Elevate with NoBa.
Welcome to Elevate with NoBa — a founder-first support programme designed to give you the edge to grow your business. This is more than investment; it’s the execution support, expertise and community you need to build with confidence.
Your journey to Growth starts here
Cohort 3: Winter 2026 | London - Applications open · close 26 August
Over six intensive sessions, we’ll help you sharpen your vision, build the right team and culture, leverage AI to scale smarter, validate your market, and craft a compelling seed story — all alongside peers who understand exactly what you’re going through.
And after the sprint? You’ll continue as part of the NoBa portfolio, with access to our vibrant founder community, trusted supplier partners, supportive angels, and future learning & networking opportunities.
What makes Elevate different?
At NoBa, we’re more than investors. As former operators, we know that funding is just the start — real scale comes from execution. Elevate is our way of doubling down on you as a founder, ensuring you have every possible advantage to build a lasting business.
With Elevate, you’ll get:
A clear 12-18-month plan for capital, team, and growth
A GTM approach rooted in real customer learning - not hope
Early systems that support sustainable scale
A sharpened story for your future raise, tested with investors
A powerful founder network, supplier discounts & co-working space in London
Supported by
Start Strong
Session 1: Founder mindset & leadership
Creating Momentum
Session 2: Customers, GTM & traction
Product that Pulls
Session 3: Product proposition and execution
Build the Machine
Session 4: People, culture and AI-enabled operations
From Project to Company
Session 5: Operating like a business
Think Bigger
Session 6: Future strategy and value creation
Pitch the Future
Final: 12-18 month plan and live feedback
Who is it for?
This is for you if you are:
An early-stage business shaping the future of work
Completing a pre-seed or early-seed investment round in H2 2026
An ambitious founding team with plans to build a global business based in the UK
Looking to get more than just money, and want a partner who will help you execute
Keen to be part of a vibrant community of other founders in this space
Ready to take your business further?
Applications for cohort 3 - Winter 26 are open. Apply below.
If you’re building in the future of work, we want to hear from you.
Successful applicants join the NoBa platform and the Elevate programme, as well receive an investment offer from NoBa, linked to their round specifics. To keep the programme high-quality, we charge fees based on that offer.
Cohort 3 focus themes
For Cohort 3, we’re open to founders across the broader future-of-work landscape. But through our research, portfolio activity and conversations with founders, operators and investors, we see a few emerging shifts we believe will define the next generation of workforce technology. We’re especially excited by founders building in these areas:
1. Workforce Security & Governance
The workforce is no longer confined to employees on company devices. Work is increasingly done by contractors, freelancers, partners and AI systems using their own tools. As organisations adopt AI, new risks emerge around identity, access, data security, compliance and governance.
What we’re looking for: Founders building the infrastructure to securely manage a workforce that extends beyond traditional boundaries.
Examples: AI governance & oversight · BYOAI (Bring Your Own AI) · Agent security
2. Operating the AI Workforce
The future workforce will be humans and AI agents working side by side. Agents are moving beyond simple assistants to autonomous workers that execute tasks and workflows independently. As organisations deploy more AI workers, they need new systems to manage them at scale.
What we’re looking for: Founders building the tools to operate and optimise AI workforces -onboarding, permissions, objectives, performance, monitoring and cost control.
Examples: AI & agent management tools · AI workforce planning · Cost (token) utilisation · Governance & monitoring systems
3. Capability Verification
Hiring still runs on proxies -CVs, references, titles, years served. They prove you were there, not what you created. We back founders moving hiring and internal mobility to demonstrated capability: employers verifying real output, employees proving it, across new and existing hires.
What we’re looking for: Founders building the proof layer for work -showing what someone can actually do, not just where they’ve worked. Largely solved in coding via portfolios, but not for most roles, and we think that’s a gap.
Examples: Proof-of-work & verified portfolios · AI-led interviews & assessment · Work-quality evaluation
Don’t fit neatly into one theme? Apply anyway. These are areas of particular interest, not limits. If you’re building a technology-enabled solution shaping the future of work, we’d love to hear from you.
Session Details
Start Strong
Founder mindset & leadership
Clarify your role as a founder and leader. Define priorities, strengthen decision-making, and set a clear roadmap to lead your team with focus, confidence, and energy.
Creating Momentum
Customers, GTM & traction
Build commercial momentum through sharper positioning, deeper customer understanding, and clearer go-to-market choices. Focus on the levers that create repeatable, scalable growth.
Product That Pulls
Product proposition & execution
Refine what you are building around real customer pull. Make smarter build decisions, strengthen execution, and ensure your product aligns with how customers buy and use it.
Build the Machine
People, culture & AI-enabled operations
Build a high-performing team and upgrade how you operate. Embed culture into execution and use practical AI tools to create leverage, improve cadence, and scale how work gets done.
From Project to Company
Operating like a business
Move from founder-led hustle to company-level execution. Focus on the foundations that protect the business and enable scale, including governance, legal and financial basics, operating cadence, and decision-making discipline.
Think Bigger
Future strategy & value creation
Plan the next chapter of the business. Explore capital strategy, market expansion, and long-term value creation, including how to think about optionality and pathways to exit over time.
Pitch the Future
12–18 month plan & live feedback
Present your future strategy and 12–18 month plan to the NoBa community. Receive live investor feedback, build meaningful connections, and close the programme with networking and drinks.