Have an idea worth building?
Let’s build it together.
Kharaayo’s incubation program takes early-stage founders from validated idea to market-ready product — with the engineering, design, operational support, and equity partnership to go the distance.
We are selective. We take equity. We co-build — not as a vendor, but as a partner with skin in the game.
Not an accelerator. Not an agency. A co-builder.
Most “incubators” fall into one of two categories.
The first type is an accelerator: a structured cohort program that gives founders mentorship, workshops, and a demo day. Valuable for some. But no one is actually building your product — you leave with better slides and a network, not a shipped company.
The second type is an agency that calls itself an incubator: they take a small equity stake, charge you for development hours, and build what you specify. The incentive is to bill time, not to make the venture succeed.
Kharaayo is neither. Build With Us is a co-building program. Kharaayo becomes your technical and creative co-founder for the duration of the program — and a long-term equity partner beyond it. The same Studio and Tech teams who build Kharaayo’s own ventures (ProLeap, Agenhost, Vetyo) build with you.
Kharaayo has skin in the game. We take equity — real, documented equity — in exchange for our contribution. Our success depends on your venture succeeding. We’re not filling your hours budget; we’re building a company we’re also betting on.
The program is intensive, not periodic. This is not a weekly mentorship call. For 16 weeks, a Kharaayo team is actively engaged in your venture — building, designing, validating, and operating alongside you.
You remain the founder. Kharaayo is not acquiring your idea. You bring the vision, the domain insight, and the founder commitment. We bring the execution capability. Together, we build a company that can stand on its own.
The full stack. Not just the advice.
Kharaayo’s contribution to your venture covers five distinct areas. Each one is real — we’ve applied them all to our own ventures.
Product Engineering
Kharaayo Tech builds the product. Architecture, backend, frontend, AI integration, infrastructure, deployment — all at the same production standard we use for our own ventures. You don’t manage a dev shop; you have an engineering co-founder.
Technical architecture, MVP build, AI feature integration, deployment and infrastructure, QA.
Brand & Creative
Kharaayo Studio builds the brand. Identity system, product design, marketing site, launch assets — designed to hold up at investor level from day one, not patched together as an afterthought.
Brand identity and strategy, product UI/UX, marketing site, launch creative.
Business Operations
The operational infrastructure founders typically lose weeks to: company incorporation (US, UK, UAE, Singapore — your choice), legal setup, accounting, HR basics, and financial model fundamentals.
Entity formation, legal documentation, bookkeeping setup, financial modelling, cap table management.
Go-to-Market Support
First users, early traction, and GTM strategy are where most early-stage founders get stuck. Kharaayo’s ecosystem — the client network, community channels, alumni, and partnerships — is opened up as a launch and distribution resource.
GTM strategy, launch planning, user acquisition approach, introductions to relevant networks.
Investor Readiness
When the time comes to raise outside capital, Kharaayo prepares the venture: pitch deck design, financial model, data room, and introductions to investors appropriate for the stage and sector.
Pitch deck design and narrative, financial projections, due diligence prep, investor introductions where appropriate.
Kharaayo contributes these resources as part of the equity relationship — not as separately billable services. The investment ledger tracks the value of what’s contributed. This becomes the basis for Kharaayo’s founding equity at venture graduation.
16 weeks from idea to market.
The program is structured but not rigid. Every venture moves through the same phases — the specifics adapt to what the company actually needs.
Intake & Alignment
Application reviewed. Founder interviews run. If selected, the first two weeks establish the foundation: aligned understanding of the problem, the market, the founder’s thesis, and what success looks like at week 16. No building yet — clarity first.
Validation
Market research, competitor analysis, customer discovery. Does the idea hold up when it meets the market? What version is most compelling? What’s the riskiest assumption, and how do we test it cheaply?
OutputValidated problem statement. Defined first target user. Go/no-go decision on the initial thesis.
Build
The first version of the product, built. Architecture decided, stack chosen, MVP scoped and shipped. Not a prototype — a working, deployed product real users can interact with. Studio designs in parallel; by week 8, brand and product look coherent.
OutputWorking MVP deployed to production. Brand identity complete. Marketing site live.
First Users
The product is in front of real users. Not friends and family — target users with the problem being solved. Structured feedback. Behaviour observed. Assumptions tested against reality.
OutputFirst real users. Feedback documented. Priority iteration list.
Iteration & Acquisition
The product improves based on what first users revealed. The acquisition strategy is defined and tested: how do we get more of the right users, repeatably? First distribution experiments run.
OutputImproved product. Defined acquisition channel. Early traction evidence.
Product-Market Fit Sprint
Push toward the clearest possible signal on product-market fit. Retention, engagement, willingness to pay, referrals — whichever signal the product can generate at this stage. Program closes with a formal stage review.
OutputStage gate review. Continue / pivot / kill decision. Investor readiness assessment if graduate.
After the 16 weeks
The program is the beginning of the relationship, not the end. Ventures that graduate from the 16-week program enter full incubation — dedicated team, own P&L, and a path toward eventual graduation as an independent company.
How equity works. No surprises.
Kharaayo takes equity in exchange for its contribution to your venture. This is not a fee — it is a stake in what we’re building together. Here is exactly how it works.
During incubation, Kharaayo Inc. holds the majority of the venture.
In exchange for providing the engineering, design, operational support, and program infrastructure, Kharaayo Inc. holds a majority equity position during incubation. This reflects who is contributing capital, team time, and resources at this stage — primarily Kharaayo, not the founder.
The founder’s equity is real, documented, and vests.
From day one, a defined equity pool is reserved for you and any co-founders. This pool vests over time (typically over 4 years with a 1-year cliff) and may be tied to milestones. The vesting protects both parties — it keeps you committed and ensures Kharaayo’s investment is in founders who stay the course.
What Kharaayo contributes is tracked as an investment, not a charge.
Every hour of engineering time, design work, and operational support is logged at standard rates in an investment ledger. This ledger becomes the documented basis for Kharaayo’s founding equity when the venture eventually incorporates as its own company.
As the venture raises outside capital, equity dilutes naturally.
When the venture raises a seed round or beyond, both Kharaayo’s stake and the founders’ stakes dilute proportionally to make room for outside investors. Kharaayo’s goal is to remain a significant, supportive shareholder — not to block future investment.
The specific split is agreed per venture.
Exact equity percentages are agreed in writing at the start of the program, based on the founder’s prior contribution, the idea’s validation stage, and the scope of Kharaayo’s build commitment. We discuss this openly in the application process.
Why this model works
The equity model is what makes Kharaayo different from a development agency. An agency ships what you specify and goes home. An equity partner ships what is best for the venture — because they’re also betting on it. The incentive alignment is the point.
Who we build with.
Right fit
- A real problem you’ve lived with or observed closely. The best early-stage founders encountered a genuine problem, couldn’t find a good solution, and decided to build one. Domain insight is the most durable founder advantage.
- Early validation — even informal. You’ve talked to potential users. You’ve tested an assumption. You have evidence, however small, that the problem is real. We don’t require traction. We require intellectual honesty about what you know and don’t know.
- The commitment to go the distance. A 16-week program is the beginning, not the destination. We look for founders building a company, not trying a startup idea. The distinction matters.
- Complementary capability to what Kharaayo brings. We bring engineering, design, and operations. The ideal partner brings deep domain expertise, market relationships, distribution potential, or something we don’t have.
- Honest self-awareness. The founders who do well know what they know and what they don’t. They ask for help before they need it, not after they’re stuck.
Not the right fit
- Ideas without a founder committed to operating them. We don’t build ventures for passive founders who want to license an idea and check in quarterly.
- Service businesses dressed as products. A consulting practice, an outsourcing service, or an agency model — not what the program is built for. We look for product-led companies that can scale independently of founder time.
- Founders still “figuring out if they want to do this.” The equity model and program intensity only make sense for people who’ve made the decision. If you’re still exploring whether entrepreneurship is for you, ProLeap is probably the better starting point.
Still exploring whether entrepreneurship is for you? ProLeap might be the right starting point. See ProLeap →
Already have an established company and looking to build a new venture together? See Venture Co-Creation. Venture Co-Creation →
A straightforward application. A real conversation.
Submit the Application Form15 minutes
A short structured form: who you are, what you’re building, what problem it solves, who you’re building it for, and what you’ve validated so far. We read every application personally — no automated scoring.
Founder Interview45–60 minutes
If your application resonates, we schedule a conversation with a Kharaayo founder. Not a pitch session — a conversation about the problem, the opportunity, and whether the fit is right. We will ask hard questions. We expect honest answers.
Idea Deep-Diveif progressed
For applications that pass the founder interview, a second session focused on the idea itself: market, competition, assumptions, and the specific build plan. This is where we assess whether the 16-week scope is the right shape.
Offer & Agreement
If we want to build together, we make a written offer — program scope, equity structure, timeline, and mutual commitments. No verbal agreements. Everything in writing before anything begins.
We accept applications on a rolling basis. There is no fixed cohort start date — program start is agreed per venture.
We’ve done this for our own ventures. Now we’re doing it with others.
Before we opened this program to outside founders, we ran the model on ourselves. Here are the ventures we’ve built.
ProLeap
Education & Talent Platform — Incubation → Approaching Graduation
ProLeap is the venture that proves the model works. Started inside Kharaayo as an idea about what talent development in eastern Nepal could look like if done properly, it is now a cohort-based education and talent platform with paying learners, an operational team, and a digital platform in active development.
ProLeap is in the final stages of preparation to graduate as its own independent company, with Kharaayo Inc. as majority shareholder. The raise is in progress.
Agenhost
Early Incubation
[PLACEHOLDER — Agenhost description from Daniel.] Currently in early incubation — beta validated with initial users, advancing toward committed paying customers.
Vetyo
Experiment
[PLACEHOLDER — Vetyo description from Daniel.] Currently in active experiment stage.
These ventures are honest about their stage. ProLeap is the most advanced — moving from incubation toward graduation. Agenhost and Vetyo are earlier. The program doesn’t claim a portfolio of exits or a track record of decades. It claims a model that is working in real time — and can be brought to a founder with a strong idea.