Apply to WASV — West Africa Silicon Valley

Personal Details

First Name

Last Name

Email Address *

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Contact Number

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Section 1: Founder

What is the single hardest problem you've solved in the last 12 months, and how did you solve it?

Advisor Note: Primary proxy for grit — top criterion SkyDeck advisors screen for. Score high for specificity and ownership of outcome.

600 char max

Describe a time you were proven wrong about something important to your business. What changed your mind, and what did you do next?

Advisor Note: Measures coachability and growth mindset — second core criterion. Score high for concrete belief-change with resulting action; low for defensive framing.

500 char max

Have you, or has any co-founder, started a company before? If so, what happened — and how many years have you worked in or adjacent to this industry?

Advisor Note: Combines track record and domain credibility. Score high for honest accounts of prior failures with clear lessons. Use years-in-industry to flag founders worth highlighting in the referral note.

400 char max

Section 2: Company

Advisor Note: Not scored. Used for stage context and visa/logistics screening.

Company Name

Date of Incorporation

Not yet incorporated

Country of Incorporation

Primary Operating Country

Company Website (Optional)

Company LinkedIn Profile (Optional)

Section 3: Problem & Solution

Q5: What specific problem are you solving, for whom, and how do people currently deal with it without you?

Advisor Note: Measures problem clarity and customer understanding in one field. Score high for a named, narrow user segment with a concrete pain point and honest acknowledgment of real alternatives, including "doing nothing."

500 char max

Q6: Describe your product in 1–2 sentences a non-expert would understand. What is your core differentiator, and why is it hard to copy?

Advisor Note: Measures clarity and defensibility. Penalize jargon in the description; score high for specific mechanisms in the differentiator — maps to the "technical innovation" criterion in first-stage advisor review.

500 char max

Section 4: Market

Q7: What is your target market, and how did you size it? Show your calculation. And why is now the right time — what has changed in the last 1–3 years that makes this possible or necessary?

Advisor Note: Measures market size, rigor, and timing — the third core criterion. Score high for bottoms-up sizing with stated assumptions, plus a specific external trigger (regulatory shift, cost curve, new infrastructure). Score low for "market is growing" with no causal mechanism.

600 char max

Section 5: Traction

Q8: What is your current monthly revenue (or most meaningful usage metric)? What was it 3 and 6 months ago?

Advisor Note: Measures real-world validation and growth consistency. Cross-check figures for internal consistency — flag mismatches for review rather than auto-rejecting.

Q9: Do you believe your company could be ready to raise an institutional seed round within 6–12 months? Why or why not?

Advisor Note: Highest-signal new question — directly tests whether the company is at the right stage for a SkyDeck referral. Score high for a realistic evidence-based "yes" or a thoughtful "not yet, here's the gap." Score low for a vague "hopefully" or an unsupported "yes."

300 char max

Section 6: Team

Q10: List all co-founders, their roles, and time commitment. What critical skill or role is currently missing, and how are you addressing it?

Advisor Note: Measures commitment and self-awareness. Full-time across founders is a strong positive; part-time across all is a strong negative. Score the missing-skill answer high for honest gap identification with a concrete plan.

Section 7: Fundraising

Q11: Have you raised external funding? If so, how much, from whom, and at what terms? How many months of runway do you currently have?

Advisor Note: Provides capital efficiency context. Outside funding is not a strict requirement — strong traction or technology can compensate. Do not penalize a "no" if traction is strong.

Section 8: Bay Area Fit

Q12: Do you, or any co-founder, have an existing affiliation with UC Berkeley, any UC campus, or Stanford?

Advisor Note: A "yes" is a meaningful positive signal, not a gate. A "no" is the default and not penalized.

Q13: What specific resource in the Bay Area would meaningfully accelerate your company? And can your core team be physically present in Berkeley for a six-month program — if not, describe the constraint and how you'd address it.

Advisor Note: Measures ecosystem homework and operational feasibility. Score low for generic answers like "the network." Do not penalize disclosed visa/travel constraints with realistic mitigation plans.

500 char max

Section 9: Fit & Video

Q14: What do you most need help with in the next 6 months, and why haven't you solved it yourself already?

Advisor Note: Measures coachability and specificity of ask.

300 char max

Q15: Record a 90-second unscripted video: who you are, what you're building, and why now is the right time for it.

Advisor Note: Measures communication ability and authenticity. Score on clarity of thought, not production quality or accent.

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