ELEVATE is an acceleration program for startups in the process of building a bot or bot-related company. The goal is to take your bot from prototype to product-market-fit in 6 months by offering intensive hands-on coaching, and programming & marketing support.
Are you interested in applying to be a part of ELEVATE? That’s great! Please read through the following Program Details carefully and then continue to the application form. If you still have any unanswered questions, don’t forget to check the FAQs or contact us for more.
- Anybody who is building or planning to build a bot or a bot-related company within the ecosystem of conversational interfaces.
- Anyone interested in using artificial intelligence, machine learning or conversational interfaces to push their service/product to the next level.
- Existing Startups who want to use a bot, artificial intelligence or machine learning as a crucial growth factor.
ELEVATE has a strong focus on developing an early-stage-prototype to product-market-fit and there are a few requirements:
- you have at least a first prototype
- your team consists at least of one developer and one marketing-oriented team member
- you don’t have to be an incorporated company yet (during the time of the program the formation of a company is necessary, support will be provided)
- it is mandatory that at least one of the founders can attend the mentoring sessions in Vienna
- you can also apply if you are an already established startup that wants to use a bot or associated technologies to grow.
Our Offer
420 hours of real hands-on work by experts
- that's 70 hours of hands-on coding and marketing execution & mentoring per month
- that's about 9 full workdays per month of senior experts working for YOUR business
You get hands-on time from experts:
100 hours of internal & external coaching in the fields of:
- Business Modelling & Product development
- Coding
- Marketing/growth
- Legal advice
- Funding advice
160 hours hands-on marketing/growth hacking support by an expert
160 hours hands-on coding time by a senior developer
And resources
€5,000 for travel expenses, first purchases, formation of company etc.
Possibility to use office space
Support in building your pitch deck, coaching and pitch training
All teams accepted to ELEVATE will be part of FBStart from Facebook and Amazon Activate
And more
Support by University research teams
Contacts to investors in relevant field
Contacts to corporates in your relevant field
Goodies from sponsors (free tools and credits)
Dates Batch #2
*Dates and Timings are subject to change
KICKOFF Meeting: 23 & 24 November
Meetup #1: 14 & 15 December
Meetup #2: 18 & 19 January
Meetup #3: 15 & 16 February
Meetup #4: 15 & 16 March
Meetup #5: 19 & 20 April
Meetup #6 & Demo Day: 22 & 23 May
What we covered in Batch #1
Applications Deadlines:
Application Deadline 1: February, 2017 – up to 3 startups will be admitted
Application Deadline 2: March, 2017 – minimum of 2 startups will be admitted
At each deadline, we will look into the entire application pool to make our decision. So, apply early to increase your chances of being selected.
PREWORK
Before the ELEVATE program begins, each participating startup may be assigned some individual tasks based on their application.
17.03.2017
Introduction
Meet the other Startup Teams
Meet your Experts
Business Model with WhatAVenture
Work on your Business Model
Evening Event
18.03.2017
Present your Business Model
Roadmap Set-Up with Experts
Wrap-Up
– 1 Month of Work and execution by your experts –
20.04.2017
Show & Tell – Your progress
KEYNOTE 1 Bot Development: Barbara Ondrisek
KEYNOTE 2 Product Development: Valentin Aschermann
Working Session Product Development with your Mentors
Evening Event
21.04.2017
KEYNOTE 1 Bots & Law: bpv Hügel
KEYNOTE 2 The Future of IBM Watson: IBM, Christoph Auer-Welsbach
KEYNOTE 3 Microsoft Bot Framework & Cognitive Services
Work with your Experts – Product Development
Show & Tell – Product Development
Wrap-Up
– 1 Month of Work and execution by your experts –
19.05.2017
Show & Tell – Your progress
KEYNOTE 1 Platform & Tech: Gregor Jarisch
KEYNOTE 2 Platform & Tech: David Pichsenmeister
Working Session: Platform & Tech with your mentors
Evening Event
20.05.2017
HACKATHON
Work with your Experts – Platform & Tech
Wrap-Up
– 1 Month of Work and execution by your experts –
13.06.2017
Show & Tell – Your progress
KEYNOTE 1 Testing & Security: David Mann
KEYNOTE 2 Botanalytics: Ilker Köksal
Working Session Testing & Analytics with your Mentors
Evening Event
14.06.2017
Hacking: Testing & Analytics
Working Session Testing & Analytics with your Mentors
Wrap-Up
– 1 Month of Work and execution by your experts –
14.07.2017
Show & Tell – Your progress
KEYNOTE 1: Growth Hacks: Yannick Khayati
KEYNOTE 2: Growth @ swell: Peter Buchroithner
KEYNOTE 3: Growth @ Poncho: Greg Leuch
Working Session Growth Hacking with your Mentors
TEAM EVENT
15.07.2017
Expert Sessions GROWTH
Work with your Experts – GROWTH
Wrap-Up
– 1 Month of Work and execution by your experts –
11.08.2017
Show & Tell – Your progress
PITCH Training
Wrap-Up & Prep Day 2
Evening Event
12.08.2017
KEYNOTE 1: Investment & Funding: Speedinvest
KEYNOTE 2: Investment & Funding: tba
Q&A with KEYNOTE-holders
Working Session Investment & Funding with your Mentors
PITCHES: Show us what you learned!
Wrap-Up
– 1 Month of Work and execution by your experts –
07.09.2017
Show & Tell – Your progress
PITCH PREP
Working Session with your Experts
Dinner
08.09.2017
PREP TIME PITCH
Get your funding: DEMO DAY with VC involvement
Closing Remarks
GRADUATION PARTY! 🙂
The Process Batch #1
*Topics & schedule may be subject to change.
You can either chose to further collaborate with TheVentury as your accelerator of choice and be part of a follow-up program with further services, a strong alumni community and a sympathetic ear whenever you need it, or take the gained experiences and a lot of know-how with you to kickstart your bot business on your own!
The Deal
We take 8% equity in return for all the services above. This guarantees our interest and commitment to your startup and your success. If you want to participate, but your circumstances don’t allow for an equity deal, well you can just pay for the program too.
Need more info?
Do you have all the info you need?
000 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds
till applications close for batch #2