The Entrepreneurship Lab | London Business School

Home
Faculty and Research
Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital
The Entrepreneurship Lab

TEL Programme for Startups

The Entrepreneurship Lab (TEL) equips you with unmatched access to decision-makers in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the UK and beyond. You will interact with industry experts and prominent investors who have committed their time to be a part of the TEL venture partner network. You will have the opportunity to draw on the energy and expertise of London Business School’s brightest talent to drive strategic initiatives. You will also have the opportunity to raise capital for your venture. Through this unique access to insight, intellect, and introductions, you will accelerate your startup’s pathways to success.

Feedback from Investors and Experts

A range of industry experts and prominent investors will be available to support your startup-specific issues. Through a series of four intense sessions, you will gain insights into market trends and best practices.

Access to Talent

A team of selected MBA students from London Business School will work with you throughout the programme to discover and deliver on key strategic insights. Over a period of four months, a team of highly skilled and motivated students with relevant expertise and experience will supercharge your efforts, be that business development, go-to-market, fundraising, or anything needed to take your product and company to the next level.

Networking and Fund Raising

Our mentor network counts some of the leading decision-makers in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Europe. You will have the opportunity to pitch your idea to a panel of investors from some of the top European VCs and potentially secure the funds to grow your business.

Who is this for?

TEL is designed to help early-stage technology ventures to grow. You should consider applying to the programme if your startup has either developed a working prototype, achieved initial sales traction, or secured a pre-seed round. In other words, if you are in the initial ideation phase, we encourage you to consider one of our future cohorts.

We expect the admitted founders to attend four in-person sessions at London Business School in London between January 2025 and March 2025. Please check out the programme structure below for more details. We also expect the LBS participants to be able to meet the founders in between these sessions to be able to help them with their goals and progress. Therefore, we have a preference for ventures that are located in or in close proximity to London. That said, if you are elsewhere in the UK or Europe, but can meet the two conditions above, please do apply. Make sure to explain how you can meet these two conditions as part of your application.

Programme Structure

The programme consists of two face-to-face discussion, feedback, and workshop sessions, and one final investment pitch session. All participants are expected to attend the following four sessions in person at London Business School:

Session 1: Friday, 9 January 2026, 8:45am - 12:30pm
Session 2: Friday, 16 January 2026: 8:45am-12:30pm
Session 3: Friday, 6 February 2026: 8:45am-12:30pm
Session 4: Friday, 13 March 2026: Afternoon TEL Unlock - 2:30pm to 6:15pm

During the first session, each startup team has the opportunity to present their venture and progress to a panel of experts and investors. The panel will accordingly provide crucial feedback on what the team needs to focus on during the programme. The feedback is unique to each startup and can include developing a go-to-market strategy, performing an in-depth market research, developing a revenue model, or assessing product-market fit. Up to three LBS students will be assigned to each startup team to work with them closely on implementing the feedback received from the panel.

Each participating startup has access to one venture partner assigned to them between the first and third sessions to get additional feedback on their progress.

The second session involves several workshops on key topics such as valuation, market sizing, and developing pitch presentations.

Finally, the startups that successfully progress through the programme will have a chance to make an investment pitch to a panel of investors during the TEL Unlock event (third session). LBS students will also help startups with preparing their pitch decks and presentations. If you have any questions, please contact us at helloTEL@london.edu.

Venture Partners

Gbenga Ajayi

Partner at QED Ventures

Maren Bannon

Co-Founder & Managing Partner at January Ventures

Thomas Bigagli

Partner at Plug and Play

Illai Gescheit

VC investor and advisor to start-ups

Ella Goldner

Co-Founder & General Manager at Zinc

Megumi Ikeda

Managing Director & General Manager at Hearst Ventures

Farhan Lalji

Founder and General Partner at LTV Capital

Blanca Rodriguez

Professor of Computational Medicine at Oxford & Head of Impact Acceleration

Our Team

George Davies

Adjunct Lecturer - London Business School

General Partner - Four Cities Capital

Frequently Asked Questions

Avoid jargons. Explain the problem and your proposed solution in simple language.

Don't oversell your idea. Don't undersell it either.

Be honest about the challenges that your venture faces.
What are the admission criteria?

We are particularly interested in teams that have the following characteristics:

You have a novel and promising idea to solve a specific problem

Your team has the right set of technical capabilities to address the problem

You are passionate about your venture and its vision

We also assess the likelihood that your venture would fail before the end of the programme and the technical feasibility of your proposed solution. Your are also more likely to be admitted if you have either developed a working prototype, achieved initial sales traction, or secured a pre-seed round.

We expect the admitted founders to attend three in-person sessions at London Business School in London between January 2025 and March 2025. Please check out the programme structure for more details. We also expect the LBS participants to be able to meet the founders in-between these sessions to be able to help them with their goals and progress. Therefore, we have a preference for ventures that are located in or in close proximity to London. That said, if you are elsewhere in the UK or Europe, but can meet the two conditions above, please do apply. Make sure to explain how you can meet these two conditions as part of your application.
No. TEL does not provide any funding. We expect the participating ventures to have enough resources to be able to successfully finish the programme. The ventures that successfully progress through the programme will have a chance to make an investment pitch to a panel of investors during the final TEL Unlock event. Please see the proramme structure for more details. You can also raise funds at any point during the programme. All deals are done outside of the TEL purview.

Contact Us

helloTEL@london.edu