The AI-powered, science-backed methodology helping entrepreneurs grow 30x faster — now available as a professional certification for Entrepreneur Support Organizations and Coaches.
Limited cohort. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis — approved ESOs and Coaches only.
No payment required to apply · 2-minute form
Backed by world-leading research
250,000+ members in the Seedstars community
500+ investors in the network
$200M assets under management
SMART™ is a competency-based certification framework that professionalizes how founders are supported — integrating scientific venture building, structured experimentation, data infrastructure, and AI-enabled 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 insights on 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.
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.
Apply for the September 14 IntakeAlexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur. The global framework to design, test, and build businesses.
Marc Gruber & Sharon Tal. Leading entrepreneurship research helping ventures choose the right market.
Arnaldo Camuffo & Alberto Di Minin. Studies proving a scientific approach to entrepreneurship drives dramatically faster growth.
Real ventures. Real experiments. Every case below was validated with the assumption → hypothesis → result → decision loop at the heart of the SMART™ methodology.
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 September 14 Intake Free to apply · No payment due until you're approvedSMART™ Certification is open to approved ESOs and Coaches. Leave your details and our team will review your application and get back to you.
Thank you — our team will review your details and reach out with next steps for the September 14 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 September 14. 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 September 14 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.
Apply for the September 14 Intake