What is the Accelerate phase?

The accelerator aims to give the winners the tools to make their innovation ready for market and financing. During the 4-month program, start-ups focus on developing their social business model and bringing their innovation to market themselves. Designers focus on developing their social business case and finding partners who can bring their innovation to market.

More about the process

Awards

 

20 winners are selected by an international jury. They receive a budget and tailor-made guidance to develop their project. 10 start-ups and designers win access to the accelerator developed by Social Enterprise NL. 10 students and moonshot ideas win mentor sessions to define next steps.

Local Partners

 

In each city, a local partner organizes sessions to help the winner connect with relevant partners, financers, customers and networks that can help bring their solution to market. The local partners are The Climate Collective (Delhi), StartUp Mexico (Mexico City), Metta (Nairobi), Climate Ventures (São Paulo) and Social Enterprise NL (Amsterdam).

Mentors

 

A mentor guides each winner through the program. During 4 sessions the mentor helps the winner translate their learnings into practice and define development needs, networking needs and next steps.

Challenge Sessions

 

Winners start the program with a Challenge Session: a 1,5 hour conversation with 3 or 4 experts. After the session, winners:

  1.  are aware of the strengths and bottlenecks in their social business model
  2.  are aware of the resources they need
  3.  have the handles needed to develop an Action Plan for the accelerator

Action & Growth Plan

 

Winners write an Action Plan during the first week of the program. It describes their ambitions and how they plan to develop their social business model during the accelerator. The Action Plan and the Social Business Model Canvas serve as guidelines for the winners and their mentor. In the last phase of the accelerator, winners write a Growth Plan for the coming 3 years.

Timeline & Themes

  • Kick-off & Challenge Sessions

  • Online sessions

  • Bootcamp in Amsterdam

  • Halfway Meet-up & Partnership Dry Runs

  • Online sessions

  • Pitch for partners

  • Online session