MIT Enterprise Forum CEE is a Central and Eastern Europe based, equity-free startup acceleration program affiliated to the worldwide recognized Massachusetts Institute of Technology that provides financial, legal, and consultancy support to startup founders from the CEE region. The aim of the program is to support the development of the most innovative companies from Central and Eastern Europe by combining their potential with the knowledge and resources of leading global and regional enterprises and the experience of Polish and international mentors, helping startups to scale up on global markets, primarily in the United States.
The MIT Enterprise Forum CEE Accelerator has a strong track record of transforming innovative, early-stage startups into rapidly growing businesses with access to international markets. The accelerator helps entrepreneurs to implement best practices while avoiding common mistakes and provides them with access to successful mentors combined with quality training developed by members of the MIT and MIT Enterprise Forum communities. The program culminates in a high-profile Demo Day featuring pitches from the finalists and a poster session for all participants.
Accelerator Strategy Overview
STARTUPS ELIGIBLE FOR ACCELERATION PROGRAM
Geography: CEE region
Preferred industries: Health, Fintech & Insurtech, New Energy, Industry 4.0, Sustainability, Martech, Smart Cities, Retail & Autonomous Store
Company stage: MVP (pre-seed), launch (seed), early scale-up
Product stage: MVP/beta, ready product
Product type: B2B, B2C, B2B2C
Revenues: Typically yes, but they make exceptions
PROGRAM DETAILS
Duration: 6 Months
Participation fee: No - the program is free of charge
Equity Investment: equity-free acceleration program
Grant: Yes A) 22,000 EUR as part of the CVC Young Innovator Award competition for the most socially impactful startup, B) foreign startups interested in developing their business on the Polish market may apply for grant funding of up to 50,000 EUR in the Poland Prize program (apply to cohorts in 2021/2022).
No of batches per year: 2 batches per year: recruitment in January - February and May - June
No of startups in a cohort: Up to 25
Q&A with Magdalena Jabłońska, President of the Board
What are the 5 most important things you look for in a startup applying to your program?
While searching for hidden startup gems, we pay strong attention to the following criteria:
- The maturity level of solution (MVP)
- The unique team and solution advantages
- The motivation of the team
- Matching the needs of our partners
- Social impact of the innovation
What startups should take into account before applying to your acceleration program?
Our acceleration program gives as much value as startups are able to get out of it. Participation requires time spent on verifying the company's assumptions (workshop sessions, mentoring sessions) and cooperation with a partner (Proof of Concept), so they must be ready to allocate the essential amount of time. Without full commitment, it will be more difficult to take the biggest value out of our program. What’s more, startups need to be well prepared and take into account what are the current partners of the program, as finding a proper business case with them is a must.
We invite startups from all over the world at the same time with a strategic focus on the CEE region. Most important admissions criterias are:
- Limited liability company (required only in case of final acceptance to the program)
- Company not older than 5 years
- Company with up to 50 employees
- Team of minimum 2 people
- At least MVP stage
Can you share some of the red flags that can disqualify a startup from joining your accelerator?
The lack of an engaged startup team behind any solution is a red flag for us. What’s more, we’re looking for self-confident teams, but we expect some kind of openness to feedback.
What are the most valuable skills that selected startups can develop thanks to your program?
Startups learn systematic development of innovation-driven enterprise in a proven methodology of 24 steps. They gain business capital and the possibility of implementing proof of concept with a specific corporate partner. It’s also an opportunity to increase their visibility on the market and join the community of like-minded people focused on innovations.
How does your accelerator support portfolio companies during and after the program?
The program includes several key stages, such as:
- Participation in several day-long workshop sessions, during which the program of 24 steps of disciplined entrepreneurship by Prof. Bill Aulet from MIT is carried out, as well as workshops with lawyers, patent attorneys, sales coaches, and many more.
- Participation in the Pitch Academy run by international experts.
- Cooperation with mentors – each startup is assigned to at least two mentors who have achieved spectacular successes in international business. Their role is to substantively support the startups on their way to achieving market success.
- Cooperation with program partners (large enterprises), which aims at pilot implementation and verification of the effectiveness of solutions offered by startups in real market conditions. For startups, it is both the opportunity to verify their own business assumptions and the chance to establish commercial cooperation with the leaders of various industries.
- Bootcamp in Boston – a chance for Top 3 startups to be offered an online Boston Bootcamp, which is filled with workshops and business meetings with potential investors and partners from the USA.
After completing the acceleration stage, startups join the Alumni Club. The club provides an interactive ecosystem for further growth, knowledge sharing, and partnerships opportunities. We have created a platform that has various levels of access by startups (alumni), corporate partners, investors, business service providers, mentors and other selected key community players. We facilitate regular meetings, 1:1 sessions, as well as unique access to knowledge and know-how, while also organise bootcamps to new markets that are of the biggest interest to our startups.
What are the best-performing companies in your portfolio?
To name only a few: XTPL, Telemedico, Genomtec, Symmetrical, ChallengeRocket, Hashiona, Stethome.
What key lessons have you learned from projects that didn’t work out the way you expected?
We only had a few single unsuccessful cases when things didn't work out in relations between startup and corporate partners - the main cause was either lack of engagement from startups founders' sites (it is rather an exception) or the fact that in some specific situations things cannot move forward due to formal/regulatory or process/no decision making related reasons.
In some cases, startups failed in fundraising and even though we still believed in the potential of technology, founders were no longer motivated enough to accept the help support of our experts who wanted to help in ensuring sufficient funding. Then there were a few cases when the scope of work related to the development of the product or the necessary financing was underestimated, or when the startup hasn’t managed to adapt the amount of work and challenges to the needs of the corporate partner. Moreover, some companies failed during the application process in defining appealing use cases of specific technology. We also had a case when a startup failed in product-market fit and was not able to pivot during acceleration.
Why, in your opinion, accelerators are becoming more popular nowadays?
Accelerators help startups speed up the development of their company and find the right environment and community, which is crucial for innovation-driven companies. The ecosystem organized around acceleration programs gives first-hand access to industry experts, high-level & experienced mentors, and most importantly a wide range of corporate partners which are able to test the solution, provide necessary feedback and help access the market.
What are the hottest markets you currently look at as an accelerator and where do you see the biggest hype?
The social impact companies working on technologies in fields of climate change and digital transformation are the sphere we currently pay attention to, as the sustainable approach to the development presenting by startups focusing on ESG aspects is the future. Besides, we are observing with an interest the direction of the retail market growth thanks to e-commerce and autonomous stores gaining in popularity. Moreover, our activities are fully dedicated to Central & Eastern Europe not without reason - we believe that there is still a lot of uncovered potential in this regional market and we are very excited to watch it being unleashed over time.
Do you have any predictions about the key trends that will shape the European accelerator scene in the near future?
We see two challenges for the nearest future:
- Climate change - we need more technologies that will help us fight climate change but at the same time, existing companies and corporations need to adapt, work and produce in a much more sustainable way.
- COVID 19 caused huge pressure into digital transformation and there is a global need for convenient technologies that will make daily life and daily processes easier, accessible, and future-proofed.
Startup accelerators in order to help face those challenges need to build international partnerships, create space and platform for communities to grow and shape a sustainable future.
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