ResourcesApplication Guide
No. 01 / Updated May 2026
The twelve-slide deck, walked through. What we look for at each stage. The timeline you should expect. Written so you can fill in the deck in the same sitting you read this.
This page is the canonical reference for what Originn asks for, why, and how the review actually runs.
Originn is open to any startup with a working product or a clear, demonstrable path to one. The application takes about fifteen minutes if you have the basics on hand. The deck is short by design, every slide is answerable at any stage, whether you are pre-MVP, mid-build, or already shipping.
Have these ready before you start the application. Nothing here is fancy, plain text and a few links are fine. If a question does not apply at your stage, say so plainly; we do not penalise an honest "not yet".
Every applicant submits the same twelve-slide template. Ten are mandatory; two are optional. Each slide can be answered at any stage of company-building, idea, MVP, or growth.
The basics. Venture name, eight-word tagline, founders, contact email. Pick your stage, sector, target market, and geography.
What problem are you solving, and for whom? Plain words are enough, no frameworks needed.
What are you building to solve that problem? Words alone are fine. A sketch, screenshot, or diagram helps.
What's changed recently that makes this the right time to build this? Observation beats forecast.
Who is your customer, and roughly how many of them are there? Formal market sizing is not required.
How does it work? Explain in your own words. Mention anything special about how it is built.
How will the venture make money? A working idea is enough. "Still figuring it out" is also fine.
Customers, pilots, interviews, surveys, waitlist, expert support, awards, or grants. Any signal works.
Who else is doing something similar, and what makes you different? 'People doing nothing' counts.
Who is building this? Name, role, credential. Why is this team the right one for this problem?
Skip if you are not incubated or grant-backed. Otherwise share incubator, grants, and equity given up.
Skip if you are not raising. Otherwise tell us how much, what for, and what you will achieve with it.
Every application is read by a human reviewer, supported by Originn AI, our internal evaluation system.
When your deck arrives, Originn AI takes the first pass. It looks at your application across a set of evaluation axes and surfaces signals worth a closer look, both positive and negative. None of this replaces the human reviewer who reads every application end-to-end.
A reviewer reads your deck end-to-end, looks at the signals Originn AI surfaced, and forms an independent view. Where the system and the reviewer disagree, the reviewer wins, the AI is a research assistant, not a gatekeeper. We do not auto-reject on a score, and we do not auto-approve on one either.
We share the dimensions we look at, the signals we value, and the disqualifiers that stop an application, see our Evaluation Criteria page for the full list. We do not share exact weights, internal scoring math, or the specific model and parameter configuration. That methodology is what makes the system useful to every founder on the Platform; publishing it would make it easier to game and worse for everyone.
Your deck lands in the application queue. You get a confirmation email with a tracking link. Originn AI starts its first pass within the hour.
A human reviewer reads your deck end-to-end and works through the signals the system flagged. For most applications, this is where the outcome decision is made.
You hear back inside seven business days. The outcome is one of three: approved (you move to onboarding), needs changes (we tell you specifically what to address; resubmit when ready), or declined (we tell you the specific reason and whether to reapply).
Where a reviewer wants additional evidence, a longer demo, a customer reference, a clarification on an entity question, you have ten business days to respond. Longer delays move your application to a holding state but do not penalise it once you do respond.
Most stalled applications fall into one of a handful of patterns. Knowing them up front saves a round.
None of these are automatic rejections. Each is a flag that a reviewer will probe, the difference between approved and needs-changes is usually whether the answer holds up under that probe.
Approval moves you into onboarding. Your public profile goes live within twenty-four hours; you complete a short founder dashboard setup; and you decide which Originn features to switch on first.
Read the Founder Guide for practical operating guidance, the Founder Agreement for the obligations side of the relationship, and the FAQ for everything in between. The application is the front door; the Platform is what you do with what is inside.
Continue readingNo. 02 of 03
The five dimensions every application is evaluated on, the positive signals that move us, and what we deliberately do not weight.