Now Sprint Accelerator Partners and Mentors — Press Release 2
The ingredients for a startup accelerator program are known. A program executed by a great team, mentors and investors that do more than “act de presence”. The program in most accelerator programs is, or very foggy or simply non-existing. Often they just rely on good mentors and exploiting their network. You know the website with endless important names, the more big corporate names the better. On the other side, there is the money. Most startups prefer to apply for a program where they get money for equity, apart from some exceptions where they hand grants. Hundreds apply and a few chosen enter the money-driven accelerators with an obvious high rate of possible success. There is no Santa Claus in this business, it’s bottom line, don’t get fooled. The result is that many early-stage startups don’t get a chance to really get into the next gear and keep stuck in their little circle of so-called smart people with limited networks.
You can imagine now the next sentence. Yes. Now Sprint Accelerator fills the gap from a ‘region’ point of view, no Europe or US but East Africa, Balkan and Central Asia. This combined with mentors that are specialists in their domain and/or great listeners with hands-on advice and a combined great network. We cover a region for mentors from London, Berlin all the way to Singapore and partners in Egypt, Sudan, Greece, Cyprus (both), Kenia, Türkiye, Syria, Kazakhstan, and more to come. We included also NGO’s who are active in the startup scene combined with refugees. No surprise here, we will give the first choice to refugee and women founders and always check towards the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
All program detail can be found on the website www.nowsprintaccelerator.com which is regularly updated and you will also find the link to subscribe. We close subscriptions 5 days before the starting date and will have an online call with the teams before we make a final selection. The program runs for 1 month with 8 workshops after hours and online. NO EQUİTY and for free. We will end of course with a demo day, online, with a jury mainly consisting of investors. The whole program will be very hands-on and apart of the workshops, there will be individual follow-up and homework. Do not think it will be easy, after all, we want to prepare the teams for the next phase in their potential success.
List of Mentors as of today and still growing:
Didem Altop, Türkiye; Branka van der Linden, Cyprus; Özlem Yalım, Türkiye; Adil Zehir, Türkiye; Ahmet Polat, Türkiye; Bilgehan Yılmaz, Türkiye; Cağrı Selçuklu, Türkiye; Selinay Filiz Parlak, Türkiye; Mustafa Özer, Türkiye; Ozan Sonmez, Türkiye; Yasemin Gursel, Türkiye; Neşen Yücel, Türkiye; Ahmad Sufian Bayram, Syria; Ebru Elmas Gürses, Türkiye; Abdurrahman Kocak,Türkiye; Valentina Primo, Egypt; Eren Koçyiğit, UK; Prof Dr Murat Özgören, Northern Cyprus; Umut İlhan, UK; Felix Lee, Singapore; Shannon Eastman, UK; Ayşe Topçu, Türkiye; Maria Calafatis, Greece; Sertaç Yakın, Türkiye. We also include startups that went through a first round of investment as they have very valuable information for the startup teams!
List of Partners and Investors, also still growing:
NBT (Next Big Thing), UK; MOST, Kazakhstan; AGM Adana, Turkey; NERİTA, North Cyprus; Fongogo, Türkiye; StartupFon, Türkiye; Withco Coworking, Türkiye; Atanova, Türkiye; TR Angels, Türkiye; Startups Without Borders, Egypt; Migration Jam, Kenya; Natakallam, France; The Cube Athens, Greece; Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA), String Ventures. Türkiye. And more to come.
Behind the scenes.
The program is the result of the experience Stage-Co has built since 2013. The founders, Neşen Yücel and Patrick Bosteels made it their full-time occupancy to support startups through workshops and organising Hackathons, Startup Weekends, Bootcamşs and Accelerator Programs. Patrick Bosteels will be in the lead of the program with a background of 35 years of bootstrapped entrepreneurship in an international setting. This experience of bootstrapping is again put in practice starting Now Sprint Accelerator the bootstrapped way and thanks to the many mentors, partners and investors he got to know during the period of Stage-Co and of course continuing.
The 2nd of June starts the first cohort. We plan 3 more cohorts for this year, inşallah. A big thanks to the mentors, partners and investors for their support and trust in this adventure that aims to build on the future, based on sustainable businesses with respect and aim for the SDGs, our guidance.
You can also read here the 1st Press Release.
Please check our websites and social media for more details. You can always contact us at contact@stage-co.com or hello@nowsprintaccelerator.com
