What "No Equity, No Fee" Actually Means at Fuel Accelerator
Founders evaluating accelerators usually start with one question: what does it cost? Most programs answer with a percentage. Some answer with a program fee. At Fuel, the answer is nothing. We take no equity and charge no fee, and we have run the program that way since it launched in 2018.
That tends to raise a second question: what does Fuel get out of this? This post explains how Fuel is funded, what founders get, what we ask in return, and why we think the model produces better outcomes for the companies that come through Bentonville.
How a no-cost, no-equity accelerator is funded
Fuel is a program of the Startup Junkie Foundation, a mission-driven nonprofit that exists to improve lives through innovation and entrepreneurship. The accelerator is entirely grant funded to support entrepreneurship and growth in Arkansas.
Two long-standing partners make that possible. Fuel was launched in 2018 as a direct result of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Business and Technology Accelerator Grant Program, and AEDC has continued to support the program since. In 2026, Fuel was awarded two of the twelve grants issued statewide through that program, one for each cohort. The Walton Family Foundation began investing in Fuel in 2022, and its 2026 backing is its largest single-year commitment to the program to date.
Event sponsors help underwrite the showcase and the events that surround each cohort. None of that funding comes from founders, and none of it buys a stake in a founder’s company.
What founders get
Fuel is a 10-week, in-person, enterprise-ready accelerator for seed and growth-stage technology companies. The program runs two cohorts a year: HealthTech in the spring and AI/ML in the fall, with 8 to 12 companies in each.
The schedule is built around running a business at the same time. Tuesday through Thursday mornings are dedicated to speaker sessions, workshops, and CEO forums. Afternoons are free to meet with customers, mentors, and investors, or to run the company. The curriculum is centered around three core pillars:
Ideal customer profile
Enterprise readiness
Commercialization and sales
Each session builds off of one another and reflects what the founders are actually doing in the community in real time.
The curriculum moves from ideal customer profile and U.S. enterprise readiness in the first weeks through industry deep dives, brand and messaging, commercialization, execution and growth, fundraising, and doing business in Arkansas, before Showcase week closes the program.
Mentorship is the core of it. Fuel is home to more than 80 expert mentors, ranging from serial startup CEOs and corporate executives to public policy officials, at a 3:1 mentor-to-founder ratio. Participants also get curated introductions to enterprise partners, including hospital systems, payors, Fortune 100 companies, and research institutions, and they spend much of the program in rooms of connectors and potential customers. Office space in downtown Bentonville is provided for the full 10 weeks.
Showcase Day puts each company in front of peers, mentors, investors, and potential business connections. The Spring 2026 HealthTech Showcase was held inside an airplane hangar at Thaden Field in Bentonville.
What Fuel asks in return
Not money, and not ownership. What we ask for is readiness and presence.
An established product and existing enterprise business. Fuel is designed for seed to Series B companies in the growth and acceleration phase, not idea-stage teams.
Existing revenue or funding. Participants need to be prepared to do business with some of the largest enterprises in the United States.
A member of the C-suite in Bentonville for the program, with a minimum of 70 percent attendance. Additional team members are welcome based on the curriculum.
Founders who are working to innovate and shape the future with new ideas and technologies.
The in-person requirement is the one founders ask about most. It exists because the value of Fuel is in the room: the mentor conversations, the enterprise introductions, and the cohort itself. Northwest Arkansas is home to the largest company in the world, multiple Fortune 100 companies, and more than 1,000 suppliers, vendors, and logistics companies, and the region operates as a community where founders are rarely more than two degrees of separation from a decision-maker.
Why the model matters
An accelerator that does not take equity has no financial reason to push a founder toward a raise, a valuation, or an exit on anyone’s timeline but their own. Fuel’s measure of success is whether a company leaves more enterprise-ready than it arrived: pilots started, contracts signed, relationships opened, and a pitch that holds up in front of a buyer.
Ali Al Jabry, co-founder and CEO of Kwema and a graduate of the Spring 2025 HealthTech cohort, put it this way in his exit interview: “Fuel distinguished itself as a program where you could really focus on deploying, meeting customers, and accelerating your sales pipeline.” Kwema has since relocated its headquarters to Bentonville.
Chase Lawson, co-founder of Appellate Technologies and a graduate of the 2025 AI/ML cohort, pointed to what happens after the program ends: “Fuel’s value is not confined to the formal program; it comes from the Fuel team, its mentor network, and founders from past cohorts who stay genuinely willing to help.”
The track record
Across 13 cohorts, Fuel has served more than 100 companies from more than 20 states and 11 countries. Those companies have collectively raised more than $260 million and have landed more than 150 enterprise pilots and commercial contracts. Out-of-state participants have opened local offices in Northwest Arkansas, and several have relocated their headquarters here.
In August 2026, TIME and Statista named Fuel one of America’s Best Incubators and Accelerators, ranking it No. 59 on the inaugural list of 80 programs and the only Arkansas-based program included.
How to get in
Fuel runs two cohorts a year. The HealthTech cohort runs each spring and the AI/ML cohort runs each fall. Applications for the Fall 2026 AI/ML cohort are closed and the cohort is in session; the Fall 2027 AI/ML waitlist is open on the program page, and applicants on it are emailed the moment applications open. Information on the Spring 2027 HealthTech cohort will be posted on the HealthTech page as it becomes available.
If you are a B2B founder with a product in market, revenue or funding behind it, and enterprise customers you are ready to go after, reach the Fuel team. There is no fee to apply, and there never will be a fee to participate.