№ 3 · Innov8 Global Labs - the flagship programStartups from our Insiders Intensive have earned more revenue, raised more investment, won entry into more top accelerators & produced more exits than all the larger (mostly government-sponsored) programs in the CIS - combined.
Three months, hybrid. Week 1 in person where possible; from week 2 daily work online, bi-weekly pitch sessions, weekly workshops - 100+ hours. Under ten startups per cohort. 12-15 closed-door pitches to top investors & gurus from your target markets. 10-20 sessions with mentors. Runs quarterly.
On average, one to three years saved. That is what testing these markets on your own costs - in time, and in all the expenses that come with it.
Local excellence is not the same as global readiness.
Capital, talent and ambition cross borders easily. Companies, less so: most stall at the border, and rarely for want of a product. What they lack is the literacy to be understood, funded and trusted in a market that isn’t theirs.
That literacy is learnable. It is also teachable - quickly, and under pressure - by people who have made the crossing themselves and now sit on the other side of the table.
The Insiders Intensive exists for exactly that moment: when a company has proven it can win at home and is deciding, seriously, to go global. We compress years of hard-won pattern recognition into a program measured in weeks.
Placed in · Y Combinator · Techstars · 500 Startups · Alchemist · Berkeley SkyDeck · StartX · and more - we scout for them, they support us
Demo Day is not the point. Every day is Demo Day.
Advanced preparation for startups with traction or a big idea - designed by Silicon Valley experts for founders anywhere in the world. Daily individual work with mentors, accelerators & investors; nightly closed-door pitch sessions with some of the biggest names in the business. In the final week you pitch partners of Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Alchemist, SkyDeck directly.
- rather a lot of pitching, frankly. That’s the point.
Designed by Silicon Valley experts for startups anywhere in the world - not an imported curriculum.
For teams with traction or a big idea. No “intro to entrepreneurship.”
One-on-one work with mentors, accelerators & investors from the Valley - every single day.
Goals & outcomes
Test & scale your product on the global market through our partners & customers.
Alumni have been accepted into Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Alchemist, StartX, SkyDeck, Techstars & more.
Smart money from leading angels and funds - ours included.
The calendar
3 months · hybrid (online / offline) · the New Year holidays are ours tooSend the deck. We read every one ourselves.
Conversations & introductions; the most interesting teams get invited in.
Three days in the room: the deck, the clients, the investors, the “secret codes”. Dinner on the first night.
Mentors by day. Closed-door pitches to Valley investors by night.
Pitch the partners of Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Alchemist, SkyDeck & Silicon Valley funds - directly.
“Presenting to investors is not the culmination of the program. Every day here is Demo Day - daily rework, expert feedback, evaluation & improvement.”
The day-by-day, the homework, the terms - once we have met.
Three doors, any will do: send your deck and get the one-pager; book the free 30-minute call; or come to the info session on the three Intensives - Thursdays, after Founders Coffee.
The requirements
six things we look forAn experienced team of 2-4, with evenly distributed ownership.
A big, important problem for the global market - preferably already proven at home.
A real path to scale on the global market.
Sustainable - ideally confirmed by revenue in your home market.
Full participation in a high-intensity program & the business trip that follows.
Priority to residents of the Yellow Door ecosystem. Come to a coffee first.
Built for
Founders with proven traction at home who have decided - seriously - to go global.
Companies whose next raise, hire, or market depends on being legible to people who do not share their context.
Teams who want candid, operator-level pattern recognition, not encouragement.
People who move fast, read fast, and are impatient with vague advice.
Not built for
Pre-traction teams still searching for a product or a market.
Founders looking for a networking badge or a demo-day photo.
Anyone who wants a curriculum they can passively consume.
Companies with no real reason to leave the market they already own.
We admit a small cohort each cycle. The room is the point, so we are choosy about who is in it.
Upcoming batches
hybrid · onboarding week in person, then online · Founders Coffee on ThursdaysEvery batch opens the same way: Tuesday to Thursday, 12:00-18:00 local time, in person where possible - then everything runs on Zoom, with Founders Coffee on Thursday mornings for anyone who wants a room. The welcome dinner is on the first evening, 18:30-21:00; alumni and mentors are welcome, as always.
We don’t graduate you. We keep you.
The Intensive is the front door to the whole ecosystem. The best teams are selected into our venture fund; our Studios keep working with you after graduation - landing you in new markets, closing your rounds, building alongside you.
Sales, Operations, Fundraising, PR & Marketing, Tech, Design - a Landing Pad in the new market.
We lead rounds or raise syndicates, pre-seed to Series A - and keep supporting through exit.
A cross-border community of mentors & investors. By invitation only - alumni get noticed.
The mentors
a very short excerptA sampling of who has spoken at our fireside chats and pitch sessions: Sam Altman (Y Combinator), Garry Tan (Initialized), Sarah Guo (Greylock), Keith Rabois (Khosla Ventures), Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz); John Lilly (Greylock), Brad Feld (Foundry Group), David Lee (SV Angel), Chris Fralic (First Round), Esther Dyson, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Blank (Stanford), Naval Ravikant (AngelList) and others. Over 50 mentors, over 500 advisors.
partners: y combinator · 500 startups · svb · bessemer · startup grind · keiretsu forum · vlab · rocketspace · talent garden · startup sauna · vertical vc · slush
What founders going global say - and the people who take them in
“They do amazing work bringing early-stage startups and venture funds from emerging markets onto the world stage.”
“They have an uncanny ability to see around corners, in the dark … and touch the future.”
“I8GA fills an important gap between raw tech and talent somewhere out there in the world - and a prepared startup that’s ready to enter global markets & compete.”
“Innov8 Global Ventures are able to access deep tech startups from far corners of the world - prep them there - and bring these gems to the Valley!”
“They’re a small group, work ‘under the radar’ and are really good at what they do.”
“I8GL designs, creates and supports ecosystems that foster entrepreneurial innovation - then I8GV invests in the startups which emerge.”
“I8GV helps build the playing field, then invests in the players.”
“A must-have course for anyone planning a global launch. World-class connections and content.”
“The most intense, practical, no-bullshit five weeks I’ve ever spent. Worth every minute and penny.”
“The course was created by Silicon Valley natives who are themselves investors and founders, and they demonstrate how “insiders” - that is, themselves - operate in the market!”
“The only course I would take again. Join in, it’s never too early or too late. I’m launching in California thanks to the program.”
Questions, answered plainly
What is the Insiders Intensive?
A three-month hybrid launch pad that prepares top local startups to enter global markets - Silicon Valley first, and MENA, LatAm and Malaysia. Built by Silicon Valley insiders, supported by partners from Y Combinator, Techstars, Alchemist, 500 Startups, StartX and SkyDeck. It has run since 2011; three batches open this December - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk.
Who gets in?
Teams of 2-4 with traction or a big idea - usually already earning revenue at home, unless you are deep tech. Under ten startups per cohort, so we read every application ourselves and interview the ones we cannot stop thinking about.
Where does it run?
Hybrid. The onboarding week is in person where possible - Tuesday to Thursday, 12:00-18:00 local time, in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Novosibirsk, with the welcome dinner on the first evening. Then everything is on Zoom, and Founders Coffee on Thursdays if you want a room. The Valley trip comes with the spring batch.
What does it cost?
We do not publish terms - we discuss them. Book the free 30-minute consultation, ask at a Founders Coffee or an applicant info session, or leave a contact and the one-pager with terms and timeline arrives by mail. Graduates get discounts at our Venture Studios and access to investment from our Fund.
What happens after?
We don’t graduate you, we keep you. The best teams are selected into our venture fund; the Studios keep working with you in the new market; you join the alumni community and the Fencing & Jousting Society - lifetime members.
Who teaches it?
Insiders - born and raised in Silicon Valley, Europe, LatAm and Indonesia; startup founders and investors in these markets ourselves. The program condenses thirty years of that into three months. The people you pitch to at night are the people who write the cheques by day.
What language?
Content, mentoring and the Telegram channel in Russian in Moscow. The evening pitches are in English, always - nobody on the other side of the screen speaks Russian, and that is the point. Write a script; send us the draft; we copy-edit until your written English is flawless. Accents are forgiven. Typos are not.
And after graduation - what stays?
Lifetime perks: introductions to relevant investors; Sales Studio strategy sessions; media and PR support; the network of contacts and alumni; partner credits (AWS, HubSpot, Microsoft, Google and more); our events - investor meetings, Founders Coffees, fireside chats, pitch nights, masterclasses; support for your visits to the Valley and other hotspots; our community’s co-working and co-living spaces worldwide; a virtual office address if needed; strategy consultations with Innov8 and Yellow Door partners.
Not a startup?
There are Intensives for investors (three months, twice a year, with a trip to the Valley) and for corporates building a CVC (six months, once a year). Both below.
How much? Let’s talk.
We don’t publish terms - we discuss them. Leave a contact for the one-pager, come to a Founders Coffee or an applicant info session, or book a call. The first consultation is always free; after that, time with the partners is booked at mentor rates, like every Night Climber.
Daria Donetskaya, Program Lead · Val Jerdes, General Partner · info@i8gl.com · info@yellowdoor.ru · +7 (495) 966-1540
First consultation free. Ongoing time with partners & mentors is booked at mentor rates - the Night Climbers.
Leave a contact and the one-pager is yours: terms and timeline on one page. We write back ourselves.
Three Intensives, three audiences.
3-month hybrid program that prepares top local startups to enter global markets. Runs quarterly. Closed-door pitches to top investors; pitch directly to Y Combinator, Techstars, 500, Alchemist, SkyDeck, StartX.
for investors3-month hybrid program that prepares individual (“angel”) investors to access cross-border deals and learn how to build venture funds. Runs bi-annually, with trips to Silicon Valley.
for corporates6-month hybrid program that prepares corporations to test and access new markets and build Corporate Venture groups (CVCs). Runs annually.
Three steps to the room.
A short, honest note: what you have built, why global, why now, and a link to your deck or product.
If there is a fit, we talk. Candid, both ways. We are deciding together whether the room is right for you.
A place in the cohort, the terms in writing, and the dates. Then the real work begins.
Applications for the next cohort are reviewed on a rolling basis. Tell us who you are and we’ll send the full prospectus, the timeline, and the one-pager on how the Intensive works.