Guide for applicants
Closure of application period:
February 28th, 2021 at 23:59 p.m. CET
INTRODUCTION
Aimed at ISDI students and X-ISDI 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 turn 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 two-weeks 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 three months in which ISDI provides a number of benefits (three-month online incubation program, demo day and other events, visibility, access to relevant investors and corporates and external services at favorable conditions, etc) in exchange for a percentage of the startup equity.
ISDI doesn’t charge any cash for this program. ISDI Start is completely free. We fund the program by taking a small equity charge in the companies we support into ISDI Start UP and beyond. This means that when these companies are successful, we get some returns that allow us to be there for the next program.
You can submit your application to the program at the following URL: https://hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi%20start%203rd%20edition.
The deadline for submitting your application is 28th February 2021 at 23:59 p.m. CET. https://hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi%20start%203rd%20edition
SERVICES OFFERED TO ISDI START UP PARTICIPANTS
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 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 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.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
To be eligible for the evaluation, applications must meet all eligibility criteria bellow:
- They must be submitted through the official platform (https://hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi%20start%203rd%20edition).
- 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.
SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
Applications must be submitted through the official website: https://hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi%20start%203rd%20edition before 28th February 2021 at 23:59 pm CET. Applications submitted by other means and/or later than the stated deadline will not be considered for evaluation.
The registration form is hosted on the The Hub, ISDI’s acceleration platform https://hub.isdi.education/application/new?program=isdi%20start%203rd%20edition and, in order to complete and submit said application, it is necessary to register on that platform with the personal data of at least one of the team members. By sending the data through the aforementioned form, the user is accepting ISDI Accelerator Privacy Policy and the policy of the technical provider of The Hub (AcceleratorApp), https://www.acceleratorapp.co/legal/privacy.
Applications will be submitted via a single online form, which includes:
Project proposal, divided into 4 sections:
- Contact and legal information
- Project
- Company and team
- Business and strategic fit
Control questions: questions related to where and how the applicant learned about the Accelerator. This section also covers privacy policies.
Please, before sending the information consider that:
- The Evaluators will only consider the documentation included in the application form (and in the annexes). It is the responsibility of the applicant to include all the necessary information in the form.
- Only one proposal can be submitted per applicant. If more than one proposal is identified per applicant, only the first proposal submitted in time order will be evaluated.
- The data provided must be real, true and complete and must allow the evaluation of the proposal.
LANGUAGE
English is the official language for submitting applications for ISDI Start. Proposals must be in English to be eligible.
INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
To the extent needed for the participation to the program, the startup grants to ISDI, a royalty-free license, on a non-exclusive basis, without geographical or temporal limitation, and with the right to assign to third parties, to use the contents and materials provided.
Applicants will be solely responsible for claims on intellectual or industrial property rights that may occur, obliging them to compensate ISDI, their investee companies and / or customers of any of them for all expenses, damages and losses. may cause the violation of the aforementioned rights.
Applicants are expressly prohibited from using and / or exploiting, in any way and in any medium (own and / or third party), the logos, trademarks and / or distinctive signs of ISDI, unless prior written authorization is obtained from the holder of the signs distinctive.
PRE-SCORING & EVALUATION PROCESS
Eligible proposals will be automatically scored by the evaluation system, obtaining up to 100 percentage points according to the following criteria: team (30% weight), business (40% weight), strategic fit (30% weight).
The evaluation system will establish a threshold and all applications that reach the minimum threshold score or higher will move on to the external evaluation.
After pre-scoring, all applications will be evaluated and qualified by a jury, consisting of experts from ISDI Accelerator. The jury will evaluate applications using the given criteria: team, business and strategic fit.
COMMUNICATION PROCESSES
Applicants will receive a notification after the evaluation process indicating whether they have been selected or not. The decisions of the jury, composed of experts of recognized prestige, will be final and not appealable.