Applications open for SEED Starter Programme – India

Participants join together in teams during Starter workshops to blueprint and refine their business plans with the support of peer-learning and expert guidance.

Starter programme is structured into four main stages designed to support you and your entrepreneurial team to transform your innovative ideas into tangible measures for enterprise start-up:

• Discover Phase
  • Gather a team, work on your initial business idea, convene frequently, conduct interviews with potential customers in preparation for receiving SEED support.
  • During the initial stage, you will mobilise other like-minded entrepreneurship into your SEED Starter Team. As a team you will determine your initial business idea for an enterprise that delivers environmental, social and economic benefits to your prospective target market and apply to participate in the SEED Starter programme.
• Design Phase
  • Apply SEED tools and peering learning to expand on and explore in greater depth your team’s ideas for an eco-inclusive start-up enterprise.
  • In the first of two SEED Starter workshops based on design-thinking methodology and the in-depth SEED Starter Toolkit, they guide your Starter Team together with all other teams to develop your eco-inclusive business idea. During the initial Starter workshop, the tools and facilitation assist you to joinly explore all relevant aspects of a start-up enterprise while engaging in lively discussions with your fellow entrepreneurs in the design of your own eco-inclusive enterprise.
• Test Phase
  • Reconvene with your SEED Starter Team to refine your business idea and pitch it to your potential target market and partners.
  • After the first workshop your team will reconvene on its own, inspired by new ideas, insights and tools. Now it is time to pitch your eco-inclusive business idea to potential customers and partners in order to gather feedback and explore the market potential of your business idea. TheExpert Advisors are always only a step away, guiding you through the process.
• Refinement Phase
  • Refine your business idea based on in-depth insights collected during the testing phase and peer learning opportunities.
  • In a second workshop, your Starter Team will return with numerous valuable insights from the testing period. The comprehensive feedback from your prospective customers and esteemed friends and partners serves as the basis for discussing and refining your business idea for an eco-inclusive enterprise. The interactive discussions and valuable peer learning exchanges with other Starter Teams helps you to realise where the true potential of your business idea lies.
• Demonstrate Phase
  • Bring your innovative business idea to market and deliver products and services that generate positive environmental, social and economic impacts for your target market.
  • After the successful completion of the SEED Starter programme, you and your entrepreneurial team will be equipped with the tools, insights and supportive network to launch your product at market. You will be following in the footsteps of previous Starter participants who have similarly innovated and refined business ideas that offer socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable market-based solutions.
• Additional Support
  • Benefit from the extensive network of eco-inclusive enterprises, experienced business development service providers and supportive partners as they work towards the next stages of enterprise growth.
    • SEED Grants
      • As a successful and highly motivated alumnus of the  SEED Starter incubation programme, you are invited to apply for a SEED Grant for up to €1,000 EUR which pays for your immediate necessary activities, measures or machinery required to establish the new enterprise. All SEED Grants are advertised and dispersed via the SEED Platform.
    • SEED Enterprise Profiling
      • Successful Starter Teams are supported through the profiling and networking opportunities offered by SEED. As a highly motivated SEED Starter alumni, your team will receive the opportunity to display your individual enterprise profile on the website and they will support you wherever possible during the next stages of your entrepreneurial journey.
    • SEED BDS+ Advisors Support
      • Selected programme alumni can also benefit from the additional tailor-made one-on-one support offered by SEED BDS+ Advisors, who support enterprises to further refine their products and develop their business models.

What does the SEED Starter offer?

As a SEED Starter Team, you along with other aspiring entrepreneurs will receive valuable resources and professional support to expand on your entrepreneurial ideas while learning from your peers during interactive SEED Starter workshops.

• Professional Support
  • Receive professional support from experienced entrepreneurship experts.
• Entrepreneurial Ideas
  • Develop ideas using the 19 self-help tools from the SEED Starter Toolkit.
• Peer Learning
  • Learn from peers who similarly strive to generate eco-inclusive impacts.
• Network Building
  • Build a support network to assist with eco-inclusive enterprise start up.

Details

• This programme cycle will take place in Nagpur, India.
• Date of the first Workshop is 5 June 2024.

Criteria

• All SEED Starter participants consist of a team of 2-5 members. They bring in a business idea for addressing environmental, social and economic challenges. The SEED Starter guides you and your entrepreneurial team to turn your eco-inclusive business ideas into reality. The Starter is a three-month programme which helps you to understand and challenge the key underlying assumptions of your business.
• A set of workshops and individual support from one of the trained service providers immerses you in an unprecedented ideation journey. During the SEED Starter, you will bring in your fresh new ideas and take the first steps to design a successful enterprise. They particularly welcome applications from women and youth.

For more information, visit SEED.