Our incubation programme is an intensive 10-week bootcamp focused on understanding the principles of post-growth entrepreneurship, bootstrapping, developing a pitch, personal coaching, and finding the early indications of product/market fit.
The programme currently takes place online and is priced very affordably at just EUR 475 per participant.
Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis. The next cohort is scheduled to start on January 11th, 2027. Need-based scholarships are available.
The Accelerator is a longer-term six-month programme designed to get you to profitability.
This is for you if…
You want to optimise for positive impact, and are looking for like-minded peers and mentors to walk this path with you. This typically includes:
- Entrepreneurs who want to create meaningful environmental and social impact
- Experienced entrepreneurs who want to understand post-growth and non-extraction
- Values-aligned activists without business expertise interested in degrowth, inequality, profit-for-good, social enterprise, steward-ownership, and co-operatives.
The incubator made me feel a part of a movement for a more fair and robust economical ecosystem, coming from the everyday encounters where I felt very alone in my thinking in a world of profit and growth for its own sake. Furthermore the incubator helped me develop my business idea from a vague thought to something concrete, and now I know what I’m aiming for and why.
— Peter Oijens, 2026 Participant
Structure and Content
The Incubator takes place online over of ten weeks, with two sessions per week which are divided into theory and practical work.
During theory sessions, participants actively explore applications of the post-growth principles to their businesses.
In the practical sessions you are accompanie through exercises to help you define your business, test product market fit, and iterate, based on Lean Startup approaches.
The course is concluded by a public Demo Day, where participants pitch their ideas to a wide audience to ask feedback and spur community connections.
Following successful completion of the Incubator programme, participants are invited to apply for the Accelerator.
The Narwhal Incubator has been an incredible crash course in post-growth entrepreneurship. Working alongside expert mentors and inspiring peers, we built capacity and understanding to align our missions with long-term viability. The program’s support and accountability pushed us further faster, while direct access to leaders in post-growth entrepreneurship and funding revealed new regenerative pathways and opportunities. It is really wonderful to be part of a community actively working toward public good, social impact, and non-extraction.
— Gretchen Kish, 2026 Participant
Eligibility
There are no restrictions on who can participate in the first phase of the incubator.
We welcome individuals and teams from any background, country, demographic, or life situation.
The requirement is that you are genuinely committed to creating a non-extractive, socially or environmentally impactful business.
Speakers
You will hear, interact with, and learn from a variety of experts in post-growth entrepreneurship.
Speakers in our 2026 programmes included:
| Donnie MacLurcan / Post-Growth Institute |
| Esme Verity / Considered Capital |
| Lilly Pokraka / Purpose Foundation |
| Natasha Natarajan / Coops UK |
| Laurence Sarno / CoLab |
| Brad West / Profit for Good |
| Vincent van der Holst / BOAS & VYNX |
| Anshuman Bapna / Terra.do |
| Steve Rocco / Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance |
| Michael Weatherhead / Wellbeing Economy Alliance |
| Toby Radcliffe / ZeroBees |
The sessions were well paced and developmental. The cohort was international, insightful and friendly. The guest speakers had a lot of variation and breadth of expertise from the post-growth ecosystem.
Richard, Alice and Jutta have lots of experience and authority that I could draw from. You should do the incubator if you’ve got an idea but you struggle with spinning too many plates. The structure, community and insight will help move things forward.
— James Reeves, 2026 Participant
FAQs
You can join the incubator whether you already have a business idea you’re working on or whether you are still figuring that out.
Participation in the incubator costs EUR 475, payable after application. This helps us cover administrative and infrastructure costs.
Yes, we can provide a reduced or deferred fee on a needs-based basis. You can indicate your requirements on the application form.
No.
No, you may join as a solo founder or as a solo founder in search of a team.
The recommended time commitment is a minimum of 6 hours per week, broken down as follows:
– 3 hours for live sessions – consistent attendance is essential, as the group`s collective knowledge benefits all participants.
– 3 hours for independent work for reviewing materials and doing practical work to your project.
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