Free stuff for founders
Free coworking, grants, mentoring, banking and legal documents across the UK and US, for founders who have not raised. No affiliate links, no gated PDF, every link opened and checked by hand against the official page.
- Things listed
- 43
- Last verified
- 22 July 2026
United Kingdom
19 thingsMostly run by governments, charities, libraries and banks rather than companies trying to upsell you.
Santander Work Café
Free coworking space and fast wifi inside Santander's Work Cafés, and you do not need to bank with them. A handful of cities so far, including Leeds, Milton Keynes, Oxford and London.
NatWest Accelerator
Fully funded accelerator membership, with access to coworking hubs in 13 cities, coaching, masterclasses and events. Any business can apply.
King's Trust Enterprise programme
A free start-a-business programme for 18 to 30 year olds, with grants of £100 to £5,000, start-up loans, and a matched mentor for three years after launch.
British Library Business & IP Centre
With a free Reader Pass you get the commercial market research databases consultancies pay thousands for, including Mintel, IBISWorld and Statista, plus free one-to-ones with intellectual property specialists. Over 70 centres across the UK, with the full database list at St Pancras.
Mettle
NatWest's free business account, which includes FreeAgent accounting software worth at least £150 a year. You need to make one transaction a month to keep FreeAgent free.
Starling and Monzo
Business banking with no monthly fees from either. Starling includes free invoicing, and Monzo's free Lite plan covers the basics.
Digital Boost
Free, unlimited one-to-one mentoring calls with around 5,000 volunteer experts, plus free workshops. Open to any small organisation at any stage.
HMRC webinars and email courses
Free live webinars, recorded videos and email courses for the newly self-employed, covering Self Assessment, expenses, record keeping and Making Tax Digital.
OpenLearn
Free business courses from the Open University. 146 of them in the money and business category at the last count, from entrepreneurship to leadership.
The IPO and PatLib centres
A free one-hour business and intellectual property session at 25 PatLib centres across the UK, plus free seminars and a support line.
R&D tax relief
The merged scheme pays a 20% expenditure credit on qualifying R&D, and loss-making R&D-intensive SMEs can get back up to roughly 27p per pound of qualifying spend. Claimed through your Corporation Tax return, and HMRC scrutiny is real, so keep records.
Employment Allowance
Up to £10,500 a year off your employer's National Insurance bill. Single-director companies with no other staff on payroll cannot claim.
SEIS advance assurance
HMRC's pre-approval that your round should qualify for SEIS, which gives your investors 50% income tax relief on up to £250,000 raised. Most angels ask for it, and it costs nothing but time.
Help to Grow: Management
A 12-week mini MBA delivered by UK business schools, 90% government funded, so you pay £750. For businesses with 5 to 249 employees.
UnLtd awards
Cash awards for social entrepreneurs. Up to £8,000 to start and up to £18,000 to scale, with a support manager, mentoring and legal advice attached. Application windows apply.
Innovate UK competition finder
The live list of open innovation grant competitions. The well known Smart Grants programme is paused, so start from the live finder rather than old blog posts.
The gov.uk finance and support finder
The government's searchable directory of more than 100 live schemes, filterable by stage, sector, region and support type.
Made Smarter
For manufacturing and engineering SMEs in England. Free advice from digital specialists, a free transformation workshop, and match-funded grants of up to £20,000.
Enterprise Nation
Free membership tier with events, e-learning and local meet-ups for small business owners.
United States
19 thingsUseful if you are incorporating in the US or selling there, and several are open to founders anywhere.
Capital One Cafés
Free walk-in workspace with wifi at more than 60 locations, whether you bank with Capital One or not.
Your EIN, from the IRS
Your Employer Identification Number comes free from the IRS in minutes. Plenty of websites charge hundreds of dollars for the same form, and the IRS's own page says you never have to pay.
Your library card
Big systems like LA County and Brooklyn include free LinkedIn Learning and commercial market research databases with a free library card. It varies by system, so check yours.
Cooley GO
Free legal document generators from a top startup law firm. Delaware incorporation packages, SAFEs, NDAs, and advisor agreements. Not a substitute for a lawyer, but the right starting point.
Y Combinator's SAFE documents
The standard seed fundraising instrument itself, free to download with the user guide.
SBIR and STTR, America's Seed Fund
Federal R&D funding of up to roughly $323,000 at Phase I and $2.15m at Phase II, and the government takes no equity. For US small businesses doing real research and development.
SCORE
Free, ongoing one-to-one mentoring from experienced executives, plus free courses and webinars. The largest volunteer business mentor network in the country.
Small Business Development Centers
Free professional business consulting from nearly 1,000 centers, most hosted at universities. Business planning, access to capital, marketing and exporting.
Women's Business Centers, Veterans Business Outreach Centers and Boots to Business
The SBA's free counselling and training networks for women founders, veterans and military spouses.
Grants.gov
The free searchable hub for every federal grant opportunity. Federal grants fund programmes and R&D rather than general start-up costs, but this is where to look.
SBA Learning Platform
Free online courses from the SBA on starting, pivoting and growing a business.
The Amber Grant
Three $10,000 grants for women-owned businesses every month, and monthly winners become eligible for three $50,000 year-end grants. There is a $15 application fee.
Verizon Small Business Digital Ready
Free business courses and coaching, and completing any two unlocks an application for a $10,000 grant, awarded monthly through 2026.
gBETA
A free, equity-free seven-week accelerator run in cities across the US, with coaching, mentorship and investor exposure. Around five companies per cohort, so it is competitive.
Novo and Bluevine
Free business checking from either. No monthly fees, and Bluevine's standard plan pays interest if the account is active.
Wave
Free invoicing, estimates and bookkeeping on the starter plan. Payment processing and bank feeds are where they charge.
Google Voice
A free second phone number on the personal tier, with almost all calls to the US and Canada free.
1 Million Cups
Free weekly founder meetups in over 100 communities, run by the Kauffman Foundation. Present your business, get feedback, meet people building near you.
Hello Alice
A free account matches you to live grant and accelerator programmes. The grants are competitions with real odds, but the matching costs nothing.
Works anywhere
5 thingsNo geography test, no funding test. Worth a free account before you pay full price for anything.
Y Combinator's Startup School
A free online course on starting a startup, taught by YC partners, plus the world's largest co-founder matching platform.
Google Business Profile
A free listing on Google Search and Maps for businesses that serve customers in person or in a service area.
Meta Blueprint
Free self-guided marketing courses across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
NVIDIA Inception
Free membership for startups under ten years old. Technical courses, preferred pricing and partner offers, with no fees, no equity and no cohort deadlines.
Secret and F6S
Deal marketplaces whose free tiers aggregate many of the offers on this page and thousands more. Worth a free account before you pay full price for any software.
The graveyard
6 deadProgrammes that still appear in round-up articles but no longer exist. Checked so you can stop looking for them.
FedEx Small Business Grant Contest
ended after its 2024 run.
Comcast RISE
wound down, with no 2026 round.
Fast Break for Small Business
the LegalZoom and NBA grant closed for the final time in 2024.
Innovate UK Smart Grants
paused since January 2025. Use the live competition finder above instead.
Tide's free company formation
now costs £14.99.
The free WeWork day pass
never existed. Day passes start at £25 plus VAT in the UK and $39 in the US.
Questions people ask
Is everything on this page actually free?
Almost. Anything with a cost says so in its own line, like Help to Grow's £750 or the Amber Grant's $15 application fee. Everything else is free, and most of it is run by governments, charities, libraries and banks rather than companies trying to upsell you.
How often is this page checked?
Every link was opened and checked against the official page on 22 July 2026, and the page is re-verified periodically. Programmes die more often than you would think, which is why the graveyard section exists. If you spot a dead link, email will@startscaleandsucceed.com and it will get fixed.
There is a lot of support for startups once they have raised. Most founders are not there yet, balancing credit cards, a full-time job and everything else, which is exactly who this page is for.