Deadline: 12-Sep-22
Are you a Tees Valley tech start-up? If yes, then apply for the DigitalCity Accelerator programme which has been designed to accelerate the growth of early-stage tech companies in the Tees Valley who are in the process of launching or planning to launch new to market products and services.
The programme is free to eligible companies and includes seven highly interactive weekly workshops full of thoroughly researched content delivered by digital industry experts.
Agenda
- Workshop 1 – Induction & Lean / Human Centred Design
- After an initial induction around what the programme will cover, the formats used and a discussion regarding mind-set and learning methods with the group, you’ll dive straight into a Lean Up / Human Centred Design boot camp.
- This includes an introduction to Design Sprints and how they’re used, the 10 principles that redefine management from a design perspective and finding out about the ‘Brand Deck’ approach for identifying brand values and brand-driven innovation.
- Workshop 2 – Customer Development: To help towards your product development decisions and market understanding, the Customer Development workshop will educate you on the importance of finding out customer pain points and identifying how your product or service can solve them.
- Workshop 3 – Leadership / Building a Team: With several interactive tasks you’ll gain an understanding of how a start-up business is different to a traditional business and the challenges they’re faced with. Including start-up capabilities, the values and responsibilities of co-founders, the struggles of being an entrepreneur and building scalability into the organisation. You’ll also find out about different team dynamics and identifying how your team will operate in a fast-moving market.
- Workshop 4 – Law / IP: You will be offered a one-to-one session with their partner Endeavour Law who will discuss your legal requirements with you. This may include IP, copyright, patents and partnership contracts, all of which will be delivered in a friendly manner bespoke to your organisation’s needs.
- Workshop 5 – Traction & Growth / Managing Change: This workshop will equip you with the knowledge and skills your early-stage business needs to drive affordable and sustainable growth. You’ll learn market-leading mind-sets, marketing and branding hacks and the importance of keeping track of your businesses traction.
- Workshop 6 – Raising Finance: To help towards your financial decisions, you’ll be shown various business models and given help on the different sources of finance available and their benefits including Business Angels, equity investment, grants and loans. You’ll also be given guidance on the ways of structuring different types of money, business debt and the financial vocabulary used in the business world.
- Workshop 7 – Pitching to Investors & Pitch Prep: The final workshop will cover the main methods to consider in your pitch deck ahead of presenting to a wide range of potential investors at the Demo Day. You’ll find out the best ways to prepare and the level of background knowledge that you’re expected to provide. As well as tips and tricks on things to include to get the audience excited about your idea, engaged in a conversation about your business and ultimately lead to an investment.
- Demo Day: The Demo Day is the grand finale of the programme and provides you with a chance to pitch your digital products and services for the very first time to an audience made up of individuals and organisations that could add real value to your business. These include funding managers, investors, Local Authorities and University Research Institutes.
Eligibility Criteria
- Tees Valley-based SMEs trading longer than 18 months may be eligible for other support from DigitalCity, though not grant funding.
- Essential:
- Tees Valley-based digital or tech business
- Registered as a Ltd company or as a CIC with Companies House
- Actively trading up to 18 months
- Hold a business bank account
- Has a company website
- Looking to grow the business (not a sole trader)
- Desirable:
- Using digital technology in an innovative way and / or creating solutions to wider sector problems digitally
- Has an office / business premises
- Has an established customer base and is invoicing for work on a regular basis
- Has a marketing strategy and clearly defined route to market
- Has firm plans in place to employ new staff in the next 18-24 months.
A typical workshop day is as follows:
- 9:30am – 12:30pm
- AM Workshop
- 12:30pm – 1:00pm
- Lunch & Guest Speaker
- 1:00pm – 2:30pm
- PM Workshop
- 2:30pm – 4:00pm
- Mentoring
Ineligible
- The businesses they support on this Programme must be offering a commercial B2B (business to business) service or product that is digital in nature.
- They are not able to work with exclusively business to consumer companies such as retailers. Typically this Programme does not support creative industries or arts-based businesses such as digital artists or performers who draw the majority of their income from funding. Businesses supported must be a commercial entity and the service offered should be primarily a digital or tech one.
For more information, visit https://thedigitalcity.com/services/accelerator-programme/