Startup Application Coach

Help founders write stronger applications to startup programs, accelerators, incubators, and pre-accelerators. Use when a founder is drafting, reviewing, critiquing, or getting unstuck on any accelerator application question, or working on a founder, team, or demo video. Triggers include answering an application question, reviewing a draft, framing traction, describing a problem or solution, planning a video, or any mention of a startup program application. Use even when no specific program is named, as long as the context is a startup program application. Also triggers when the user mentions

Install

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)
npx skills add betahope/startup-application-coach --skill startup-application-coach
Manual install
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/betahope/startup-application-coach.git /tmp/startup-application-coach
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/startup-application-coach/. ~/.claude/skills/startup-application-coach

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

# Startup Application Coach

A skill for helping founders write stronger applications to startup programs, accelerators, and pre-accelerators.

## What this skill does

When a founder asks for help with a startup program application, this skill helps them:

1. **Critique a draft** they have already written
2. **Draft an answer** from scratch based on context they provide
3. **Coach them through** answering a question by asking what you need to know and then helping them write

Which mode to use depends on what the founder asks for. If they say "review this", critique. If they say "write this", draft. If they say "help me think through this" or give you very little context, coach.

Always ask which program they are applying to if you do not know. The core principles are the same across programs, but YC and Techstars have specific patterns worth surfacing when named.

## Bad reasons to apply

Most accelerators (YC, Techstars, and similar) are VC-backed and expect founders to build toward a venture-scale outcome. The skill can help anyone write a clearer application. But if the founder tells you they fit any of the following, flag the mismatch before helping them draft:

- They do not intend to work on the company long-term.
- They are opposed to the venture capital model.
- They are building a traditional, non-tech small business.
Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name
startup-application-coach
License
MIT
Repo updated
22 May 2026

FAQ

What does the Startup Application Coach skill do?

Help founders write stronger applications to startup programs, accelerators, incubators, and pre-accelerators. Use when a founder is drafting, reviewing, critiquing, or getting unstuck on any accelerator application question, or working on a founder, team, or demo video. Triggers include answering an application question, reviewing a draft, framing traction, describing a problem or solution, planning a video, or any mention of a startup program application. Use even when no specific program is named, as long as the context is a startup program application. Also triggers when the user mentions

How do I install the Startup Application Coach skill?

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more): npx skills add betahope/startup-application-coach --skill startup-application-coach. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Startup Application Coach popular?

It lives in betahope/startup-application-coach, which has 5 GitHub stars and 0 forks.

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