The program
Six sessions, one proposal, one pitch.
YES runs from 9 September 2026 to 31 January 2027. Everything you do in the Academy feeds the proposal you submit, and the proposal is what carries you through the Semi-Final to the Grand Final.
YES Academy · Learn & Build
Every session ends with something you can put in your proposal.
Six sessions of two hours each. The Academy is not a lecture series running alongside a competition — it is the competition's first half. Each session produces one specific part of your YES Business Proposal.
Learn → Apply → Build → Pitch
Problem, Customer & Market Validation
Develop founder thinking, and prove the problem you've picked is real.
Value Proposition & Business Model
Define your target customer, size the opportunity, map competitors, and articulate what makes you different.
Go-to-Market & Growth
Turn the solution into a viable commercial model: revenue streams, pricing, channels, partners and customer acquisition.
Finance & Business Viability
Unit economics, pricing, profitability and financial planning, at the level a judge will ask about.
UAE Ecosystem & Global Markets
A credible 12–24 month growth plan: the UAE landscape, free zones and setup, cross-border entry, and measurable impact.
Pitch & Funding Readiness
Turn the business case into a pitch, and rehearse it before it counts.
What a session looks like
Concept or framework, a case study, a practical AI application, an exercise you do yourself, Q&A, and a proposal assignment to take away.
Sessions are planned for Saturday mornings, 10:00 to 12:00 Gulf time, and run hybrid so you can join online or in person. Exact dates are published on this page as each is confirmed.
Practical AI
AI runs across all six sessions, not as a seventh one.
AI is a layer through the Academy rather than a module bolted on the end. You learn where it genuinely helps, and where your own judgement has to do the work.
Customer & market
Persona exploration, market research, competitor mapping.
Business model
Idea refinement and stress-testing the model you've built.
Finance
Scenario analysis and testing the assumptions underneath your numbers.
Marketing
Content development and campaign ideation.
Pitch
Improving the presentation, and rehearsing the delivery.
And the limit
You stay responsible for accuracy, originality and confidentiality. You must be able to explain and defend everything you submit.
The business proposal
One document, built across five months.
You submit one proposal on the official YES template. It is your own work, and it should follow one habit throughout: claim, evidence, metric.
What it covers
- Entrepreneur or team, and business profile
- Problem or opportunity, and your customer
- Product or solution
- Market, competition and value proposition
- Business model and go-to-market
- Traction and business performance
- Financial overview
- Sustainability, impact and growth plan
- Support required, and why you
How submission works
You submit through your dashboard on this site: your proposal file, up to five supporting documents, and a link to a pitch video if you made one.
You can replace your proposal as often as you need before the deadline. Each submission is stored as a complete version, with the previous one kept underneath it. Supporting documents carry over automatically.
Worth knowing: a new version voids the committee's previous completeness check, so send the version you mean to send.
How you're judged
Three gates, and they don't ask the same question.
Eligibility is a gate, not a score. Quality is only assessed once eligibility is confirmed. After that, each stage looks for different evidence.
Gate 1A · pass / fail
Eligibility & completeness
A non-scored administrative check. Can this entry proceed?
- Age eligibility
- Geographic eligibility
- Individual or team requirement
- Registration completed
- Proposal submitted on time
- Required sections complete
- Originality declaration completed
Gate 1B · scored
Proposal
Is the business case strong?
- Problem and market relevance
- Product, solution and differentiation
- Business model and commercial viability
- Traction and validation
- Growth potential
- Sustainability and impact
- Proposal quality and clarity
Gate 2 · scored
Semi-Final
Can you defend what you wrote? You present, then take questions.
- Problem and market understanding
- Solution and competitive advantage
- Business model and commercial viability
- Traction and evidence
- Growth and scalability
- Founder or team capability
- Pitch and Q&A
Gate 3 · scored
Grand Final
Who has the strongest overall potential?
- Business opportunity
- Innovation and competitive advantage
- Commercial viability
- Growth and scalability
- Entrepreneur or team capability
- Sustainability and impact
- Final pitch and Q&A
YES is not a pitch competition
Judges assess the entrepreneur and the business, not presentation skill. Communicating clearly matters, but so do market opportunity, business model, evidence, traction, financial viability, growth potential, impact and your capability to execute. Business substance beats presentation theatrics.
Judges score independently before any panel discussion, using the same rubric and a 1–5 scale. Conflicted judges abstain.
Key dates
September to January, end to end.
Exact dates are published here as they are confirmed, and announced through the official YES channels. This site is the single source of truth for dates and rules.
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| To be announced | Official YES Launch |
| To be announced | Registration & Outreach |
| To be announced | Registration Closes |
| To be announced | Eligibility Screening & Onboarding |
| To be announced | YES Academy Sessions 1–3 |
| To be announced | YES Academy Sessions 4–6 |
| To be announced | Business Proposal Deadline |
| To be announced | Proposal Evaluation |
| To be announced | Top 20 Semi-Finalists Announcement |
| To be announced | SEMI-FINAL PITCH |
| To be announced | Top 10 Finalists Announcement |
| To be announced | Finalist Pitch Refinement |
| To be announced | YES GRAND FINAL |
| To be announced | Awards & YES CONNECT |
| To be announced | Winners, Reporting & Program Close |