Too many accelerators want 7–10% of your company in exchange for little more than generic programming, a few hundred thousand dollars in investment, and perhaps a short stay in a hacker house.

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Feels like the VC industry should do better. 

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The Unusual Way to Product-Market Fit 

For over 20 years, our Co-founders John Vrionis and Jyoti Bansal have been investing in pre-product market fit companies and building unicorn B2B startups from scratch. Unusual Academy is an intense experience where talented Founders work closely together to learn and quickly master unconventional, yet proven techniques to finding PMF. The program provides playbooks, tools, case studies and 1:1 mentorship all derived from firsthand experience building some of the most successful B2B startups of the past two decades. 

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The Unusual Way is built for pre-seed and seed stage B2B founders. Our Academy is not another multi-week, check-the-box program. It’s a one-week, intensive program in the Bay Area where the concepts and tactics run counter to the conventional advice provided by VC led accelerator programs. In an industry where only 23% of seeded companies are able to raise a Series B, it is clear that most of the advice being given by VCs isn’t working and our results stand out.  

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Glory optional. Grit required. 

We offer a counterintuitive approach to finding PMF and a force multiplier for willing-to-learn founders. Our participants have a near perfect track record in raising funding and even more importantly, embracing the process that maximizes the odds of finding product market fit. Over the course of one week, you’ll be challenged and pushed to embrace our bespoke methods to finding PMF. You will be immersed in our process that is forged out 20 years of data, customer discovery wisdom and unconventional analysis, all while building bonds with a small number of other ambitious and talented B2B founders. 

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We carve out time for founders to connect and build community with each other and previous Academy participants. You’ll leave with a real understanding of what it takes to find product-market fit, build a venture-scale business, and dozens of new founder and design partner relationships. Our goal is to provide a meaningful, lasting experience that will unlock your super powers as a founder and rapidly accelerate your development from builder to entrepreneur. 

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Terms that respect founders

We didn’t build Unusual Academy or our investment terms as a means to gain 7% ownership of your company on the cheap.

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Our terms are simple: Uncapped SAFE for up to $1M in your next financing and a 3% program fee.

No tricks. Just a small stake, meaningful capital, and a highly unusual, battle-tested PMF curriculum, all while preserving your ownership and control.

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In the long run, we know that, if you like working with us and we like working with you, we’ll invest a lot more. 

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Outstanding outcomes

Our model works. John Vrionis has been running an Academy program for founders dating back to 2006 when he started the Lightspeed Summer Fellows initiative. He is now on the Faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches the course on Finding Product Market Fit.  

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Here are just some of the founders who’ve been through our Academy curriculum and have gone on to build category-defining companies:

• Ben Silbermann - Founder & former CEO of Pinterest
• Akshay Kothari - Co-founder of Notion, Co-founder Pulse
• Spiros Xanthos - Founder of Resolve AI, Omnition
• Jessica Mah - Founder, Indinero 
• Greg Bayer - Founder Pulse, Founder Tailor AI
• Marcus Gomez - Founder Luminous Computing
• David Kravitz - early employee SNAP
• Saam Motemedi - General Partner, Greylock Partners
• Abhi Sharma – Co-founder of Relyance AI 
• Kaan Gunay – Co-founder of Firefly
• Elliot Marx – Co-founder of Chalk AI, early employee at Affirm
• Dr. Tanguy Chau - Co-founder & CEO of Paxton
• Matthew Darrow - Co-founder & CEO of Vivun

Most accelerators have a simple business model: take as many talented builders as possible, acquire ownership cheaply, and hope a few work out. Market the hell out of the few that do and raise more capital. 

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At Unusual, we have a very different approach. We keep the Academy intentionally small and highly selective so we can spend real time with each founder and provide custom guidance through every step in the process. We also want to be available and helpful to participants AFTER the Academy in a way that enables us to continue that mentorship. Once you’ve participated in the Unusual Academy program, you will have unique access to the hundreds of previous elite founders who have had the same experience. The Unusual program is not designed for volume or to scale. It is designed to WORK for EVERY founder.   

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The proof is in the pudding: in a recent cohort, 100% of companies raised a seed round coming out of the program. World class founders, learning at an incredible rate, building relationships and community, and leaving with a set of tools and people that will save them thousands of hours of wasted effort in the future while maximizing their odds of success –  that’s what Unusual Academy is about.

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Applications are open

If you’re a serious technical B2B founder who wants to build not just a product, but the foundation for a lasting company we’d encourage you to apply. Here are the key dates to know:

• Early application deadline: Friday, September 12th — apply by this date and you’ll hear back from us by the end of September.
• Final application deadline: Friday, September 26th — apply by this date and you’ll hear back by early October.
• Decisions delivered: First or second week of October.
• Program dates: November 17-21, 2025 in-person in Menlo Park, CA

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Apply to Unusual Academy today →

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Hear from founders who have gone through Academy

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