Author’s Note: Updated for New Program Information on April 24, 2024.

The number one question on most people’s minds when they meet either Oksana or myself is, “what’s the deal with Sputnik ATX?” So here it is.

Sputnik ATX is named after the first thing man put into space, and the town that we love (Austin, TX). Sputnik-1 combined visionary insight and engineering excellence. That first satellite massively changed the course of human history and inspired billions of people to continue to look up. Like sputnik-1, we believe that maker/engineer humans should continue to launch transformative ventures. We want to back those founders with investment dollars, resources, and advice.

In short, we want to get you to the fun part of the growth curve, faster. We invest in nerds. Then, we teach nerds how to sell.

The Sputnik ATX program couples $100k-$500k in investment with a 13 week, resident, “heck-on-earth” rigorous experience to immerse you in the process of how to make something people love, grow your company fast, increase your network, expand your vision, and deliver product-market fit faster. We are laser-focused on helping companies to:

Find product-market fit Master the sales/marketing process Scale We require all applicants to have minimum viable product (MVP) and at least one customer. We don’t care if that is a paying customer, you just need someone who isn’t your cousin Larry, so to speak. This is because it is impossible for someone without MVP to fully benefit from our program.

We provide all cohort members with

Six months office space for the founders, and limited space as the team grows $100,000 in initial cash funding via our SAFE note funding on our founder-friendly SAFE note with a $3mm cap and 30% discount Option to invest an additional $100,000 at the same initial terms for up to 24 months (at our option) Option to invest an additional $300,000 on an uncapped YC SAFE note with a 30% discount for up to 24 months (at our option) The easiest way to do the math on this is, post money, we get a maximum 4.76% stake in your company for every $100,000 we invest for the first $200,000 (a better deal than YC, we love ya, and several other programs)

The next $300,000 we invest will convert based upon your valuation in your next round. Y’all are incentivized to grow fast for less dillution!

Of course, you’ll still get our renowned curriculum, advice, and mentoring, things we work very hard to improve and our alumni rave about!

But wait, there’s MORE!

Tons of freebee credits from AWS, Microsoft, and the usual SaaS suspects Fully stocked kitchen, yeah, you’ll be working late eating frozen burritos, a potpourri of yogurt and “gourmet” ramen as far as the eye can see Mentor and investor introductions (our network rocks) The fridge of joy (you have to see it to believe it) The opportunity to win the #tractionhorse (check X/Twitter on this one) For every dollar you get in cash from us, we have more than a dollar of overhead to support you, so we think our deal is pretty good.

We’re not for everyone. Indeed, there are many good accelerator/incubator options in the world and depending on the stage of your startup and what you need the most, we may not be a good fit. So please understand what we do, and if we’re a fit, apply. I hope to see you in an interview soon.