Our Enterprise Accelerator is for established Veteran or ADF family businesses looking to rapidly scale.
Monday 17th to Friday 21st February 2025
Our Enterprise Accelerator is a free programme of ideas and industry speakers designed for ADF business entrepreneurs.
Pick and choose from facilitated sessions, small group mentoring, and networking with leading business owners and experts. Whether you are a sole trader, freelancer, family business, SME, or turning your hobby into a side hustle – there is something for everyone.
Delivered online over five days, the programme offers two to four sessions each day (three to five hours of online programming per day).
Monday - Unlock the full potential of your business at our "Designing for Success" workshops
Tuesday - Discover and leverage your unique strengths at our "What Makes You Special" workshops
Wednesday - Elevate your business presence at our "Raising Your Profile" workshops
Thursday - Master the essentials of business success at our "Nuts and Bolts" workshop!
Friday - Prepare for success at our "Setting Yourself Up for Success" workshop!
- Develop new skills, including start-up and small business best practice
- Support to build your brand
- Support to pitch to investors, co-founders and customers
- Build your professional network with entrepreneurs across Australia + more!
Win $2,500 in equity free (no strings attached) seed funding to help develop your business!
Participants must attend at least 50% of the sessions of the Enterprise Accelerator programme to be eligible to apply.
The winner will also receive three months worth of mentoring and promotion through the Enterprise ecosystem. Further details will be made available during the programme.
Every Accelerator features founders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from across Australia.
Our accelerator supports early-stage, growth-driven businesses through education and mentorship.
The accelerator experience is a process of intense, rapid, and immersive education aimed at accelerating the life cycle of young businesses, compressing years’ worth of learning-by-doing.
To get the most out of the programme, we suggest you attend as many activities as possible. This will help you connect more meaningfully with your cohort and with concepts and activities on offer.
The Accelerator runs for five days, from Monday, 29 July 2024. Sessions are offered in the morning and afternoon. Sessions can be as little as 45 minutes, or up to 2 hours. Between two and four sessions are available each day.
We understand that many of our participants have competing interests, including work, study and carer responsibilities. You can pick and choose which sessions to attend, but we recommend you join as many as you can.
You can join sessions via your laptop, or even on the go via your phone or tablet.
Participants who attend 50% of the sessions or more and create a short video pitch (max 3 mins) are eligible to enter the Enterprise Accelerate Award.
Some sessions are recorded. We record our guest speaker sessions, but do not record our activities or small group mentoring.
Transitioning Defence members, veterans, reservists, and ADF partners of former or current serving members are all eligible to participate.
Founders, Owner/Operators and small teams working part-time or full-time on their business are welcome to join the programme.
Founders are the people who established the business and share in both the risk and reward of the business.
No, you retain full ownership of your company, including any IP.
No, the programme is free.
We are committed to the safety of our community, this includes all people that interact with, or are affected by, The King's Trust Australia, such as our participants, contractors, staff, and mentors.
The King's Trust Australia recognises that all people we interact with and, in particular, vulnerable people, have equal rights to protection from abuse, neglect, or exploitation regardless of their age, gender, race, religious beliefs, disability, sexual orientation, or family or social background.
Our The King's Trust Australia community is expected to uphold our values.
As a valued member of our community, we want to make sure you feel safe and supported.
If you are experiencing mental health difficulties or are experiencing distress while participating in our Enterprise programme, please consider reaching out to Open Arms veteran support service. Open Arms is a DVA-funded free service for anyone who has served in the ADF. Their 24-hour support and referral line is confidential and available on 1800 011 046.
Lifeline also have a crisis support chat service for those who prefer online communications.
If you have any concerns that you would like to share with The King's Trust Australia, we encourage you to reach out via email to our Director of Operations via DoO@kingstrust.org.au. This is a confidential communications channel and your identity will not be shared with The King's Trust programme staff.
An overview of our Safeguarding Policy is available online: https://www.kingstrust.org.au/policies. You may also request a full copy of our policy via our Director of Operations.
The Enterprise programme is proudly supported by Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as well as Donors and Patrons of The King's Trust Australia.
The The King's Trust Australia Enterprise programme received grant funding from the Australian Government to support veteran owned businesses.
A note on our work
The King’s Trust Australia works closely with our alumni, the Department of Defence and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to ensure our programmes meet the needs of Australia’s Defence community. This includes working with Defence Transition Coaches, trusted ex-service partners, and veteran community businesses.
We are guided by an Advisory Council, chaired by the His Excellency, General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC.
We respect our participants and are committed to the highest safeguarding standards. Our programmes are trauma informed.
All staff hold Working with Children Checks and police clearances.
