As always, the Backchannel team is committed to taking on the biggest stories in tech. In 2017, we’ve been exploring these issues deeply through theme weeks. (If you haven’t already, you should read our series on Home and Outsiders.) For our next theme week, we‘re taking a close look at how companies get started: specifically, we want stories about the people and institutions that shape start-ups. The idea can take many forms. Incubators? Accelerators? Crowdfunding? Scholarship programs? A lone billionaire with a penchant for angel investing? If the goal is, quite literally, to help birth a startup, we want to know about it.

We’re interested in stories about the big-name incubators that function as kingmakers, but we’re also interested in lesser-known, unexpected incubators of tech talent. We want to know who is providing money and mentorship to people not on the coasts—and to what aim. We want stories that take a hard look at the successes and failures of crowdfunding. And, if there are people and institutions that are hurting early-stage companies then we want to know about that too.

Most of all, we want stories that feel unexpected and important; stories that help us understand the forces that are determining which businesses enter the world.

So here’s what you can do for us:

Feature writers: We’re looking for investigative pieces, profiles, features, and reported personal essays. At Backchannel we only publish one meaty piece of writing per day — no hot takes — so our standards are high, and our stories almost always require original reporting.

Founders: Usually our stories come to us via professional writers rather than pitches. But incubator week is a great time to pitch personal essays to our War Stories section. Did you have a particularly crazy experience raising funding? Did you do something insane to attract a VC’s attention? Do you know an incubator junkie—someone who just can’t stop participating in accelerators? (Or are you that person?) We’re interested in all kinds of outlier experiences.

For reference, here are a few great business stories we’ve run at Backchannel:

This profile of the under-the-radar coach who helps top tech founders tap into their emotions.

This investigation about a tech company that concealed its nefarious purpose from its employees.

This story about why the gig economy darling Homejoy failed.

All pitches are due by Monday, April 17th. Email them to alexis_sobelfitts@backchannel.com.