This blog-post was originally published on the Lisbon Challenge Blog.
Sounds catchy right? Well, that’s because it is. Lisbon Challenge is funding 10 thousand euros per startup, to develop and launch their product in 10 weeks. It’s that simple.
You don’t even have to have an MVP yet. Nope, we’re not looking for traction, proof of concept, or first sales. We just want exceptional teams with serious founders that are ready to do whatever it takes to build a solution to a problem they know they are the only ones that can solve it.
Going from a non-equity and non-investment program in the past that focused on growth and internationalization, to a pre-seed product development accelerator now, that funds 10K for 1,5% equity, we’re going the extra mile to help founders in the most crucial stage of their journey, which is the very start. We’re strong believers of non-dilution on the first rounds of funding and understand the need of keeping an attractive valuation, and that’s exactly what we aim to offer. This way, teams only need to focus on building an amazing product for a very sticky customer segment.
At Lisbon Challenge, we’ll work with you on several milestones such as validating the problem-solution fit, validating your first minimum viable customer segment, validating your UX and customer journey so that you launch within 10 weeks and still be in time to get your very first customers before Investors Day. All of this is to set you on the road to product market fit. Startups with the most promising outcome in the end of the 10 weeks can still get an additional funding of 40 to 75 thousand euros.
We’re looking for teams using deep tech like machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, security, internet of things and big data, and all teams applying need to have one technical founder and one business founder, as well as no previous investment in that startup.
To make sure we select the best teams, we will be inviting the top 20 teams that applied to a one-week intensive Bootcamp, with flights and accommodation paid for. During the Bootcamp, we will work side by side with the teams on their business models, fundraising strategy and go to market strategy, so that all the teams pitch to the LC investment committee in the end where up to 10 startups will be invested and accepted into the acceleration program.
That’s because we believe Lisbon is the best city in Europe to start your journey. Easy to set a business, easy to hire, cheap and great technical skills. In fact, just ask Pipedrive, Talkdesk or Farfetch. They all have their engineering teams based in Lisbon because of how beneficial it truly is.
So to recap here’s the main points:
- Lisbon Challenge will fund 10K per startup for 1,5% equity to support product development during 10 weeks
- We want strong teams that have 1 tech and 1 business founders
- We prefer anything from machine learning, IoT, AI, AR/VR, cloud computing, big data, security
- We will invite top 20 startups that apply for a one week intensive Bootcamp to work side by side with us, with flights & accommodation paid for
- We focus on validation and expect startups to work on product development