UPDATE: Applications are now closed for our U.S. Boot Camp, but if you're based in Canada, you can apply for our first GNI Startups Boot Camp Canada through November 14.
What is the GNI Startups Boot Camp?
Until now, very few affordable startup programs focused exclusively on the practical steps of launching a new journalism venture.
That's why the Google News Initiative partnered with LION Publishers to launch the GNI Startups Boot Camp, helping aspiring news entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Canada prove there is a need and audience for their idea, build their news product and set their business on the path to sustainability.
Our 2020 Boot Camp helped 24 publishers refine and launch their news startups. Now we're looking for our next cohort of aspiring entrepreneurs in the U.S. to join our 2021 Startups Boot Camp.
Applications are open from June 21, 2021 to August 8, 2021. We will also be launching a Boot Camp later this year solely dedicated to news entrepreneurs in Canada. (More details coming soon!)
No fees, no tuition, no income sharing. No financial barriers to your success. Just the hands-on support you need to become independent, and stay independent.
If you’re ready to start a new project, we’re here to help. This concept of leveraging collective expertise and technology to enhance user experience is not unique to news entrepreneurship. For instance, the betking app utilizes advanced technology to provide a seamless and efficient betting experience, drawing on the collective insights of industry experts to meet the needs of its users. Both the Bootcamp and the Betking app exemplify how integrating expert knowledge and innovative technology can create environments that not only meet but exceed user expectations.
If you are an already-launched digital news publisher, keep an eye out for future applications to the GNI Startups Lab program.
Previous Program Updates
Google News Initiative on Twitter | LION Publishers on Twitter
Not ready to apply yet? Submit your email below and we'll keep you updated:
Applications are currently being accepted for our second news startup boot camp. This is an eight-week fully-remote program starting in September 2021. We’ll be accepting up to 24 solo founders or teams of aspiring entrepreneurs who have identified a community’s need for better news and want guidance and coaching on how to launch, or continue to develop, a news offering that delivers a solution rooted in journalism.
Applications close on August 8, 2021.
Aug 8, 2021
Application deadline. Applications close at 11 p.m. Pacific time.
Aug 9 – Aug 23, 2021
Application review period.
Aug 27, 2021
All applicants notified of status of application.
Week of Sept 13, 2021
Boot camp begins.
Week of Nov 12, 2021
Boot camp finishes.
LION's Director of Teaching and Learning, Lisa Heyamoto, and Boot Camp Director, Phillip Smith, recently hosted an information session about the Boot Camp. Watch the video recording below:
“The GNI/LION Publishers bootcamp gave me the direction I needed to find a path to sustainability. Every week we were presented with practical steps, guides, and examples of how we could get our company running. Eight weeks later, I feel so much more confident in my abilities. Truly priceless.”
“The LION/GNI bootcamp has been pivotal to the development of my media startup and my growth as a founder. The instruction is enlightening; the coaching is propelling; the access to resources, generous; and the community is both inspiring and supportive. My company is better because of this boot camp—and so am I.”
Like the last boot camp, If you apply and get accepted into the boot camp — you give it 110% — it will cost you nothing but your time.
That’s right: all of the boot camp costs are covered. This includes the weekly seminars and one-on-one coaching, several tools to help you refine and test your idea, access to our community of practice.
No fees, no tuition, no income sharing arrangement. No financial barriers to your success. Just the support you need to become independent, and stay independent.
Plus, upon successfully completing the bootcamp, you will receive a year-long “aspiring entrepreneurs” membership to LION Publishers.
Classes will begin the week of September 13 and end the week of November 12, 2021.
We are platform agnostic. That means you could plan to deliver your product through a podcast, newsletter, event series, app, messaging, videos, a website or anything else.
Also, we will not be accepting participants from businesses that want to serve journalists/journalism as their primary customers or legacy publications that are trying to make a transition to digital. We are also not looking for applications that are primarily aggregation of existing content.
You should consider this boot camp if:
We are especially interested in entrepreneurs who want to serve communities that don’t often see themselves or their stories reflected in their local news.
We’ll be selecting up to 24 founders and/or teams.
The boot camp is entirely online. It’s intentionally designed to be an online experience because we want you to stay in your community and to do the work in that context.
There will be a 90-minute live webinar each week. At the end of the webinar, we’ll have a conversation as a group about the tasks you’ll undertake that week. Once participants are selected, we can choose the day/time that works best for everyone. The sessions will also be recorded for later viewing. At least once a week, teams will have a one-on-one coaching session with me. Teams can select this time each week based on their schedules.
Some weeks there will be extra “peer review” sessions, where teams present on their progress and we unpack the learnings.
In between our live video sessions, we’ll communicate using a chat platform that’s comfortable for everyone, e.g., Slack, private Facebook or LinkedIn group, etc.
We like to answer that by saying “at least part-time hours; ideally a full-time commitment.” We expect participants to plan for at least eight hours a week, preferably a lot more.
If you’ve already launched a project that’s less than 12 months in and aren’t sure what to do next, the boot camp should complement what you’re already doing.
If you’re in an existing full-time position and thinking about the boot camp to grow your side hustle into your main hustle, that’s great! You’ll want to think about how to fit the minimum number of hours into your schedule. (And, if the weekly webinar happens during your paying job working hours, you’ll need to make time to watch the recorded version.)
Ideally, you and your partner will be on the calls together. At least one of you is responsible for attending, or watching the re-cap. You can also switch off weeks if that’s easier.
Typically each week will consist of 90 minutes of seminar time, two or more hours of assignments, and two or more hours of readings. The more time you put into the assignments, the more you will typically get out of the boot camp experience.
We're excited for you to apply at any stage where you believe the boot camp would help you achieve your objectives. That said, we describe the boot camp as a pre- pre- accelerator program. Practically, that means this is for very early-stage entrepreneurs (or those with entrepreneurial aspirations) and early stage ideas.
You could simply have a strong sense of a problem you’d like to solve in your community, or you could have already taken steps to realize that idea. Both are a great fit.
If you simply have passion for starting your own journalism or information business and are still searching for the right idea, that’s also a great fit. You’ll want to take advantage of the pre-boot camp reading and exercises to help you define an idea to bring into the rest of the boot camp.
Yes and no. Pulling from interviews done with successful journalism entrepreneurs, we will discuss the common ways that new businesses are financed in the early stages. And we’ll point you to resources that can help you explore all of the options in more detail on your own time.
However, there will be no formal curriculum specifically on how to obtain grants, small business loans, or investment. We made this decision because it is far more likely that a new business will fail due to lack of customers rather than a lack of financing. So, for the boot camp, we will focus on finding customers first.
Yes and no. Your weekly assignments will result in documents that answer questions similar to what is often found in a business plan. But these will be in a format that we believe is far more useful in the early stages of a business. For example, simplified revenue projections, a growth roadmap, and various forms of “pitch” documents that help you clearly and concisely explain the idea to others.
Yes and no. We will discuss the options in the context of a decision that you’ll eventually need to make. And I’ll point you toward ample resources for when the time comes to make that decision.
However, in the earliest stages of a new venture, your focus should be on building relationships with your community -- readers, listeners, watchers, advertisers, sponsors, etc. -- and moving those relationships toward something that supports you financially.
The question of business structure can easily become a rabbit hole that can consume a lot of mental energy and limit your options far too early in the development of your project or business. If you’ve already made the decision, great! If not, that’s obviously fine too.
Applications are now open, and you can apply here by August 1, 2021. When applying, you will be asked to provide basic information about your personal and professional backstory, as well as the business idea that you hope to develop further in the boot camp. Here’s a copy of the application to download before you begin.
We understand that some participants must continue to work a full-time job while participating in this boot camp, and that some participants will be working at existing news organizations. We will give participants the option of being included in the announcement about who is accepted into the program –– it will not be required to be identified as a boot camp participant
Additionally, we will follow “Vegas Rules” during the boot camp –– meaning whatever is discussed in the boot camp, stays in the boot camp. Participants who do not abide by these rules will be dismissed from the program.
No, it doesn’t. You should apply to whatever opportunities are best suited for you at this moment –– applying to multiple ones will not help or hurt your chances of being selected.
Absolutely not. The most important thing we are looking for is that you’ve identified a customer/audience need and you have a very strong hypothesis on how to meet that need.
We hope so! Make sure to sign up for the LION News Entrepreneur Community on Slack so that you can stay updated on future opportunities to work with us.
Feel free to email lisa@lionpublishers.com and she will delete the application you don’t want us to consider.
Yes. Absolutely. If you have expertise in a specific area like sales, marketing, finance or accounting, law relating to new business, or presentation coaching, please reach out to lisa@lionpublishers.com.
We’ll be hosting two information sessions between now and the application deadline:
If you’re unable to make one of those, please reach out directly to LION Teaching and Learning Director Lisa Heyamoto at lisa@lionpublishers.com with any questions you have.
If you would fall into LION Publishers’ aspiring entrepreneur membership criteria, or full member criteria and you’re still in the early days, then it is probably a great fit.
Have a look at the questions What kinds of business ideas are eligible? and Who’s the program for? for more detail.
The Google News Initiative is Google’s effort to work with the news industry to help journalism thrive in the digital age. Our efforts focus on three pillars: working with the news industry to evolve their business models and drive sustainable growth, elevating quality journalism and empowering news organizations with new technology.
LION Publishers is a journalism association supporting independent online news publishers. Our mission is to help existing and aspiring local news entrepreneurs build and grow financially sustainable small businesses. LION members are creating the future of local news with independently owned and operated businesses that directly serve their communities. Learn more about becoming a member.
We’re also grateful for the support of our past and current collaborators on outreach to, and evaluation of, potential boot camp participants:
Free Press, Venture for America, and News Product Alliance, as well as Color Farm Media, Press On, and Maynard Institute .