As it prepares for the second intake for its Rev program, Communitech has initiated some changes to the accelerator that focuses on sales growth.

The Kitchener-based startup and innovation hub launched the Rev accelerator earlier this year with the goal of helping startups with some sales to nail down the processes they need to scale quickly and consistently. It is accepting applications until Oct. 9.

The first six-month cohort – which began with 10 companies and produced eight graduates – concluded earlier this month with the Centre Stage pitching event. Six of the companies presented, and were required to explain their strategy for reaching $25 million in sales.

When the next cohort begins on Nov. 1, it will comprise five companies, said Marylin Ma, the Communitech manager overseeing the cohort. After three months, there will be a second five-member cohort.

“We’re staggering the intake dates so we’ll have four intakes through the year, and each time we’ll take up to five teams,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

The organizers have changed the program in part to allow for more intimate groups, as the curriculum calls for a lot of hands-on learning and discussion. Ma added that the staggered intakes will allow one cohort in the second half of its six-month program to tutor members of the group that is just coming into the program. The first group will have just taken the curriculum and can help the rookies.

Having already worked with the Google For Entrepreneurs program at Communitech, Ma is taking over the Rev program from Samuel Legge. He has left Communitech to take up a management position at Kitchener-based Thalmic Labs, maker of the Myo armband, which translates signals from muscle movements into computer commands.

Ma said the focus of the Rev program will continue to be teaching the members the processes for repeatable sales. As such, the criteria for companies applying are that they should have a few months of sales history but not yet have adopted structured sales processes. The companies can come from anywhere but must be in Kitchener-Waterloo at least for the duration of the Rev program.

And the companies must have a realistic plan for reaching $25 million in sales within five years.

Ma said the first cohort was in many ways a pilot and the organizers are now looking at building on its success. For example, they are examining the perfect stage of development for an incoming company to be to really benefit from the curriculum.

Applications are available here.