Founders usually need a warm introduction. AcceleratorCON’s answer is a sports-style draft - applications, scouts, selections and private pitch meetings - built to turn conference mingling into an actual pipeline.
The Cleveland nonprofit does something rare: it pays for advice before founders can afford it, invests when some become venture-ready, and measures the result in jobs, wages and taxes across Ohio.
A missing dataset became a business-building mission. Inside the nonprofit helping overlooked founders test ideas, find investors and get past the warm-introduction problem.