Startups – the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the Starship 500. Our vision: to explore strange new ecosystems, to seek out new startups and new founders, to boldly go where no fund has gone before.

The 500 Mission: Find and fund entrepreneurs all over the world. Make them successful through access to capital, mentorship, and education. Create a guild of GEEKS with Silicon Valley as a spiritual hub, then infect startup ecosystems around the world with the Silicon Valley (and 500) culture. Also, make $hitload$ of money and have lots of FUN.

Your Objective: Take your startup to the farthest edges of the galaxy with funding from 500, an amazing community of fellow founders and mentors, an incredible workspace in the heart of Silicon Valley, and much much more. Your time in Starfleet will culminate in Demo Days, which are a chance for you to showcase your company to some of the biggest, most influential aliens and investors in the galaxy.

Think you have what it takes to join other 500 companies that have taken their team into orbit with us? Beginning today, Thursday, January 31, you can apply to be considered for the Spring 2013 Accelerator program. All you need is your AngelList profile, and some awesome sauce.

How do I apply? Starting now, you’ll be able to submit your application through angel.co/500startups.

When is the deadline? We’ll accept applications through March 1st, 11:59PM Pacific. Get started sooner rather than later, as 29 Earth days go by faster than you think!

When will I hear back from 500? Throughout the application process, the Starship 500 crew will reach out to companies to conduct interviews. We will likely make final decisions by March 25, but that date is subject to change. Things move quickly when you’re operating at the speed of light!

Timeline:

– Applications open TODAY and remain open until Fri 3/1.

– We’ll be reviewing applications and reaching out to promising companies throughout the application process, including interviews. We’ll likely be doing interviews 3/11 – 3/22. Decisions will likely be made by latest the week of 3/25.

– The first day of the Spring 2013 batch will be likely be Monday 4/15.

P.S. Notice we used “likely” a lot? These dates are all subject to change, but those are what we’re shooting for.

What kinds of companies are you looking for? Starship 500 includes founders of all backgrounds, from all stretches of the galaxy. We want to keep that up. We seek out companies with strong teams, clear revenue models, and a focus on building businesses in any of these areas:

– Consumer & Commerce
– SMB / SaaS
– Family Tech
– Education
– Marketing / Distribution services
– Video Content & Infrastructure
– Language / International
– Mobile / Tablet
– Financial Services / Payments
– Food Tech

To learn more about what 500 looks for, check out our full FAQ at https://500.co/faqs

Check out the companies in our current Fall 2012 batch to get an idea of what we look for: https://angel.co/500-startups-fall-2012

So, brave cadet – are you ready to embark on your interstellar journey of awesomeness? Follow us on AngelList and apply today!

Best of luck, and godspeed!