Acceleprise

Choosing the right programme

• Pre-seed B2B software company with an MVP in market or about to be: the B2B Accelerator Program.
• MVP in market with meaningful early traction: the Pre-Seed Fund.
• Domain expert building an AI-native company around a problem you know well: the AI Venture Studio.
• Still testing a startup idea: The Foundry, which is free.

How applications work

• Accelerator: fill out the Pitch Us form on the Forum Ventures website.
• Pre-Seed Fund: submit a pitch through the same Pitch Us form.
• AI Venture Studio: use the 'Start a company' route. It takes about eight minutes and does not need a deck.
• The Foundry: click Apply Now. Applications for cohort 5 close on 4 November 2026.

How selection works

• Forum says it reviews every pre-seed fund application.
• The accelerator's stated criteria are the eligibility points above. Its page does not describe the review steps.

Before you apply from India

• The site says Forum works with founders remotely, wherever they reside. Its homepage metadata describes its focus as North America. Ask about eligibility before applying.

Forum Ventures is a fund, accelerator and venture studio focused on B2B software companies. It runs its programmes from offices in Toronto, New York City and San Francisco, and says it works with founders remotely, wherever they live. Its pages disagree on several figures and on where the firm is based, and those differences are set out below.

How programmes work

The B2B Accelerator Program is a 16-week pre-seed programme. Forum invests in each company it accepts in exchange for equity, and the accelerator page sets out the terms. Each company is paired with a dedicated Managing Director who works with it one-to-one every week. Forum describes its role as a fractional co-founder, working with the company to reach meaningful traction and get it ready to raise. Companies also receive introductions to customers in a network of more than 300 Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies, introductions to vetted funds in Forum's investor network, and business perks from platforms including Google, AWS, Brex, HubSpot and Stripe.

The pre-seed fund backs B2B tech companies that already have an MVP in market and meaningful early traction. It comes with the infrastructure of the accelerator. Forum says it more often follows on pre-seed rounds than leads them, though it sometimes leads. It also says about 65% of its pre-seed companies go on to raise follow-on funding at a higher valuation.

The AI Venture Studio works differently. Forum forms the company with a domain expert and invests at the moment the company is incorporated. The studio then co-builds the company with that expert from concept stage through its first raise. Founders keep majority ownership and board control, according to the site. Forum says 63% of its studio companies raised follow-on capital within 12 months of formation.

The Foundry is a free, five-week validation sprint for startup ideas. It was formerly called Builders Between Ventures. It runs remotely, with weekly group sessions and async support, and each cohort has six to ten founders. After five weeks there are three options for next steps, and one of them is to pitch the studio for funding.

Who can apply

The accelerator is for B2B software companies in any vertical at the pre-seed stage. They need an MVP in market or one about to launch, and they must have taken on less than the prior-funding ceiling the accelerator page sets. The pre-seed fund is for B2B tech companies with an MVP in market and meaningful early traction. The site says that typically means a prior raise or recurring revenue above a stated threshold.

The AI Venture Studio is for domain experts with firsthand experience of a problem who want to build an AI-native company around it. It is not a fit for B2C builders, for companies already incorporated and gone to market, or for founders with no direct experience of the problem space. The Foundry asks for four to six hours a week.

Geography is the open question for founders in India. The site says Forum works with founders remotely, wherever they reside. Its homepage metadata, however, describes its focus as North America, and its offices are all in North America. No page read sets an India-specific rule, so check eligibility before applying.

Scale

The firm's own figures disagree. Its homepage gives 430 companies funded. A fund announcement says it has backed over 500 B2B SaaS companies, and its page description gives 550+ portfolio companies. Its homepage also gives a founder community of 1,300 and says it has worked with over 900 founders. No single count is used here.

Several other figures are self-reported and undated. For the accelerator's most recent cohort, the site reports that 25.6% of companies are solo-founder led, that 58.3% of founders had never founded a company before, and that 64.1% reached early revenue during the 16 weeks. The accelerator page lists 200 mentors and advisors. Forum says it received over 2,000 applications in each of Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. The Winter 2026 cohort had nine companies and the Spring 2026 cohort had twelve. Both are past cohorts. For the AI Venture Studio, the site says 17 companies have launched so far.

Who runs it

Mike Cardamone is CEO and Managing Partner. His earlier role was in business development at Box. The advisors and early investors the site lists include a former early Box executive and a former Salesforce executive.

Forum's pages give two accounts of the firm's age. One says it has existed since 2014, and the homepage metadata gives 2014 as the founding year. Another says the firm was started ten years ago.

Locations

Offices are in Toronto, New York City and San Francisco. Portfolio pages describe accelerator cohorts in San Francisco and New York City. The pages disagree on where the studio team sits: one says the firm's teams are spread across New York, San Francisco and Toronto, and another says the AI studio team is primarily based in Toronto.