Following an intensive 6-month coaching period, 10 of the 15 selected startups in the 13th edition of the Fit 4 Start programme from all over the world are now proud graduates. This cohort didn’t hold back in sharing several takeaways from participating in Luxembourg’s premier startup acceleration programme, which was initiated by the Ministry of the Economy and is managed by Luxinnovation. Here’s what they had to say!
Roger Assaker, CEO of MDSIM says Fit 4 Start is a must-do:
“Having a kind of roadmap and KPIs to follow is a major takeaway. The support of the coaches and the challenges of the jury were interesting. The most important is being part of the ecosystem and getting connections with colleagues, participants and the entire ecosystem in Luxembourg.”
Myroslav Gebura, Founder of Poly Diagnostics says Fit 4 Start accelerates:
“It is a great platform to boost your business, both at the beginning when you just have an idea, but also when you already have an MVP. This platform will definitely bring you forward and elevate you to a new level.”
Denisa Sustalova, Founder of WAVY MEET says the programme is life-changing:
“It’s absolutely a great opportunity to be chosen as one of the winners, to be close to the very smart people from different industries and to learn different skills. The programme challenges you because when you create something new and you come into a programme like this, you quickly become aware of a lot of things that need to be done before you even take the product to the market.”
William Choi, Co-founder and Head of Global Markets of Posture AI describes the programme as intensive:
“Incredible support. The ecosystem and Luxinnovation have been absolutely great. We couldn’t have done it without them or the programme. Coming from abroad makes things very difficult when you’re on your own. But you’d never feel that you were here on your own because you’re being coached, you have the support system, the participants and people that you could call on to help you through. The other founders are great too and we all get along well.”
Chanukya Patnaik, CEO and Founder of AI Planet says the programme is empowering:
“The great coaches, jury, the entire network, and most importantly, Luxinnovation and the programme itself. Everyone stood like a backbone for us, which helped us go a long way and they are there to support. That’s a good part of it.”
Rida Klink, CEO of Augment attests that Fit 4 Start is mind-opening:
“The advice because it teaches you how to think as an entrepreneur. They don’t give you the answers they make you find them and that’s one of the nice parts. We had to do major pivots in the middle of the Fit 4 Start programme. Asking questions like why shows you how to be objective about your own challenges and teaches you to be objective about your startup. So I would say the advice because it goes further than just the direct advice to shaping the way of thinking.”
Joao Mesquita, Founder and CEO of DèsVu Stays asserts that the programme is insightful:
“At the beginning we had a very clear plan and many puzzle pieces of our business. We thought too early that we know a lot about the market and the very first feedback we got from the jury clearly stated that we were on the right route, but they also mentioned that we should continuously focus on customer discovery, which changed a lot for us. From the get-go, we changed a bit how we approach things and now I know it was really the best decision because we learned a lot more about the market. That was right away the very first feedback and also the biggest takeaway that afterwards led us to be able to put all the puzzle pieces together much faster than we would have probably done otherwise.”
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eonhard Kossmann, Co-founder and CPO of Fundvis affirms that Fit 4 Start is rewarding:
“I think really they pushed our limits. We had some clear expectations from the start on where we wanted to develop, how fast and what direction. They really challenged us. We wanted to contribute more faster to the objective that we set, which was also a further goal that we didn’t have before. So I think it really pushes you to not think small and to get a bigger picture in a faster time as well.”
Mekki Mouaddeb, Co-founder of Gonuggets reiterates that the programme is empowering:
“The quality of the coaches and the fact that they challenged us and provided an external view on our business that helped us better shape our products to market needs is the most important takeaway from the programme for us.”
Mike Kiriukhin, CEO and Co-Founder of Warden Machinery highlights outstanding networking possibilities:
“This accelerator gives you a complex multitude of tools, your arms are full, and it guides you towards your business challenges, but from an entirely different perspective. Since the accelerator is gated with several Steering Committees, from one stage to another the challenges will become increasingly complex, but solvable with the same tools you didn’t know were so versatile, and the people supporting you will grow even more cordial. It is truly an exceptional experience that I would highly recommend. My main personal takeaway is beyond doubt the outstanding networking possibilities. The level of warm and down-to-earth support in Fit4Start is like nothing I have seen before. Business-wise, the accelerator offers an expert fresh view of your established processes and helps tackle the bottlenecks with every conceivable resource available, including rare high-level intros and even intergovernmental support.”
Photo credit: Luxinnovation/ Sophie Margue, provided by Mike Kiriukhin