Two Now Sprint Accelerator Programs combined as one. Agro Food Impact, October 12th.
Due to the covid restrictions I combined the horizontal and vertical programs into 1 Program: Agro Food Impact, online with all the requirements that can be found on the website www.nowsprintaccelerator.com. This post was created before this decision but it still makes sense so I didn’t want to delete or change.
Looking for money before you are able to sell your service or product makes that we accepted the failure rate of startups to 90%. I never understood why we want to make the startup ecosystem as a gambling circus. It is driven by opportunists looking for that exceptional multiplier, just bottom line. Totally money-driven. The game is more, no matter how. Young teams are often too much attracted by this potential stardom and lose very quickly the ground under their feed. Starting whatever business means hard work and understanding need/desire and what is your added value you bring to your target audience. The problem is always the problem understanding. Too much love for the idea.
I finished now 3 cohorts, with mainly teams from Africa, but also the Balkans, Türkiye and Asia. And it has been an enormous interesting journey. Also for me. I learned a lot and I am very excited to start our 4th and 5th cohorts. I am determent to organize 3 Now Sprint Accelerator Programs per year, online and for free for the teams. I love the impact we create on the early-stage teams with the focus on SDGs and not money. We focus on the problem statement, validation, and product. I want the teams to understand that sustainability is also about making money but we do not focus on excel sheets with fake numbers. I just want them to understand what it means to start a business with a positive impact on society. And potentially make them ready to confront investors or equity-based accelerators. We already have 2 teams who succeeded in this.
Our 5th cohort will be an in-person program if Covid-19 lets us. I have always been a fan of IoT and Agriculture and I am very fortunate to have 2 friends with the same passion. Ali Rıza Ersoy is the founder of ION Village. Ali Rıza had a long career in Siemens but has now like a model farm in Barbaros, Izmir with accommodation and seminar space. He is all into permaculture and tech. I got to know Olcay Taysı years ago, a serial inventor and entrepreneur completely into IoT and with NetOP Technology an international organization based in many countries by now. We are very excited to have our first in-person program if covid-19 restrictions let us. Inşallah.
The testimonials in the picture above are some of our participants of the last cohort and I wish them all the happiness and success in the future they deserve!
Kolay Gelsin,
Patrick Bosteels
patrick@stage-co.com
Co-Founder Now Sprint! Accelerator, Stage-Co, Creative Academie
and Urla Coworking
