Investigate a real opportunity through customer research, testing and a focused project—with structure, coaching and a working community around you.
An idea can feel promising without being clear about the customer, problem or market. Those questions become useful when you investigate them directly.
The Business Fellowship gives you the space to test an opportunity through real work. You will research customers, examine alternatives, run experiments and refine a proposition with support around you.
You do not need a finished business plan. You need an opportunity worth investigating.
You do not need a finished project or a fully formed plan before applying.
Each stage helps you investigate the customer problem, test important assumptions and decide what the evidence justifies doing next.
The Fellowship develops more than a project outcome. You practise leadership through real work, then use focused 1:1 conversations to examine the decisions, behaviours and next steps that matter in your own context.
Build the habits needed to lead an opportunity from uncertainty towards a responsible decision, even before you have a team or formal title.
Use confidential, focused conversations to think more clearly about a live goal, decision or leadership challenge. You bring the agenda; your coach helps you test assumptions and turn insight into action.
A successful Business Fellowship does not require you to launch a company. It means understanding the opportunity more clearly, developing a credible proposition and knowing whether to progress, revise or stop.
Choose a competitive Fully Funded place or reserve a paid Business place. Both include the complete Business Fellowship programme.
Best for applicants able to compete for a limited funded place.
Apply for fundingFor aspiring founders and people testing an early opportunity.
Reserve · £149Fully Funded applications are competitive. Paid Business places are confirmed subject to availability and successful payment.
The Business Fellowship is for aspiring founders, side-project builders and people with an early opportunity they want to investigate through customer, market and proposition work.
You do not need to arrive with a finished project. We help you define suitable work at the beginning of the Fellowship.
Your work will investigate a specific business opportunity. It may include customer research, market analysis, proposition development, an experiment, prototype or early solution.
The goal is a credible evidence record and a clear decision about what the opportunity warrants next.
We offer a limited number of Fully Funded places at £0 through a competitive application process. Funded Fellows participate in the same core Fellowship and receive 2 private 1:1 executive coaching sessions.
Applicants who prefer a confirmed place can reserve the Business Fellowship for £149, which includes 6 private 1:1 executive coaching sessions.
The Fellowship includes four live Thursday sessions from 7 to 9 pm UK time and approximately 20 hours of independent project work across the programme.
Live activities include route teaching, Ask Anything sessions, community discussions, project presentations and feedback. Independent time is used for research, development and your own Fellowship project.
You should attend as much of the live programme as possible because discussion, questions, presentations and feedback are important parts of the Fellowship.
Recordings will be available for appropriate sessions when you cannot attend, but the Fellowship is designed as a participatory experience rather than a collection of recorded lessons.
All Fellows receive live teaching, Ask Anything sessions, unlimited email support, community feedback and access to RIL guides, assets and library resources.
You also receive executive coaching according to your place: 2 private 1:1 sessions with a Fully Funded place or 6 with a paid Business place.
Yes. Fellows who successfully complete the programme can present their Fellowship experience on their CV, LinkedIn, portfolio and other professional platforms.
You will also receive completion certification, approved RIL Fellowship branding and a dedicated Fellow page that provides a public record of your Fellowship and project.
Your dedicated page can introduce you, your Business Fellowship project and the evidence you developed. It can be shared with potential collaborators, clients, partners or others interested in the opportunity.
Your page forms part of the wider RIL Fellowship website rather than disappearing when your cohort finishes.
That can be a valuable Fellowship outcome. You may find that the idea needs changing, that a different customer problem matters more or that the opportunity is not worth pursuing.
The objective is not to prove that your original idea was right. It is to investigate it seriously enough to make a better decision based on evidence and experience.
Successful completion brings you into the RIL Fellowship alumni community. You can continue using your Fellowship credentials and Fellow page while staying connected with the network you have developed.
Alumni may also receive invitations to selected office hours, alumni events, community activities, future opportunities and RIL offers as the Fellowship community grows.
The project may finish, continue independently, change direction or become the beginning of a business. The important part is that you leave with stronger evidence and a justified next decision.
Your Business Fellowship becomes a public evidence record for the opportunity you investigated. Present the project through a Fellow page and formal certification that records what you completed.
Investigating an opportunity through evidence
Rapid Innovation Lab · Fellowship
Investigated a business opportunity through customer research, proposition development and evidence-led testing. Presented the resulting proposition and documented the decisions behind it.
This recognition is awarded to
Your Name
For successfully completing the RIL Fellowship and presenting a substantial evidence-led project.
