Apply to the Seed Transformation Program in Africa, Indonesia, or South Asia to gain access to Stanford’s leadership training, coaching, and networking support, and to transform your company.

Applicants must:

1. Be a CEO or founder of an established company or market-driven social enterprise
2. Lead a company with a strong value proposition and potential to grow, with annual revenue between US $300,000 and US $15 million, and that is registered in sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia, or South Asia
3. Have a management team of at least three people in addition to the CEO or founder

Educational Requirements

There are no specific educational requirements. We do not require that you take the GMAT or another exam to apply to or qualify for the Seed Transformation Program.

English-Language Proficiency

We do not require that you take the TOEFL or another English test to apply to or qualify for the Seed Transformation Program. However, participants must be able to both understand and speak English at a level that allows them to participate fully in this fast-paced program conducted in English.

The CEO or founder and their participating managers should be able to read business materials in English, understand and participate in lectures and class discussions, and engage in small-group discussions. For leaders and teams in French-speaking countries, some of the content is customized to meet the language needs for you and your teams.

Admission to the Seed Transformation Program is very competitive. An admissions committee will assess all completed applications based on the program’s criteria for admission. The application requires leader and company information, as well as a personal statement.

Online Application

You must fill out and submit the application online. Estimated time to complete: one hour. Applicants have the option to begin, save and return to complete. The application is currently closed and will reopen in 2025. You may sign up for our mailing list here to receive an email when the application opens.

Selection Process

First we screen applications for our core eligibility criteria (outlined above). Next, we review each application to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the CEO/founder, management team, company business model and potential for impact. Following the screening and application review, we create a shortlist of companies who will move forward to the interview stage, when applicants will be asked to submit a recorded video interview, their company financials, and later take part in a live interview. In the interview stage, we aim to learn more about who you are as a leader, what motivates you about your business, and the strengths and weaknesses of your management team. We’ll also consider your company’s core value proposition, market potential, and potential to scale. All of these dimensions inform the impact that you and your company might have on the world — in alignment with Seed’s mission. We aim to select the highest potential business leaders and firms from the different markets in which we work.

Whether you are selected to move forward to the interview phase or not, we will contact you by 1 July. Due to the high volume of applications, we are not able to provide feedback to each applicant individually. We plan to complete the interview phase by August and extend offers of admission during the first week of October. The program will start in mid-January.

Payment details will be provided upon acceptance to the program.

Thanks to the generosity of founding donors Robert “Bob” King (MBA ’60) and Dorothy “Dottie” King and many others, this program is offered to you at a fraction of its actual cost. In Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, the cost of the program has been partially subsidized by the De Beers Group.

In addition, scholarships are available to smaller enterprises, women founders, and social entrepreneurs. Scholarship applications will be provided upon request to applicants who advance to the interview stage.