is pleased to announce that applications are now open for our Spring 2022 cohort that will be focused on Health and Life Science startup companies.
We are looking for companies with scalability, and coachable entrepreneurs who have a desire to do the work.
RAMP will select up to five companies for the 12-week cohort that provides:
- Expert 1:1 mentoring with the region’s top entrepreneurs and executives
- Free office space with high-speed internet in downtown Roanoke in Virginia’s Blue Ridge
- Access to venture capital and equity-free funding
- Free membership in the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council
- Three additional years of ongoing support
Why RAMP?
“Participating as a RAMP cohort member will transform your company,” says Sarah Snider, CEO of BEAM Diagnostics, which was one of three RAMP alumni to recently win a $100,000 Commonwealth Commercialization Fund award. “You will learn to ask and answer the right questions and find the perspective you need to accelerate growth. The wisdom, advice, and support from the mentors of RAMP is truly unmatched.”
Or from Martin Angst and Kaelum Hasler, co-founders of Rendyr and winners of the $20,000 grand prize at the American Evolution Innovators Cup: “RAMP provided us with the mentorship, resources and network we needed to prepare for our product launch and take on funding. The attentiveness to the startup’s individual needs makes RAMP invaluable.”
Or RAMP alumni Rob Gourdie and Spencer Marsh, whose startup Tiny Cargo is among five companies to receive a Washington, DC Health Innovation QuickFire Challenge award, which includes $50,000, the opportunity to reside at JLABS@Washington, D.C., for one year, and mentorship from experts at the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies.
More about RAMP
Located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, RAMP offers two cohorts per year with an average of five STEM-related companies accepted.
Cohort companies must fully participate in the program and locate to the Roanoke region. The accepted companies can expect to be engaged in the program two full days a week for the entire 12-week program.
As a proud member of GAN, each founder is also given access to playbooks, mentors and other resources across hundreds of other accelerators and companies around the world.
Founded in 2017 with funding from GO Virginia, the City of Roanoke, and Virginia Western Community College, RAMP through 2021 has nurtured 32 startup businesses.
In September 2020, RAMP received a major endorsement by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which awarded a nearly $1 million grant to Valleys Innovation Council — a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing the region’s innovation economy — to double RAMP’s output.