Veteran-Owned Small Business Accelerator (VOSBA) is a 12-week accelerator program housed at The Venture Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, created specifically to help U.S. military veterans and their spouses grow small businesses. It’s run in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and focuses on education, mentorship, and business growth support — not on providing direct VC-style funding in exchange for equity.

Pre-Seed / Early Stage Support: VOSBA helps founder-owners early in their business lifecycle — often before or around the time they are seeking outside capital or scaling revenue. It is not a series investment fund.

• Equity Taken: VOSBA does not take equity in companies for participation — since the accelerator’s primary offering is training, mentorship, and support resources rather than cash investment.
• Cash Investment: The program itself does not promise or guarantee direct capital checks as part of participation; any capital or funding results come from external sources (e.g., investors who show up at demo days or networking events) and are negotiated separately by the founders.
• Founder Expectation: Because it is not a funding vehicle, there is no published fixed equity target, valuation, veto, or ownership requirement that VOSBA imposes on participating companies.

• If a founder raises capital after or during VOSBA via outside investors (angels, VCs, lenders), equity dilution is negotiated with those parties and not with VOSBA itself.

Submission Method: Founders (veterans or veteran spouses) apply through The Venture Center’s application process for the next VOSBA cohort.
Cohort Format: A structured series of workshops and mentorship sessions delivered over ~12 weeks.
Commitment: Participants are expected to attend all sessions and engage actively with mentors and peers.

Sector Focus: Broad small business focus (not limited to tech), suitable for veteran-owned ventures across industries.
Veteran Status: Participants must be U.S. military veterans or spouses of veterans (owner-operators or planning to found).
Stage: Especially helpful for pre-revenue, early revenue, or early growth companies. 

• Initial Screening: Applications are reviewed to confirm eligibility and fit with the veteran-entrepreneur focus.
• Selection: A cohort of veteran small business founders is selected to participate.
• Program Engagement: Founders go through structured workshops on strategy, operations, finance, marketing, and leadership with advisor support.
• Demo / Investor Access: Some cohorts include opportunities to present to local investors, business leaders, and community stakeholders at the end.

Strategic Support: Cohort-based workshops, mentor guidance, and business best practices tailored to veteran entrepreneurs.
 Community & Network: Connections with other veteran founders and access to industry and investor networks.
Investor Exposure: Demo day opportunities where founders can present to angels, service organizations, and local business leaders (capital outcomes depend on those external entities).