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Rippled sand dunes and desert scrub of the Thar Desert near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, under a hazy golden sunset

Equity · Selective · Three cohorts per year

Dwize Startup Program.

For first-generation Indian entrepreneurs with a real venture and limited capital. Dwize executes the full stack — Site, App, Store, or Brand inside a Care Year — in exchange for 7–12% common equity, 18-month vesting. No cash up front. No platform lock-in.

Apply by email Talk to Dwize first

Common equity

7–12%

  • 18-month vesting
  • No cash up front
  • No platform lock-in
  • Three founders per cohort

Photo · Sam sand dunes near Jaisalmer at sunset — Timothy A. Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0

Why equity, not cash

A founder-friendly economic structure.

First-generation founders without seed capital still need a real product. Equity for the first Care Year removes the capital constraint without removing the operating discipline.

  1. 01

    Founder economics

    Zero cash. Full Care Year.

    A first-generation founder gets a fully-delivered Site / App / Store / Brand inside a 12-month operating contract — the same Care Year a paying customer gets — without writing a cheque. Apple Developer, Google Play, and domain pass-throughs are the only out-of-pocket items.

  2. 02

    Risk symmetry

    Dwize bears the delivery risk.

    If the venture fails or the founder walks, Dwize’s upside disappears with it. That is the point. The program is structured so Dwize only wins when the founder wins, which keeps both sides honest about scope, timeline, and what actually moves the business.

  3. 03

    Long-tail alignment

    Aligned for 18+ months.

    7–12% equity vests over 18 months tied to delivery milestones. After Year 1, the founder either renews the Care Year (cash) or carries the system forward — Dwize’s equity remains. Both sides have reason to keep the system useful for years, not just to launch and walk.

How it works

A clean, founder-friendly term sheet.

~5% ~₹49,900 cash
~12% ~₹6,99,000 cash
Published band · 7–12% common equity
  1. 01

    Equity range

    7–12%

    Common equity, fully diluted. Calibrated by scope: Site only ~5%, full Brand + ongoing ~12%.

  2. 02

    Vesting

    18 months

    Tied to delivery milestones. 1-year cliff, milestone-vested through month 18.

  3. 03

    Cash from founder

    Zero

    No cash from the founder. Apple Developer / Google Play / domain pass-throughs only.

  4. 04

    Standard terms

    Indian SHA template

    No preference, no anti-dilution beyond standard, no board seat. Founder-friendly.

Same Care Year. Different price tag.

Delivered inside a 12-month Care Year.

Every Startup Program build is sold as a year of operations under eight written covenants. Dedicated Dwize team. Written renewal terms. No vendor abandonment.

Read the Care Year
  1. 01

    Covenant

    Written renewal

    Year 2 is cash, not equity — the cash renewal scope and price are written before the next Care Year decision.

  2. 04

    Covenant

    Dedicated Dwize team

    Same operating discipline as cash customers. Equity does not downgrade the delivery standard.

  3. 06

    Covenant

    Managed continuity

    Equity does not buy a degraded service tier. The delivered surface is monitored, maintained, and supported through the same Care Year path.

Cohort calendar

Three intakes per year. Three founders per cohort.

Selective by design. The first cohort builds the program’s track record before we scale to larger intakes. Three intakes a year — April, August, and December. Each cohort starts on the 1st; applications close on the 15th of the month before.

  1. 01

    August 2026

    Cohort start
    Cohort starts 1 August 2026
    Applications close
    Applications close 15 July 2026

    Founding cohort — intake ran offline and is now closed.

  2. 02

    December 2026

    Cohort start
    Cohort starts 1 December 2026
    Applications close
    Applications close 15 November 2026
  3. 03

    April 2027

    Cohort start
    Cohort starts 1 April 2027
    Applications close
    Applications close 15 March 2027
  4. 04

    August 2027

    Cohort start
    Cohort starts 1 August 2027
    Applications close
    Applications close 15 July 2027
Scooters, an auto-rickshaw and awning clothing stalls on the road below the red sandstone ramparts of Junagarh Fort, Bikaner
Gerd Eichmann · CC BY 4.0

Bikaner / Rajasthan slot

Each cohort holds three founders: one slot is reserved for a Bikaner / Rajasthan venture, two are open across India.

The founder journey

Apply → term sheet → live system → year-2.

What actually happens between sending an application email and operating a real Indian business on a Dwize-built system.

  1. 01

    Day 0

    Apply

    One concise email. Idea, background, what you need, equity offer, 12 / 36-month vision.

  2. 02

    ≤ 14 days

    Response

    Selected founders get a one-page term sheet. Declined founders get a one-paragraph reason.

  3. 03

    Day 30

    Term sheet signed

    Standard Indian SHA template. No preference, no anti-dilution beyond standard, no board seat.

  4. 04

    Build

    Care Year executes

    Same delivery rhythm as cash customers. Site/App/Store/Brand timelines apply. Production from week one.

  5. 05

    Year 2

    Renewal decision

    Cash renewal under written next-year terms (covenant 01) or self-host with no-lock-in handover (covenant 08). Dwize equity remains.

Selection criteria

What we’re looking for.

Our selection bar is whether the venture is real and whether you’d be hard to walk away from after 18 months. We don’t optimize for “founder-market fit” theater or pitch-deck polish.

  1. 01 Indian-registered or registrable entity
  2. 02 At least one founder full-time committed (not a side project)
  3. 03 Real commercial intent (B2C or B2B), not a science project
  4. 04 Not a direct competitor of an existing Dwize customer
  5. 05 Not in a regulated category Dwize cannot serve (lending, clinical software, anything requiring SEBI/IRDAI/RBI sandbox approvals)
  6. 06 Bikaner / Rajasthan preference: 1 of 3 slots per cohort reserved for a Bikaner-region venture; 2 are open India

What the founder gets

  • A Care Year fully delivered (Site / App / Store / Brand as needed)
  • Monthly founder mentoring through Dwize
  • 1 technical session per month with Divyanshu
  • Bikaner co-working seat (optional, Year 1)
  • Introductions to Dwize’s MSME network as early customers
  • Right of first refusal on Dwize Suite at cash rates with founder discount in Year 2

What Dwize gets

  • 7–12% equity in your venture
  • A Year-1 portfolio that becomes proof for paid customers
  • A direct line into early-stage Indian D2C / services
  • Material for the Government of India impact narrative
  • Right of first refusal on your Year-2 raise (informational only)

Founder questions, answered

What founders actually ask.

Still unsure? Talk to Dwize first, or read the general FAQ.

Is this an accelerator?
No. There is no demo day, no batch, no curriculum, no investor introductions promised. The program is a build relationship: Dwize executes a full Care Year (Site, App, Store, or Brand) for equity instead of cash. We don’t teach founders how to fundraise; we ship the product they need to start operating.
What if my idea changes mid-build?
Up to 25% scope drift is in scope — that is normal, especially for first-generation founders calibrating against early customer signal. Beyond 25%, we refresh the term sheet to match new scope. The vesting clock pauses if scope is re-baselined more than once; this prevents Dwize from over-delivering against a moving target.
Why 7–12% specifically?
The band reflects the cash-equivalent value of the build at conservative seed-stage valuations. A Site-only build (~₹49,900 cash) calibrates near 5%. A full Brand build (~₹6,99,000 cash) calibrates near 11–12% at typical seed valuations. We do not negotiate this with founders — the band is published exactly so the conversation stays about fit, not equity haggling.
Do you take board seats?
No. No board seat, no observer seat, no veto rights. Standard information rights only. We are operationally engaged for 12 months as your build partner; we are not a governance shareholder beyond that. This is a deliberate choice — it keeps the program founder-friendly and Dwize’s influence proportional to its actual contribution.
Can a Bikaner founder still apply if it’s not the reserved slot?
Yes — the Bikaner / Rajasthan reservation is one of three slots per cohort, not a cap. If two Bikaner ventures are stronger than the open-India applicants, both get in. The reservation guarantees Bikaner gets at least one seat per cohort; it does not exclude additional Bikaner founders from the open slots.

How to apply

Apply by email.

One concise email to hello@dwize.in with the subject “Dwize Startup Program application”.

We respond within 14 days. Selected founders get a clean term sheet and 30 days to sign.

hello@dwize.in Or talk first on WhatsApp

Include

  1. 01 idea (3–5 sentences)
  2. 02 founder background (2–4 sentences)
  3. 03 what you need from Dwize (Site / App / Store / Brand / combination)
  4. 04 your equity offer
  5. 05 your 12-month and 36-month vision