1863 Acceler8 Program

Acceler8 is a growth & scale stage program that supports brands seeking rapid growth or scale within 6-12 months of graduation, and must have at least two years of market traction. Brands looking to qualify for Acceler8 should have or be approaching $1 million or more in annual revenue.

Acceler8 Graduates

Trusted by founders & teams across multiple industries and geographies.

Groshell Logostics, Inc. is an expert in all modes of transportation. Their commitment to quality is reflected in their highly committed team, who serve customers like Northrop Grumman, with the highest quality in terms of relationships and requirements.

STAR Enterprises, helmed by Naoimi Brown, is a professional staffing solution that works diligently to accommodate the scheduling & budgetary needs of all their clients such as Marriott, Smithsonian, Wework & Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

vTech Solutions, led by Vishakha Vaddoriya, is a fully managed cloud solutions that take away the pain of IT infrastructure management. Their clients include Dept of the Navy, Dept of Education, International Monetary Fund, Cisco, Lenovo, McAfee & more.

Federal Contractors, Inc. is an electrical, plumbing & architecture firm with a record of expertise and experience in renovation projects. FCI has successfully completed contracts with the Social Security Administration, U. S. Dept of Labor, National Park Service and U. S. Dept of Agriculture.

Janus Contractors is a full service carpentry company that provides exceptional building and contracting services to federal, state and local government agencies. They've provided the expertise behind the Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Lab, Univ of MD Medical Center: Gamma Knife Center, and many more amazing projects.

From occupancy monitoring to contact tracing, SAMS improves operations and enhances customer experience through technology. Staci Redmon, is trusted by clients such as Dell, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Navy Mutual, Army National Guard, Dept of Homeland Security & Dept of Veterans Affairs.

Savvy Technology Solutions is a veteran IT firm, led by Mel Worku, that serves leading brands such as Amazon, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, HP & Cisco.

The Value
Tap into the power of partnerships & process.

"Always excited to tap into the national 1863 brand pipeline for growth opportunities."

Diana Williams

Co-founder and CEO of Kinetic Energy Entertainment

One of the biggest challenges to scaling revenue? Your salespeople only have so much time. Even if you hire the most focused people, invest in tools that boost their efficiency, and remove all distractions, there’s a limited number of selling hours in the day.

Our solution? Focus on a potentially game-changing strategy: Using one or more channel sales models. Leverage the pre-established trust in your partner brands & the efficiency they bring to give you the space necessary to focus on closing new business without sacrificing your existing users.

Affiliates & Influencers

An arrangement where you pay partners a commission to send you sales qualified leads. Taking all the legwork of nurturing leads & fast forwarding to the conversion stage of the Buyers Journey.

Chain Store Distribution

Chain store distributors provide you the opportunity to sell products at scale and gain massive brand awareness, positioning you to become a household name.

Value-added provider

Partnerships that provide additional features or services that can be added to a core offering to enhance the end-user's experience of a service that either you or a partner provides.

Independent Retailers

Collaborate and tap into the networks of independent retail store owners that have painstakingly built trust & loyalty with their audience over time. Leverage that brand loyalty to earn more sales.

Core to our programs is improving operational efficiency, reducing execution risk and catalyzing growth through our rigorously developed, process based curriculum.

This curriculum is composed of six key areas of focus. Marketing, Sales, Fundraising, Finance & Accounting, Product, and Operations.

Make your product sell itself.

Brands are built on authenticity and trust. But at the core of an essential brand is a strong value proposition. We help you distill what you offer into what makes you unique.

Build and maintain relationships with high-ticket customers.

A strong sales strategy helps you target the right customers at scale. We work with you to develop a repeatable and data-driven approach to close more deals faster.

How to approach and manage investor & lender relationships.

Fundraising should be a means to an end for your business, not a signal of success. We help you understand how to create value within your company so you can attract the right capital to get you to the next milestone.

Ensure your business has the capital to not only survive but thrive.

We get it, excel spreadsheets and financial models can be intimidating. We empower you to project the performance of your business using historical financial data & research-based assumptions.

Build the right products for the right customer segments.

To tackle large market opportunities, you must start with those initial adopters. Using customer discovery, you'll understand what markets and segments have the highest need for your product.

Manage your team like the pros.

A business is made of many moving parts. Each business function should contribute to your overall business goals. We help you transition from doer to leader so you have clarity on the road ahead and confidence to execute on your mission.

This program aims to work on your core processes and systems and position you to maximize strategic partnerships with key market distributors.

Here are a few of the brands our graduates have partnered with to push them from a small shop to a heavy-weight, enterprise-level contender.

The Experience
A program tailored to your brand's needs.

Structured similarly to a masters degree program. Teams will attend 3 week long sessions (online due to COVID).

Pre-Residency Workshops

Once you're accepted into the program we begin working with you right away. We determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & find potential threats, building a customized plan around what you need to accomplish so you spend your time in the program only working on what matters to you.

DC Residency

VIRTUAL DUE TO COVID

This is where you come down to DC so we can work with you one-on-one, in addition to grouped sessions to work towards implementing your desired goals.

Post-Residency Workshops

Bi-monthly, opt-in, virtual sessions around things we may have missed during the residency or on new topics you and your team believe will be helpful towards your growth.

One-on-One Coaching

Hands on, one-on-one sessions with the 1863 team, Brain Trust and mentor team on specific, actionable needs your team may have. Can cover anything from how to attract influencers to strategic brand positioning.