COHORT 04

NAVIGATION MENU

QUICK LINKS

Dear Fellows,

Welcome to the 2024-2025 Accelerator program. You’ve been through a rigorous screening process to get this far, and we’re excited by you, your vision, and what you’re building.

This site is designed to orient you, and give you all of the required information you’ll need to navigate the program, and get the most out of it.

We pray this program will be a transformational experience for you, your venture, and for the Kingdom. 

Excited to work with you over the coming year!

Sincerely, 

The Missional Labs Team 

Tyler Prieb
Stephen Mulder
Christina Van Essen
Frog Orr Ewing
Jena Postma 

UK TO-DO LIST

01

Book UK travel & share flight details to christina@missionallabs.co

02

Please let Christina know if you will have any +1’s joining you.

03

Here is what you can expect over the next 9 months & beyond.

  1. Peer Community - You’ll get to learn from an incredible cohort of peers who will be lifelong classmates and friends with access to our larger alumni network.

  2. Team Coaching - Our team is here to help you. We understand startups and the church, and we’re bringing our best just for you.

  3. World-Class Mentors - We want you to connect with diverse, world-class mentors from the church, nonprofit, and business worlds who can advocate for you.

  4. Venture Support - We’ll help you sharpen your vision and pitch, design programs and experiences, and reach the right people through the course of the program.

  5. Pitch Days - You’ll have multiple chances to give your vision pitch to mentors, donors, investors, and friends, with three significant pitch opportunities in the program.

  6. Global Community - Cultivate a global network of churches, leaders, ministries, and foundations, scaling up your access to key people and resources.

  7. Prayer & Transformation - Ultimately, we care about you. The venture you build only goes as far as your spiritual and emotional health and strength. We want you to be whole and on fire.

“The future of the Church depends on today’s pioneers.”

 2024-2025 Program Schedule

    • Orientation Call: Aug 15 / 12pm-2pm EST 

    • 1:1 Coaching Calls (round 1): Aug 19-29

    • Practice Pitches: Sept 5 / 12pm-2pm EST 

    • NYC Intensive (in-person): Sept 16-19

      • Arrive before 4pm EST on Monday the 16th

      • Depart after 2pm EST on Thursday the 19th

    • Virtual Session: Oct 10 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Virtual Session: Oct 24 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Fall Mentor Introductions: Nov 1-21

    • Virtual Session: Nov 7 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Virtual Session: Nov 21 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Thanksgiving / Christmas Break

    • Pitch Development: Jan 2-17

    • Virtual Session: Jan 9 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • SF Intensive (in-person): Jan 20-23

    • Venture Profiles (details TBC): Feb 1-Apr 30

    • Virtual Session: Feb 6 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • 1:1 Coaching Calls (round 2): Feb 10-14

    • Virtual Session: Feb 20 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Peer Circles (details TBC): Mar 3-7

    • Virtual Session: Mar 13 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Virtual Session: Mar 27 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • Virtual Session: Apr 10 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • 1:1 Coaching Calls (round 3): Apr 14-17

    • Pitch Development: Apr 21-30

    • Final Virtual Session: Apr 24 / 12pm-2pm EST

    • UK Intensive (in-person): Apr 28- May 2

    • Program Exit Survey: May 12-30

Introducing Cohort 04

United Kingdom Intensive

April 28-May 1, 2025

We are thrilled to host you in this great city soon!
Please take a close look at the below details.

UK Schedule

    • You will want to arrive in the morning or midday on Monday, April 28.

    • Make your way to Oxford and check in to the hotel .

    • At 6pm, we’ll gather in the hotel lobby as a cohort to reconnect!

    • Check-in is anytime after 4 pm, however, if you arrive early you can join us at the lobby, luggage if you arrive early. Check-in details will be sent within 48-72 hours of arrival.

    • Lodging 01, Oxford: Rhodes House (University of Oxford S Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3RG, UK)

    • Lodging 02, London: Marrable's Farringdon Hotel (86-88 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1M 5RJ, UK)

    • Lodging in Oxford will be at Rhodes House for April 28 - May 1 and then at Marrable's Farringdon Hotel for May 1-May 2.

    • Fellows will have double occupancy unless communicated otherwise.

    • If you indicated bringing a spouse, they can attend both Pitch Events on April 30th and May 1st, but cannot attend additional programming. 

    • We will provide dinner on April 28, three delicious meals and refreshments on April 29-May 1, and breakfast on May 2.

    • Missional Labs will cover transportation between programming elements; fellows are responsible for airport and extra travel.

    • Please book flights according to the specified times.

    • The Intensive will end on Thursday evening after the pitch night.

    • Please check out of your hotel the next morning whenever you’d like, you can hold your luggage in the lobby if you plan to explore the city on Friday.

    • The weather looks like it will be mildly warm this time of year in the UK, so dress comfortably. No need to bring out the full suit and tie – feel free to think smart casual.

    • If you were to dress up, we would recommend breaking out your ‘power outfit’ for Mentor Day and Pitch Day.

    • The lovely Jena Postma will be photographing the entire event for you to have images to use.

    • Mentor Pitch Slides - All fellows will be pitching their venture twice on April 30 (Oxford) and May  1 (London). We will conduct practice pitches online prior to the Intensive for you to prepare and hone your pitch. Your slides (16x9 PDF) for this presentation must be emailed to Jena Postma (jena@missionallabs.co) before Sunday, April 27 at 11:59 pm EST. Please send them in JPEG format, if possible! 

    • Need Anything? Feel free to text or call Christina Van Essen at (512) 284-2747 or email her at christina@missionallabs.co

Building Your Pitch

Your story is the primary “product” that you offer to the world.

Developing Your Pitch: Your pitch is a core program deliverable, which we will work with you to refine over time. It forces you to clarify and condense your thinking, as well as tell a compelling narrative that will animate stakeholders, those you serve, funders, and more. It is about articulating your theological vision—the Gospel motive and opportunity behind your work—while cultivating imagination for why your work matters for the church and the world.

  • You will pitch on the following days: 

    Sep 5 - Peer-Only Pitch 

    Sep 18 - Mentor Day (NYC) 

    Jan 21 - Mentor Day (SF) 

    Jan 22 - Pitch Showcase (SF) 

    Apr 30 - Mentor Day (UK) 

    May 1 - Showcase (UK) 

    Date TBC - Virtual Showcase

  • 4 Minutes. This is a hard-stop and it goes by very fast, so please prepare and ensure you’ve practiced. When you present you will be able to see a count-down time.

    For teams that have more than 1 leader: you are welcome to have more than 1 person share - but, please note that we’ve found it’s far simpler in a 4-minute presentation to just have 1 person present.

  • Your primary audience is "warm stakeholders," which will include mentors, funders, and potential supporters that you want to win to your vision. Don't shy away from including "how they can help," including financially, as part of your call to action.

    Your general audience is “the church at large,” who you want to persuade and win to your vision in a hopeful way.  Your goal is to create a compelling vision for the why, what, and how of your venture, and call people into your story.

  • We recommend a simple slide deck with one slide per topic area and very few words. Simple is always better, because it will force clarity. See some of our resources below for good examples.

    • Presentations should be designed in 16x9 widescreen format. 

    • Make sure to export as a PDF so that you do not send us wide print margins, and also to export to include any "builds" or “slide animation” that you need. PDF’s preserve your images and fonts, which is why we use them 

    • We don’t allow video with audio to be included in pitch decks, nor do we allow any handouts.

    • We also discourage use of notes while you're presenting (i.e., practice and memorize in advance).

    • Decks must be sent to us ahead of time prior to each City Intensive – please watch for each unique date.

    1. Rehearse: 4-minutes goes by incredibly fast and it’s usually true that the more you practice, the more crisp and clear your presentation is. We especially recommend that you do a trial run of the slideshow once exported as a PDF before you send it to us, so that you know exactly how it will look when you are presenting on the big screen.

    2. Direction, not perfection: the mentors & peers you’re presenting in front of are worth preparing for, but nobody is expecting anything even close to perfect. Focus on the direction rather than perfecting.

    3. Simplify, simplify, simplify: In the book Effortless, Greg Mckeown shares that presentations changed for him when he limited himself to 6 slides with no more than 10 words per slide.

    4. Memorizing > Reading: We discourage the use of notes while you’re presenting.