Yes! I have heard of that program as I am actually a founder that's a member of the current cohort! I couldn't recommend it more highly!! If anyone has an idea and has made some progress (MVP stage) I highly suggest that you apply.

First off, yes, their grant is $50,000 non-diluted. So it's a nice chunk of cash to help jump start things if you have a plan without having to give up a huge part (or any part for that matter) of your company. We also received an office in the co-working facility (Codefi) where the program is housed. We work with a lot of video, so the gigabit internet has honestly been super useful.

1st50k is in Cape Girardeau, MO which I hadn't heard of prior to moving down here (though it is a college town home to Southeast Missouri State). We founded our company (SportsTrace) in Seattle and we were looking to move closer to the center of the country as we felt that developing a professional salesforce was going to be one of our biggest challenges as we grow. Having that salesforce located closer to the middle of the country is far more optimal for us: drive 6 hours from Seattle - you get to Portland, Vancouver BC or Spokane. Drive 6 hours from Cape - you're in St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, Lexington, Indianapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Louisville, Little Rock, Birmingham, Knoxville.....the list goes on and on.

Their network is certainly more regional than many other accelerators (and they're not really an accelerator themselves - they truly are a grant program for pre-seed companies). They invest in companies that they believe that they can help grow with their network. For us, we work in sports-tech and while they don't have a sports-tech network specifically, there have been countless individuals that we've been introduced to by being here.

We both happen to be technical founders, so we haven't needed a lot of technical assistance, but the program is situated in a co-working facility (Codefi) and they have an on-site dev shop for hire (Codefi Labs). So if you need help building your product technically (as some of our cohort peers and members of past cohorts have), they definitely can help there too. It's also a really nice community - we have monthly meetings with all of the 1st50k company founders as a roundtable to discuss what we're struggling with, what we're working on, etc. as well as 1:1s with the program directors. It's a super collaborative and welcoming environment.

Don't want to sugar coat everything: I grew up on the east coast and have lived in big cities all my life - Cape Girardeau is certainly a departure there. However, it has provided us with the opportunity to really lock in and be more productive than I think we would have been had we decided to do this from Seattle exclusively.

Your last question is about what 1st50k gains. So, everything that they do is with the goal of starting/growing a tech ecosystem in rural America, but specifically here in Cape Girardeau. They are funded by private groups as well as through state and local orgs to incentivize companies to come down here to grow their businesses. Even after our year long residency in Cape in over, we intend to stay with a portion of our business here - the folks down here are outstanding and the support we've received in the community has really helped to jump start what we're trying to do!