UK Innovator Founder Forum

Posted anonymously by grad_healthtech

Anyone here on the UK Innovator Founder Visa as a recent graduate/student founder?

A lot of endorsement bodies seem to expect at least around £10k+ in available funds or financial projections for the first 2 years. But realistically, many student founders or fresh graduates don’t have that kind of savings sitting around. In my case, max I could realistically bootstrap personally is probably around £5k.

So I’m curious:

• What are other early-stage founders doing?
• Are people joining accelerators/incubators for backing?
• Raising angel/pre-seed before endorsement?
• Using grants/university support?
• Or are endorsement bodies more flexible if the idea has strong potential?

My startup idea is in healthtech/AI, so development itself already has operational and compliance costs.

Would genuinely appreciate hearing real experiences from founders who went through this route recently.