Aimed at ISDI students and xISDI worldwide who are leading technology-based projects between definition, pre-seed and seed stage, less than two years old.

Potential entrepreneurs with an association with ISDI are helped on the journey to creating a startup company. Participants will have access to training, mentoring, investors, among other services, to take their idea and convert it into a successful commercial venture. After the experience of helping several startups scaling up their projects, the approach is demonstrated to be effective.
The incubation program will be delivered in two phases: ISDI Start and ISDI Start UP.

Each person interested will have the opportunity to join ISDI Start, a nine-day long training bootcamp with a very practical approach that will help participants to work on their value proposition, team definition, prototyping, technology & operations, go to market and pitching.

After this initial phase, up to 5 finalists will be invited to join ISDI Start UP for the development of an MVP in two months in which ISDI provides a number of benefits (two-month online incubation program, demo day and other events, visibility, access to relevant investors and corporates and external services at favorable conditions, etc).

ISDI doesn’t charge any cash for this program. ISDI Start is completely free.
You can submit your application to the program at the following URL: hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi-start-6th-edition

The deadline for submitting your application is February 28th 2023 at 23:59 p.m. CET​. 

All the participants will be entitled to the following package of services:

• Training bootcamp: this bootcamp is designed to help startups gather more knowledge in the areas they need to launch their project, with a practical format and featuring speakers from leading organizations.
• Team: one of the main goals is to help participants finding the team they need for building a very successful project.
• Visibility: through communication and networking.
• Potential access to a two-month online incubation program

Up to five projects will have the opportunity to join ISDI Start UP. This incubation program will include the following:

• Business mentors: each participating team receives two months of individual sessions with a high-level mentor custom-matched with the startup. Mentoring follows a personalized methodology and addresses current needs the project is experiencing.
• Specialist mentors: startups can also learn from successful and veteran entrepreneurs, experienced investors and C-Level executives from big corporations/organizations such as Google, AirBnB among others. All of them have extensive experience working with startups.
• External services program: participants have access to significant discounts from technological, marketing, legal and talent services, among others, provided by renowned companies such as Amazon, Google Cloud and more.
• Visibility: communication and networking.
• Demo Day: at the end of the incubation program, the finalists will present in front of private investors, other executives from large corporations and media.
• Financing: each startup joining ISDI Start UP will have access to ISDI Investors Club.

This program is looking to offer the best experience for startups during ISDI Start and the following incubation program. That is why we ask for the following, commitment:

• To attend our training bootcamp and to share your ideas with other people attending the bootcamp.

To be eligible for the evaluation, applications must meet all eligibility criteria below:

• They must be submitted through the official platform (hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi-start-6th-edition).
• They must be submitted before the limit date. Applications must be submitted before the closing time and the date of the contest round. Late proposals will not be evaluated.

Only participants that meet the following requirements are eligible for ISDI Start:

• Be an ISDI student or X-ISDI.
• Have an idea with strong potential.
• Be committed to the program and to ISDI.
• Founder(s) must have at least 30% of the equity of the potential startup.
• Founder(s) must have high-level English language skills, as the program may take place in English.
• The project must be aligned with ​ISDI’s values and should respect EU legal regulations (e.g. GDPR etc.)

Besides, the following requirement will be taken into account:

• Participants profiles
• Maturity level of the idea
• Project potential
• Commitment to the program and to ISDI

Only participants that meet the following requirements are eligible for ISDI Start UP:

• The startup has at least one CEO or business manager and/or a CTO or technical manager.
• At least one full-time founder is dedicated to the project.
• Do not be participating, during the incubation program, in other incubation or acceleration program.
• Allow ISDI the use of image copyright and others.
• The startup has serious technology, preferably with sustainable competitive advantages, although this is not a requirement.
• The startup has a strong component of innovation, where innovation is understood in the broadest sense (product, process, business plan, and more).

The program is open to legally established and non-established companies.

Yes, the program is open to legally established and non-established companies.

It is not an eligibility requirement.

Complete the online form at the following link: hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi-start-6th-edition

The deadline for submitting your application is February 28th 2023 at 23:59 p.m. CET. 

No, this program will require a lot of time and dedication to get positive results.

Yes. The registration form is hosted on the The Hub (hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi-start-6th-edition), our acceleration platform and innovation community and, in order to submit your application, it is necessary to register on that platform with your personal data.

You can contact the ISDI Accelerator team via email info-accelerator@isdi.education. We will respond to you as soon as possible and will guide you through the necessary steps to complete the form successfully.

The selection process has been designed to be fair, objective and (we hope) interesting for you. It will consist of the following steps:

ISDI Start:

> General verification of eligibility.

All applications will be verified to ensure that they meet the following requirements:

• Meet all eligibility criteria listed in the Applicant Guide.
• Have sent the application through the official online platform hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi-start-6th-edition. Proposals submitted by any other means will not be considered for evaluation.
• Have completed the application before the deadline, February 28th 2023 at 23:59 p.m.

> Pre-scoring.

Eligible proposals will be automatically scored according to the following criteria, obtaining up to 100 percentage points as follows:

• Team (30% weight)
• Business opportunity (40% weight)
• Strategic fit (30% weight)

ISDI Start UP:

> Jury evaluation.

All applications will be evaluated and qualified by a jury of experts coming from ISDI. This evaluation will be based on the criteria of team, business opportunity and strategic fit. Up to 5 startups will be selected for the two-month online incubation program.

All the participants will be entitled to the following package of services:

• Training bootcamp: this event is designed to help startups gather more knowledge in the áreas they need to launch their project, with a practical format and featuring speakers from leading organizations.
• Team: one of the main goals is to help participants finding the team they need for building a very successful project.
• Visibility: through communication and networking.
• Potential access to a three-month online incubation program

Up to five projects will have the opportunity to join ISDI Start UP. This incubation program will include the following:

• Business mentors: each participating team receives three months of individual sessions with a high-level mentor custom-matched with the startup. Mentoring follows a personalized methodology and addresses current needs the project is experiencing.
• Specialist mentors: startups can also learn from successful and veteran entrepreneurs, experienced investors and C-Level executives from big corporations/organisations such as Google, AirBnB and NASA. All of them have extensive experience working with startups.
• External services program: participants have access to significant discounts from technological, marketing, legal and talent services, among others, provided by renowned companies such as Amazon, Google Cloud and more.
• Visibility: communication and networking.
• Demo Day: at the end of the incubation program, the finalists will present in front of private investors, other executives from large corporations and media.
• Financing: each startup joining ISDI Start UP will have access to ISDI Investors Club.

Yes, if you are selected to join the training bootcamp, you will receive a contract which makes your attendance legally binding.

As the training bootcamp may take place in Madrid, Spain, you may be required to travel there for the duration of the bootcamp.

Besides, if you are one of the startups participating in ISDI Start UP for the Demo Day you will have to travel to the city this event will take place. Other events of your interest may take place too so you may be requested to travel in order to be part of them.

For the wellbeing of all participants and their health, ISDI will follow the sanitary restrictions as long as needed and move all activities online if needed.

No, not all expenses are covered. Travel expenses​ ​and out-of-pocket expenses shall be covered by you.

Yes, the program may be canceled if the volume or quality of applications does not meet the expectations. ISDI may take this decision at any time unilaterally and will be responsible for communicating it to participants.

This decision will not lead to any compensation in favor of participants, and participants won’t be able to file a claim for any reason against ISDI.