For some accelerator programs, their "Investor Demo Day" is seen as a sort of graduation day. It's where the great teams, business ideas and plans are showcased to investors, relevant companies and members of the press.
Although it may be the end point for the organizers of that particular accelerator program, it's just the start of a much longer journey before the startup turns into a sustainable company.
For this reason we have started an ‘Alumni Growth Program’ to increase the chances of our Alumni’s Growth. Our Alumni Growth Director Marc Wesselink is leading this initiative. Marc has started 12 companies over the last 15 years across a wide spectrum of industries, many of these grew to be very successful and 4 turned out to be failures, which gives him first hand experience in the benefit of having the ‘Plan B’ mentioned above.
Startupbootcamp has built its global reputation for searching out the very best startups from around the world and accelerating them through an intense mentor driven program.
This being said, after Investor Demo Day, startups need very different types of mentorship. The team dynamics usually change. Each founding member needs to understand his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Their roles often change within the company as it grows. They all have to be good iterators as the global markets have never been moving so fast. And the competition has never been so intense.
But it's the only way to go from first class to world class.
Together, we will tackle the practical issues you will encounter along your way. Thanks to Marc’s Wesselink’s experience across 7 different industries, he has in depth knowledge on a wide variety of subjects.
Think of him as a trouble-shooter combined with an independent sparring partner for startups; a kind of Swiss Army Knife.
Startupbootcamp has quickly developed a tremendous resource, with a 1,000+ mentors who have worked with us across the European continent, and beyond.
Now we're turning that passive resource into an active one for the benefit of our alumni.
We also connect you with local companies who can provide relevant advice on recruitment, IT, finance, office space. It's all designed to help our alumni reach out to potential customers, validators and pick the right suppliers.
We'll also tackle the challenge of finding (new) investors and the best approach to convincing them why they should invest in your business.
As part of the Alumni Growth program you will get a chance to go on tour with Startupbootcamp to London and Silicon Valley. In the London leg of the tour you get a chance to take part in a second Investor Demo Day, investors attending the event in March of 2013 included representatives from Ariadne Capital, Index Ventures, Balderton, Notion Capital, Profounders Capital, Frontline Ventures, Wellington Partners, DFJ Esprit, Angel Investment Network, Lexington Business Angels & Amadeus Capital.
The Startupbootcamp tour then continues to Silicon Valley. The Alumni had a packed trip including a pitch event to investors at Orrick, the annual Startupbootcamp networking event 'The Euros hit the Valley', a visit to Founders Fund and an evening in Blackbox Mansion.
