How can startups & companies change the world without money
On the early stages of developing a startup, when the struggle is to find a problem worth working on, gathering a strong team around the idea and then getting a market validation for a solution, very few founders actually need a money investment. In those days, a startup needs knowledge, needs advice, needs specific resources and solutions, needs connections, needs intros to clients and partners, and needs a strong team.
Money can indeed buy some of those and even give the founders a stronger feeling of control over their management. But the real questions here are: (1) is it worth the time and hassle a founder has to put down and up with? and (2) is there really an advantage in having the money to buy those resources than actually having access to them by other means?
Startups first step: Pitch & Match with the investing companies
Startcelerate Pitch & Match Event functions as a counter-hackathon focused on four components – Learning, Pitching, Collaboration & Feedback – and has as the main objective at the end of the event the creation of investment partnerships between the selected startups and investors.
Third edition of Startcelerate Pitch & Match event will take place in Canary Wharf, London at Level39 in the last weekend of this month: 31st October – 1st November 2014.
The event will host
- 20 established startups in need of further development either to create technology demos or scale their business
- 10 software development companies, marketing and design agencies in Europe that have a commitment to manage resource-based investments
- 10 internationally renowned entrepreneurs and business professionals, as speakers
- 20 managers, investors and business professionals
Two Pitch & Match events were held already in Romania, Cluj and Bucharest, both validating the event structure, the internal team efficiency and the need for this kind of alternative founding of the market.
Specific to Startcelerate’s investment process is a bespoke convertible security that simplifies the negotiation, prevents premature valuation, and covers specific risks.
More info and registrations (opened for startups until 20 October 2014) at london.startcelerate.com
Startcelerate, a startup itself with global approach
Tudor and Gabriel, founders of Startcelerate, strongly believe that there is a great opportunity to create a better world if different kind of resources that are trapped inside established companies would be readily available for smart and creative entrepreneurs as direct investments based on a partnership framework. Collaboration and partnerships are at the core of this concept, and so Startcelerate, a London-based startup, launched in 2014 a new framework for startup investments, where different types of companies can allocate internal resources to chosen startups in exchange for equity.
The startup has an offline, local event named Startcelerate Pitch & Match – a three, two or one day event that brings together a selected number of startups, a curated panel of companies as investors, high-profile speakers and a handful of special guests. The online tool, which will be launched in 2015, will create a monitoring environment where the partners can see the evolution of their project and the efficiency of their investment.
Startcelerate team grew from 2 founders in May 2014, to 8 team members located in Bucharest, Cluj and London and 3 advisors from UK, Belgium and Germany. All software development needs are covered by a partnership with a Romanian development company.
For Startcelerate the next steps are organizing the London Pitch & Match event (Level39 in October 2014), launching the online platform (Q2 2015), and preparing the next 6 Pitch & Match events for next year (London, Berlin, Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris).
Startcelerate concept
Highlights of Bucharest event