How to Web is launching MVP Academy, a pre-acceleration program dedicated to Central and Eastern European startups. Between April 30 and May 17, teams that are working on innovative tech products will be able to apply for the program by filling the registration form available online at www.mvpacademy.co.
Central and Eastern European startups are well known for their technical talent, but they don"t always have the necessary business knowledge to transform their ideas into globally successful products. Given this context, How to Web is launching MVP Academy, a pre-acceleration program that will endow entrepreneurs in the region with the necessary knowledge to develop their startup into a globally successful venture, to speed up their growth process and to explore the opportunities in the market.
How to Web MVP Academy will take place between June 2nd and July 22nd at TechHub Bucharest and will bring together 14 promising teams from the region. Besides the educational component, the finalist teams will have access, for the entire duration of the program, to co-working space, mentoring, as well as an international tech community and connections with angel investors, acceleration programs and early stage venture funds. Consequently, the How to Web MVP Academy experience will help startups benefit from the opportunity to develop their products into thriving businesses.
The program is designed for tech startups (teams or individuals) which have less than 2 years of activity, have developed at least a minimum viable product, haven"t raised more than 50.000 EUR until the moment they joined the program and haven"t participated in any other acceleration program so far. The tech products they are working on must fall in one of the following categories: software, hardware, internet of things, mobile, robotics, biotech, medtech or ecommerce. How to Web MVP Academy is a program developed in partnership with Microsoft, Romtelecom and Cosmote, and supported by Bitdefender, Raiffeisen Bank, Hub:raum and TechHub Bucharest.
During the 7 weeks of the program, the 14 teams will attend practical workshops and will acquire key competencies required for building a startup: business concepts, finance, legal aspects, product development, storytelling, marketing, community building, networking or pitching. Moreover, the teams will also benefit from mentorship sessions and will have the chance to talk directly to locally, regionally and internationally apprised specialists and entrepreneurs.
The progress of the teams participanting in How to Web MVP Academy will be monitored through a series of key performance indicators, thus being supported in their accelerated growth. Among the benefits that the finalist teams will derive will be access to tech infrastructure offered by international companies (cloud hosting or free access to different platforms), access to the TechHub Bucharest co-working space, community and events, key connections in the industry and ongoing support to develop their startups during the program.
How to Web MVP Academy will bring in front of the teams more than 40 mentors having relevant experience and competences for the development stage of the startups: other startup founders, teams that have graduated acceleration program, business and product specialists, as well as early stage investors. Among them there will be Jon Bradford (Managing Director, Techstars), Florin Talpeş (Co-founder & CEO, Bitdefender), Cosmin Ochişor (Business Development Manager, hub:raum), Gabriel Coarnă (Architect, Evernote Clearly), Adrian Gheară (Co-founder NeobyteSolutions, business angel and advisor to various startups), Bobby Voicu and Cristi Badea (Co-Founders of Mavenhut and alumni of Startup Bootcamp accelerator) or Daniela Neumann (Scrum Master/Change Management at idealo internet GmbH). The full list of mentors that will guide the teams during How to Web MVP Academy is available online here http://mvpacademy.co/mentors/
The program will end on Tuesday, July 22nd, with a Demo Day, an event during which the teams will pitch their products and present their progress in front of a jury comprising angel investors, early stage venture funds, and representatives of some of the most prestigious acceleration programs in Europe. Thus, the startups will have the chance to get additional financing and continue developing their products even after the program ends.
The 14 finalist teams will participate for free in How to Web MVP Academy and no equity will be taken from them. The applications can be submitted online at www.mvpacademy.co, until Saturday, May 17 and they will be evaluated by a specialist jury, considering factors such as the team and its experience in the field, the target market"s size, industry trends, the initial traction, the feasibility, and the scalability of the product. The teams accepted into the program will be announced on Friday, May 23rd.
The visibility of the event is ensured by Goal Europe, Netokracija, IT Dogadjadi, Digjitale, Entrepreneur.bg, Newtrend.bg, Adevărul Tech, Forbes România, Wall-Street.ro, Business Cover, Manager Express, Business Woman, Market Watch, Ctrl-D, PC World, Computer World, Gadget Trends, Today Software Magazine, Agora, Yoda.ro, Incont.ro, România Liberă, Zelist Monitor, Comunicatedepresa.ro şi Times New Roman.