Deadline: 1 September 2023
Leicester Startups accelerator programme provides a selected cohort of founders with a structured 12-week programme of workshops, round tables, mentoring, free co-working space and full access to the Funding Hero platform All of this ensures a tailored mix of support to meet the unique need of each startup.
Leicester Startups help you focus on, and solve, the most critical challenges holding you back as you move through developing, shaping and scaling your business.
Throughout the programme, you’ll learn about:-
- Customer Development: Learn how to talk to customers in a way that reveals their true needs and validates your business model assumptions.
- Revenue modelling and pricing: Build a framework for how a business can generate income.
- Business Growth/marketing/hacking: Learn some of the best strategies to grow your business, including a few organic and viral growth hacking mechanisms.
- Financial management: Deploying the right tech at the right time.
- Lead generation: The process of filling your sales funnel with people who are interested in your business.
- Sales process: Learn how to position your product, target customers, and sell your unique value proposition.
- Governance: Often ignored until the last minute or it’s too late!
- Automating processes: Doing more with less.
- Intellectual property: Patents, designs, trademarks and copyright.
- Equity & Fundraising: Learn about the different fundraising and partnering options and how to build a Pitch Deck.
- Pitching essentials: Opportunity to practise and refine your pitch with real investors.
- Demo Day: Present your pitch to a panel of experienced investors and seasoned entrepreneurs.
Workshops take place every Monday 10:30am and 12pm, and the Round tables occur every Friday between 1pm and 2:30pm, The rest of the time is available for connections to mentors and product/service development.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for their accelerator you must fit the following criteria:-
- Working on a start-up with an innovative, scalable business model (please note this programme is not suitable for freelance, consultancy, agency or lifestyle businesses)
- A working prototype (or “Minimum Viable Product”) product/service, preferably with active users
- Have the capability to make frequent rapid changes to your product/service during the 12-weeks of the accelerator
- Able to commit to a flexible programme involving 4 hours of attendance to workshops and roundtables each week. They expect >80% attendance
- Based in the East Midlands with a registered company
- Willing to share the warts-and-all progress of your business with a private group of fellow founders
- Most accelerators focus on making start-ups investment-ready and this will be one of the main aims for their programme thanks to Funding Hero and their Investor Engine. However, the programme also encourages applications by “bootstrap” model businesses that are purely seeking growth rather than investment.
- They believe diversity makes for more successful startups and warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
Venue & Virtual
The programme will be delivered through a hybrid mix of online and in-person sessions, and they encourage you to take full advantage of the free unlimited access to their co-working space. All the workshops will also be recorded.
For more information, visit Leicester Startups.
