Where faith meets innovation
TELS Incubator · Cohort 2 · 2026
Five startups are selected each year to build under mentorship, alongside prayer. Cohort 2 runs 2 September to 4 October 2026 — Wednesdays online, Saturdays in Stockport — and closes with Encounter Weekend and Demo Day.
Five places. Three independent judges. One decision in August.
What this is
The TELS Incubator takes founders from an idea they believe God gave them to a venture other people can use, buy and fund. Six weeks of structured building — problem validation, customer discovery, business model, MVP, go-to-market, investor readiness — with a spiritual retreat and a public pitch at the end.
You will be asked to do the work in the open: interview real customers, defend your numbers, ship something, and stand in front of external judges on 4 October. Founders looking for a certificate should look elsewhere. Founders who want to be built should apply.
The six weeks
Wednesdays are online teaching. Saturdays are in-person work at 30 Princes Street, Stockport. One day of fasting and prayer each week. Expect 10–15 hours.
Who you are, what you're called to, and whether the problem is real.
Structured interviews with the people who would actually pay.
Revenue, pricing, unit economics and the financial model behind the idea.
Building the MVP, with software support tailored to each startup.
Channels, digital marketing, viral pathways and the first hundred customers.
Pitch craft, deck and data room, a spiritual retreat on 3 October, then the stage in front of external judges on the 4th.
What you get
Practical teaching on business, technology, funding and spiritual leadership, drawn from how strong companies are actually built.
Guest entrepreneurs, lecturers and ministers who work with your venture directly rather than speaking once and leaving.
Founders and technology leaders talking openly about what failed, what it cost, and what they would do differently.
Visits to entrepreneurship hubs, clients, partners and events across Greater Manchester in late September.
Regular sessions with the other founders in the room — the relationships that outlast the six weeks.
Pitch to angel investors who give both feedback and, where the fit is right, capital.
Pitch, deck, financial model and data room built to the standard accelerators expect — then applications to at least five of them.
Weekly prayer, a day of fasting, and the Encounter Weekend retreat on 3 October before you take the stage.
Cohort 2 timeline
Getting your application in, and protecting the time to show up. Everything else is on us.
Registration opens for founders and startups.
Final deadline. Late submissions are not reviewed.
Three independent judges select five startups from the applicant pool.
Open House welcome session. Expectations set, work begins.
Wednesdays online, Saturdays in person in Stockport.
Site visits to businesses, clients and technology hubs.
Spiritual retreat — prayer, worship and vision refinement, off the grid.
Public pitch to investors, partners and external judges.
Apply
Three steps, about fifteen minutes. Answer plainly — judges read for clarity of thought, not polish. Applications close 31 July 2026.
Questions
Most accelerators work on the venture. We work on the founder and the venture at the same time. Prayer, scripture and marketplace ministry sit alongside customer discovery, unit economics and pitch practice — not as a devotional bolted onto a business course, but because we think ideas worth building come from somewhere.
Founders at any stage from idea to early growth, building software, hardware or services. There is no strict eligibility bar. Three independent judges select five startups on innovation potential, founder commitment and alignment with what TELS is for.
2 September to 4 October 2026. Wednesdays online, Saturdays in person at 30 Princes Street, Stockport. One day of fasting and prayer each week, plus site visits and the Encounter Weekend. Budget 10–15 hours a week including the work you do between sessions. Founders who cannot protect that time should apply to a later cohort.
A retreat built on Acts 1:8, held on 3 October — the day before Demo Day. Screens go away. The time is given to prayer, worship and impartation for witness in the marketplace, so that the pitch on the 4th comes out of something settled rather than something rushed.
There are no upfront fees. The programme is funded by the church and its sponsors. Selected startups pledge 1% equity to the organisation for economic strengthening and a further 1% distributed among the cohort volunteers — so that as your business grows, the ecosystem that carried you grows with it.
All five startups apply to at least five accelerators for onward funding and growth. Beyond that you join the TELS alumni network — mentors stay reachable, volunteers stay involved, and alumni events keep the cohort connected. The programme ends. The community doesn't.
