Several years of business experience within a few months
Innovation theoreticians and practitioners describe business acceleration as an intensive, rapid and involving process of practical education, which has the goal of speeding up the life cycle of young and innovative companies by presenting several years of a learning experience in a concentrated manner. Early-stage start-ups usually participate in acceleration programmes for a few months.
Richmond University and Rice University (USA) professors Susan Cohen and Yael Hochberg emphasise key business acceleration programme aspects, which highlight them from other innovation ecosystem promotion measures. Firstly, such programmes typically are of fixed duration, spanning several months; furthermore, the programmes are created for small groups, teams.
The third trait is that during programmes, start-ups are accompanied by the help of business mentors. The concluding part of the programme is also important – the so-called Demo Day. As a final note of the acceleration programme, such an event attracts investors and corporations to whom the teams make brief (e.g. 3 minute) presentations (pitches) of their business ideas.
Urging to be mindful of the specifics of one's product or service
"Start-ups, which choose to grow their business through namely such intensive learning, should consider every programme's unique points and find the most suitable one based on the specifics of their product or service. For example, acceleration programmes could be differentiated based on the profile of the technologies being created, or based on business development methods and modules that they apply. Others choose to strengthen international lecturers' teams by including the widest possible variety of experienced entrepreneurs" Kaunas Science and Technology Park director for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Paulius Nezabitauskas says.
Kaunas Science and Technology Park coordinates the business pre-acceleration programme Evolut 4.0. The programme is designed for the companies and start-ups, which are creating products or services, and helps them enter the market smoothly and encourage sales.
Core accent – consumer recognition
"We place a lot of attention on the consistency of start-up development processes. We start by describing the profile of a product's or service's potential consumer, evaluating the client's relationship with the product. Product development, marketing and user experience expert Inga Uus, who works with recognised companies, will help the participants of the programme to gaining familiarity with the business' clients and their needs. A wide number of interactive tasks, as well as meetings with prospective clients, await the teams," P. Nezabitauskas says.
The programme's lecturers, entrepreneurship, marketing, sales promotion and other experts help to make a detailed evaluation of the relevance of the problem resolved by the product or service, and it's potential to satisfy the customers' expectations. Participants also experience product prototyping workshops and employing the Design Thinking process. The business pre-acceleration lecturer team was joined by the Vytautas Magnus University Center for Enterprise Practices, which for several years now has been applying this process for innovating companies.
Enriched with Scandinavian entrepreneurship experiences
"This is the third business pre-acceleration cycle. We improve it while considering the experiences of the programme's alumni. The participants of the autumn cycle requested help with systemising sales processes and techniques, as well as preparing sales communication strategies for clients. We invited Jean-Baptiste Daguene, in my opinion, one of the best B2B sales specialists in Lithuania, who helps start-ups make sales, and also has significant experience of investing in start-ups," P. Nezabitauskas notes.
Another novelty awaits programme participants of the spring practical training cycle – a trip to the Kaunas Science and Technology Park's partners in Estonia, Tallinn's science park Tehnopol. Evolut 4.0 programme's newcomers will participate in the International Business Coaching Day's consultations led by start-up and business development experts from Estonia, Finland and Lithuania.
Business mentors to reinforce the programme
The start-up teams will meet with entrepreneurs from various areas of business and will discuss the further process of establishing a business. New knowledge, experiences and contacts could turn into a jumping-off point in the process of accessing international markets. The teams selected to the pre-acceleration programme will receive not only a lot of support from the lecturers but will also interact with business mentors. As a part of the Kaunas STP's mentorship programme, start-ups are invited to meet with ten business company mentors and choose the ones, who will accompany them with insights and advice throughout the programme cycle.
At the end of the pre-acceleration programme in May, the teams' experiences will be crowned by the event Pitch Deck, where the most active start-up teams will present the products and services they are creating to investors for evaluation.
Kaunas Science and Technology park invites those interested in participating in the programme Evolut 4.0 to register on http://kaunomtp.lt/evolut by March 10. Practical training on business development will be held in March, April and May this year in Kaunas.
