Joanne Wilson, Founder Labs mentor.

New York has plenty of accelerators--TechStars! DreamIt! Entrepreneurs Roundtable! TechStars, again! But incubators have gotten so selective that companies need to be more and more mature in order to get in. Enter the pre-accelerator.

Founder Labs is a five-week mentoring program for (preferably) female entrepreneurs looking to do something with mobile. It was developed by Women 2.0 and is now being spun off as a standalone entity, and expanding to New York.

"The time is tight and the expectations are high, especially since most of you walk in pre-team, pre-idea. You will ideate, talk to potential customers, release products constantly, while getting insights from weekly visiting advisor talks and feedback from mentors," the website says.

Unlike incubators that take a stake in their companies, Founder Labs is pay-to-play at $755 a person (scholarships available). Mentors include Fred Wilson, Joanne Wilson, Esther Dyson and Pivotal Labs's Ian McFarland. Applications are due by April 20.

"Think of [it] as what you do before Y Combinator or Techstars," Fred Wilson told TechCrunch.