Photo: Pyrolyze
Accelerator programme for start-ups
BeStart helps climate tech start-ups in the north of the Netherlands to make their companies successful. We support start-ups with technologies or services which contribute to a cleaner environment, water availability or to saving energy. We call this climate tech. However, start-ups which contribute to sustainability or the circular economy in other ways are also very welcome to apply.
Access to testlabs to validate your product
A place at the table with the right people in our cleantech network
Individual coaching on exactly those things where you need help
BeStart network
By participating in BeStart you gain access to our extensive network in the Northern Netherlands. We know the organisations and companies looking for innovations and we help you to get in touch with them. That way you meet people who can help you with e.g. financing or that first customer. After each phase, you present your start-up to the entire network during the DemoDay.
Testlabs and business opportunities
I moved to Friesland with SusPhos because of the helpful network and many testfacilities. Everybody wants to help you here.
In the North of the Netherlands there is still room. We have access to many testfacilities where you can validate and test your product. Moreover, there are plenty of opportunities to settle and everyone oozes circularity here.
Individual coaching
From the start of your participation, you receive individual coaching (1-on-1) from our start-up coaches. They have vast experience with almost all possible problems and issues. The coaches assess your specific needs to make your business successful and are ready to support you during the work sessions and throughout the programme via telephone or Skype.
Challenges you may have and we can help you tackle
- “Help us from idealism to entrepeneurship”
- “We have ongoing encounters with legislation”
- “We are looking for strategical partners to help us scale-up and bring our technology to market”
- “I need coaching and help making a complex sale”
- “We are looking for a launching customer”
…and many more.
Some of these challenges are typical for startups with a circulair technology. Why? Because having a cleantech startup requires more then a simply sell a product.
To break through with a new product or service you sometimes need to take a brick to the head and go for it full speed ahead.
Business sessions
The accelerator programme lasts one year and goes through three different stages: Build, Launch and Scale. In each phase we check with our participating startups which topics are most relevant at that moment. Topics that have been covered the past years:
- agile and scrum
- designing experiments
- short term and long term planning
- how to assemble your team
- project management
- pitching skills
- networking skills
- examples from the Netherlands and abroad
- climate tech
- design thinking
- proposition
- martk segmentation
- financial model
- startup valuation
- intellectual property and patent
Build
Whether it’s solving a tough technical problem or a simple addition to the market, every business starts with a business idea. As a participant, you will work in the ‘build phase’ during a bootcamp to validate your business idea and develop it into a business model and strategy.
Launch
Starting point for phase 2 is your validated business case with the aim of proving the value of this business case in the market. In this phase you get 1 hour of business development support every week that you schedule with your business coach. Together you will develop your own (unique) growth route, which will help you develop in a focused way. We call this growth route the ‘growth map’, which you draw up together with your personal business developer. The ‘growth map’ becomes a roadmap for your company that maps out the growth and needs as a participant for the coming period.
Scale
During phase 3, you will focus on growing your business from an initial market launch to a
fast-growing company. Raising capital, to finance the growth of your business, plays an important role in this phase. One of the parts we cover is becoming ‘investor ready’. The first matchmaking with relevant investors also takes place in this phase. You are now part of our network and we continue to support you with individual coaching, business knowledge and useful inputs. At BeStart alumni you will find the companies that participated in our program.
After trying for a long time to get in contact with one the most important clients in the greenhouse sector, it was all quickly organised after the BeStart DemoDay. One of the network partners was able to introduce me at the right level and suddenly I had a seat at the table!
DemoDays
At the end of both the Think and Check phases is the DemoDay. Here, you pitch your start-up and your challenges to the circular business network in the north of the Netherlands. The businesses and local governments challenge each other to offer you the best access to their network. This is a unique chance since it can take months or even years to get to know the right people in the right organisations.
Partners en financiers
Uniek netwerk in de circulaire economie
Binnen BeStart zijn de krachten gebundeld van vier belangrijke aanjagers van innovatie, startups en business development in de circulaire sector van Noord-Nederland. Verder worden we door een aantal partijen in de publieke en private sector gefinancierd.
