SMART™ is the AI-powered, research-backed methodology helping entrepreneurs grow up to 30x faster, now a professional certification for Entrepreneur Support Organizations and coaches.
A competency-based certification that professionalizes how founders are supported, combining scientific venture building, structured experimentation, data infrastructure and AI tools.
Built on scientific experimentation methodology proven to accelerate venture growth by up to 30x.
Your program adapts every week based on real founder data, not a static playbook.
SIGMA™, the AI operating system for entrepreneurship support, gives you insight into every venture in your portfolio.
Real-time scoring and feedback loops for coaches and mentors raise the bar of every session.
Join a certified community across 90 countries sharing data, benchmarks and best practices.
Connect your founders with a network of 500+ investors and Seedstars-backed funds.
Program Managers design and oversee founder programs. Coaches work directly with founders. SMART™ certifies both, differently.
For leaders managing and executing programs that support founders inside an ESO.
For professionals coaching founders, within an ESO-backed program or independently.
AI-powered onboarding and capacity building for your organization and founders.
Weekly adaptive cycles with structured experiments and AI insights.
Continuous support, access to finance and a global community.
Certified ESOs and coaches deliver SMART™ through SIGMA™. Evidence comes from platform data, not self-reporting.
Product screens shown with illustrative data.
Certification is earned through applied tasks, assessments and a real live cohort. Explore what each track covers and what you walk away with.
Align your institution, clarify the certification standards, and prepare for structured, execution-based transformation.
Build deep mastery of the SMART™ methodology before any delivery to founders.
Professionalize delivery through structured pedagogy, program design and coaching systems.
Institutionalize rigorous program design and embed Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning systems.
Turn your ESO into a structured capital gateway and unlock new data-driven revenue models.
Your role in the founder journey, the execution-based certification logic, and the data standards you'll work to.
The same methodological core that Program Managers certify against — mastered from the coach's seat.
Design and run SMART™-aligned coaching — and prove it with at least one real founder on SIGMA™.
~1 week
Immersive launch bootcamp: planning workshops, coaching simulations, and experiencing SIGMA™ as a founder before touching a live cohort.
~8 wks (PM) · ~6 wks (Coach)
Self-paced modules, weekly small-group clinics with Seedstars experts, and three milestone reviews with applied assignments.
One real program cycle
You run a real cohort on SIGMA™. Weekly founder–coach ceremonies are scored by an AI scientific agent, with Seedstars alongside you.
Ongoing
Evidence comes from platform data — not self-reporting. AI-assisted + peer review, senior Seedstars sign-off, certificate + license issued.
Your first live cohort IS the certification evidence — the certification and the pilot are one and the same.
The global framework to design, test and build businesses.
Leading entrepreneurship research helping ventures choose the right market.
Studies showing a scientific approach to entrepreneurship drives dramatically faster growth.
Real ventures, real experiments. Every case was validated with the assumption → hypothesis → result → decision loop at the heart of SMART™.
Cohort 1, tracked with SMART goals every session. Supported by Visa Foundation.
Cohort figures are program-reported. Source: seedinclusivity.com/impact.
Case studies, program footage and founders explaining how the methodology changed their decisions. All from the Seedstars YouTube channel.
Per-participant pricing that covers the full certification journey, from Foundation to Certified. No hidden fees, no program-length surprises.
5 modules · ~8-week sprint + live cohort
3 modules · ~6-week sprint
Hands-on Seedstars support through your real, live cohort — quoted per ESO and scaled to your actual program length, so it never inflates the certification price.
Most partners embed the certification as a capacity-building line item in their next donor proposal — we provide copy-paste budget language to make it effortless.
Commercial ESOs and individual coaches purchase at list price directly — a clean license fee, no donor budget restructuring needed.
Foundations, governments and DFIs certify entire portfolios of ESOs in one agreement — often paired with a SIGMA™ deployment.
Certifying a team? Cohort pricing is available for 10+ participants — mention it in your application.
Apply for the January 2027 intake Free to apply · No payment due until you're approvedSince 2012, Seedstars has designed and delivered programs with development finance institutions, foundations, multilaterals and corporates. SMART™ builds on that work.
SMART™ Certification is open to approved ESOs and coaches. Leave your details and our team will review your application and get back to you.
Now check your email. We've just sent you the link to complete your full application. It takes less than 4 minutes and secures your place in the review for the January 2027 intake.
The certification is exclusively available to approved Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) and professional coaches. Every application is reviewed by our team before an invitation is issued.
The next intake starts on January 2027. Cohort seats are limited and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so we recommend applying early.
The Program Manager track is for leaders designing and running founder-support programs inside an ESO. The Coach track is for professionals working directly with founders, within a program or independently. Both certify against the same SMART™ standard.
Our team reviews your application. If approved, you receive your invitation with the full curriculum, schedule, and onboarding details for the January 2027 intake.
No. Applying is free and takes under two minutes — no payment is due until you're approved. The certification itself is $4,900 per participant for the Program Manager track and $3,900 for the Coach track (see Pricing).
Most ESOs don't pay from their own budget: the certification is embedded as a capacity-building line item in their next donor proposal, and we provide the copy-paste budget language. Commercial ESOs and independent coaches purchase directly, and foundations, governments and DFIs often certify whole portfolios of ESOs at once.
Join the certified community setting the global standard for founder support, before the intake closes.
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