HAX

HAX does not begin with a pitch deck. It begins with engineering. It is a hardware and deep-tech accelerator, part of SOSV, built around an in-house lab you actually move to, now in Newark after years based in Shenzhen. Founders describe wet labs, PCB prototyping, 3D printers, and a fully staffed workshop, with engineers on hand to help you turn an idea into something physical.

The program runs roughly six to nine months and is heavily customized. It opens with an assessment phase where your technology gets evaluated and picked apart, and HAX then matches its resources to the specific gaps it finds. From there the rhythm is weekly check-ins with your project manager and the wider team, plus bi-weekly sessions with the key people on the science and the hardware. Adam Glen of Unicorn described what the core of it looks like.

Mentorship works differently here. There is no traditional pool of mentors you pick from. You get the whole HAX team from day one, plus the wider SOSV network across hardware and life sciences, which founders said matters because what you need keeps shifting as the product develops. The part several of them valued most was not getting answers handed over. Emilė Radytė of Samphire Neuroscience put it plainly.

Not every cohort got the same experience. Stefan van der Fluit went through during COVID, based in London with no local HAX presence and no way to travel to Shenzhen, and he was blunt about what that left him with.

That gap was specific to the pandemic window. HAX has since opened its Newark HQ, and founders coming through now plug into the lab and the program in person the way it was meant to run.

The headline is simple enough. HAX writes a standard $250,000 check, and it is not a grant or a prize. The money is a mix of cash and in-kind support, the in-kind part covering the workspace, the labs, and the 3D printing you use to build. HAX becomes a shareholder from the start, and the listed equity is around 9%, though founders reported their own rounds landing closer to 12%.

Sloane Tilley of DIA broke down exactly what that looked like for her company.

HAX does not stop at the first check. It takes pro rata in later rounds, up to around 20% each time, though it typically will not lead them. The trade is equity for resources, and Stefan van der Fluit of FLOWBIO framed how he thinks founders should weigh it.

For first-time hardware founders especially, what the check really buys is the engineering muscle sitting alongside the cash, the part most investors do not offer. Several founders said that hands-on support, not the money, was the reason they signed.

Getting in is hard. HAX accepts roughly 3% of applicants, and the process looks more like venture due diligence than a typical accelerator intake. Expect around four rounds of interviews. At DIA, those conversations ran through the chief scientific officer on the science, the managing partner on the business model and financials, the CTO on the hardware, and project managers on everything else. The timeline varies a lot, from about a month for some founders to four or five for others.

The interviews are less about a polished pitch than the people behind it. At pre-seed, where most companies enter, HAX is betting on the team more than the prototype. Alex Cook of Samphire Neuroscience said the process felt like more than a screen.

Sloane Tilley traced her own acceptance back to the same place.

What founders said actually helps you get in, in their own words.

• Bring a strong, complementary founding team, because at pre-seed HAX is betting on the people more than the prototype
• Have a unique idea that plays to HAX's hardware and deep-tech strengths
• Time your application to HAX's thematic interests, which have included hardware and climate tech
• A basic working prototype is enough, you do not need a finished product
• Talk to current HAX founders before you apply to read the culture and the fit
• A warm introduction, for some founders through Entrepreneur First, can fast-track you toward the investment committee

One route stands out. Several founders, including FLOWBIO and Unicorn, came in not through the standard application but through HAX's partnership with Entrepreneur First, which fast-tracked them to the investment committee. A warm introduction, from an alum or a partner program, goes a long way.