STL offers a range of funding opportunities that are apply at different stages of the business journey.

Our core monthly grant program, the Friends & Family Fund grant, is available one time to all members who meet the following criteria: you must be based in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom and have a completed profile on Sky’s the Limit. Next, you must complete a Funding Pitch to let other members know how a grant would help fuel your business. The full guidelines for the Friends & Family process can be found here.

Other Funding Rounds typically have additional eligibility criteria which will be outlined in their descriptions. Here are some tips:

• Location (Typically!) Matters: Typically, you must base your business in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom.
• Complete Your Profile: Ensure your Sky’s the Limit profile is thorough and up to date.
• Craft a Winning Pitch: Develop and post a Friends and Family Pitch showcasing how a grant can turbocharge your business.
• Participate: Active participation within our vibrant community dramatically heightens your chances of securing funding. Dive in and boost your eligibility today!

Once an entrepreneur’s Funding Pitch is live, members of the community can view and boost it.

Entrepreneurs are only eligible to win each type of funding campaign once (BUT they are eligible for other types of funding rounds).

Entrepreneurs will be automatically entered for any round they are eligible for.

For Friends & Family Grants, one winner is chosen every month, typically on the last weekday of the month by 5pm PST / 8pm EST and notified of their status, and it's awarded based on the number of Boosts the community gives.

Depending on the type of Funding Round, there can be multiple winners in a Round. 

Be sure to check out the Pitch FAQ to understand more.

Note: Sometimes entrepreneurs get enough boosts to win in their first month, sometimes it can take several months.

By joining our community, you’re making the following commitments:

• As an Entrepreneur, you’ll request support when you’re ready to actively work with Supporters – in other words, you’re getting in contact when you’re ready to accept the help of advisors, peers, and mentors and take action to move forward
• If you’re playing a Supporter role, you’ll respond to messages timely and be clear about the commitments you can make – think under-promise, over-deliver!
• Once you’ve messaged with someone and agreed to meet, you should be ready to take action together and conduct that meeting within the next two weeks
• You’ll attend scheduled meetings on time and provide advance notice if you will be late or need to reschedule. 
• You’ll rate your experience and provide feedback when asked by our Member Experience team.

Do you want to make a difference in a young person's life? Do you want to share your business knowledge with others? These are two great reasons! 

Other reasons include: 

• Expanding your own professional network by volunteering with colleagues and getting to know impressive founders that you might not otherwise meet. 

• Practicing important leadership skills like active listening, inclusive communication, and emotional intelligence. 

• Having the type of transformative experience that occurs when two people are willing to listen to and learn from each other. 

These are the basic skills our top mentors have in common:

• Active listening

• Interpersonal skills

• Business skills*

• Care for others

• Empathy

These are the top five problems we hear from Sky’s the Limit Entrepreneurs:

• “I don’t have anyone to talk to about my business.”

• “I need help identifying next steps.” 

• “I want to be held accountable for my goals and progress.”

• “I don’t know how to make new sales.” 

• “I’m looking for creative ways to fund my business.” 

Volunteers are encouraged to provide whatever level of commitment they can.

For instance, you can help as an advisor and provide short-term support for a young entrepreneur in a specific area of their business. Or you might choose to develop longer engagements. A mentoring relationship typically starts with a short-term project so that the volunteer and the entrepreneur have the opportunity to try the relationship on a smaller scale before advancing to a long term mentoring relationship. Mentoring relationships tend to develop organically when there is a good fit and the length of that is determined by the people involved. It can last weeks, or in some cases, years! 

By joining Sky's the Limit as a volunteer you are committing to:

1. Respond to any entrepreneur who reaches out. If you receive too many requests, you can pause new messages in your messaging settings or reach out to support@skysthelimit.org for assistance.

2. Meet with at least one entrepreneur for an Intro Meeting within the first two weeks. If you just want to browse first, please set yourself to “Busy” until you are ready to meet. 

3. If you decide to work with an entrepreneur, you both commit to attending scheduled meetings on time, or provide notice if you need to reschedule.

4. Rate your experience and provide feedback and updates when asked.

As a volunteer, there are so many different ways you can support an aspiring entrepreneur. Here are just a few of them… 

• Make an Introduction - maybe you don’t have the experience or skills to help in a specific area, but do you know someone who does? Helping founders network by introducing them to your network can go a long way. 

• Listen: provide a “safe zone” - The best mentors have  more questions than answers. Help an entrepreneur build confidence through judgement-free brainstorming. 

• Give Feedback - Take a look at their business plan, profile, pitch etc., ask questions, help them identify gaps or find solid examples to follow. 

• Help identify opportunities and obstacles - As they think through their options, you can help by brainstorming potential obstacles and solutions with them. 

• Be a cheerleader - Entrepreneurship can be lonely, and it gets to the best of us. Help them stay motivated by offering words of encouragement and inspiration. 

• Donate a skill - Are you a marketer? A lawyer? An accountant? A  designer? There are so many skills that go into building a business. If you are in a position to, you can offer you services pro bono. 

• Be a mentor - Are you able to provide long term support across all areas of their business? Do you want to build a longer term, meaningful relationship? Then mentorship may be for you! 

• Organize a Company Program - Would you like to volunteer with your colleagues? Start an Impact Team and socialize with a purpose!

Vote for their Friends & Family Funding Campaign - if you know an entrepreneur who is competing for funding, help them win by voting for them. Or, just check out the current campaigns, and vote for your favorite.

Assists are a feature that allow entrepreneurs to create and post a card for other members to view, enabling them to receive rapid responses and fast feedback from supporters for a short period of time.

When creating a request, focus on the specific challenge you’re facing. For example, you may receive more responses and support when you ask for “How can I improve the business financials section of my Pitch?” vs. “Can someone review my pitch?

If you see opportunities to deepen your  engagement, Orbit the member and then Intercom them to ask for additional support.

1. Go to “Orbits” to see a list of recommended entrepreneur profiles to get connected with. Each profile will have a “score match” that uses logic based on skills and industry to show a user how good of a match the other user is. > 80: Great Match, 50 - 80: Good Match, less than 50 is Some Match.
2. When you find an entrepreneur profile that you are interested in, send a request to Orbit. Once that entrepreneur accepts, you two will be “In Orbit.” 
3. Being “In Orbit” unlocks the Intercom function, which allows you to send and receive messages from an entrepreneur. You can also set up meetings through Intercom.

Any activities you perform in the app will be automatically tracked.

If you take any meetings, exchange messages, or attend events outside the app, you’ll want to visit your launchpad, go to your icon in the upper right corner, and click “total time”. From there, you will see all the hours automatically tracked, and you can choose “Log Hours” to add more.