The morning dawned rainy in Lisbon – the kind that makes you wanna stay on the sofa all morning, but for our Lisbon Challenge teams that was not an option – they just got to the busiest part of the challenge.
Lisbon Challenge wraps up today its Product Phase. After Validation Phase – where the teams worked on improving their understanding of the problem they are trying to solve and (re)validating their customers (how they feel, interact and behave around this problem in the) – they started Product Phase, where they went on to work through how their products deliver the benefits that solve those problems.
Turning Pains into Gains
The product phase focuses solely on the startup’s solution. Are they delivering the benefits their customers require? It’s all about taking the pains identified during validation phase and the benefits that solve them and turning them into product features that deliver what the customers want.
But more than just features (and having the right features), it’s about understanding and building a journey through the product that takes them straight to core value.
Taking a page from Andrew Chen’s Engagement Wall and “next feature fallacy”, the teams focus on understanding what is working and why, and also what they should just stop doing, instead of just building new things. So, it’s about weeding out the unnecessary stuff and getting as close as possible to the #nobullshit product that makes users fall in love with it.
A Mentorship Driven Program
As their Lisbon Challenge journey takes them closer and closer to a product-market fit, the teams are lucky to have a strong network of mentors, who have been through the same processes and similar experiences as entrepreneurs themselves. They stepped up to the challenge to give serious, honest and helpful feedback to our teams.
Rita Ribeiro da Silva, from SKOACH, detailed the challenges of the phase:
This has been, so far, the most challenging phase. The problem with creating a product is that there are many opportunities and you have to decide on what exactly do you want to choose, and where you want to focus. And the temptations are huge, and sometimes it’s hard to keep the focus on creating a product that is focused and having a focused message of what it is. It’s hard to keep it simple.
The team, who is tackling the challenge of high employee turnover with a solution that enables high-performing teams through gamified change of individual behavior, has taken full advantage of the mentors’ advice:
“I would say that the best advice has been from people who have used products that have tried to solve the same problem, and we’ve got some feedback about the pitfalls, the mistakes that they made, and that’s helpful so we don’t… do them (laughs)”, completed João Ferreira, also from Skoach.
What’s next
Next up, the teams will focus on finding the right metrics, messaging and channels for their product. But for now, we celebrate the end of the phase and the great group of mentors that imparted some of their knowledge and experience, with the incredible Beta-i community experience – this time delivered through the feature of brazilian-style-mouth-watering-BBQ.
The 11th edition of Lisbon Challenge is advancing at full steam! The teams are in their third week of the program, and well into the validation phase. We’ve mentioned how intensive the program is, but do you want to know how much? Let’s go over the program overview!
A people-centric approach
Lisbon Challenge is Beta-i’s flagship accelerator program, and one of the most recognized programs in Europe. It’s a 10-week program designed to question the founders’ assumptions, help them find their product-market fit and prepare them for the road ahead – scaling and investment.
The program inherited Beta-i’s people-centric approach – but what does that mean?
It means that throughout the phases, founders will be challenged to take a people-centric approach:
On customers – the people they are solving the problem for;
The team – the people they are building the company with;
Themselves – who they are as entrepreneurs and how they need to evolve with the business.
Program Timeline
For 10 weeks, the 6 teams on this edition will go through an intense program, filled with enriching content, workshops and mentoring sessions. The goal is for them to be in perfect shape for Investment Day, the culmination of those 10 weeks on acceleration.
These are the phases:
Validation
The founders will start by validating their value proposition and gaining a better understanding of what could be their target audience and their potential needs.
Product And Tech
A deep-dive into the startups’ solutions and the technology behind them. They must discover and define how is their project solving the clients’ needs better than any other out there, and design a roadmap for product market fit.
Growth
Here the founders will learn how to talk with customers and make sure they don’t leave after trying the product. In a nutshell, it will be all about customer retention and which metrics should be analyzed in order to figure it out.
Investment
In this phase, it’s all about preparing for investment! Startups learn to understand investors, and what they are looking for. They also learn practical stuff – what to say (and not to say!), and to tell your story and get investors to listen to them. This is an important phase as it leads to investment day!
Investment Day
The 10 weeks of the program lead up to Investment Day – a day when the startups will pitch on stage and then meet investors and possible corporate partners. This batch will have the whole ecosystem cheering on them – as they will be pitching at Lisbon Investment Summit, happening on the 6th and 7th of June.
Attentive has been in Beta-i’s ecosystem for a long time – they were winners of the Fall Edition of Lisbon Challenge in 2015. Since then, they have grown their company and took advantage of Beta-i’s network and events – just like Lisbon Investment Summit.
We spoke with Daniel Araújo, CEO and Co-founder of Attentive.us about their relationship with events like LIS.
ReThink: What first attracted you to attend Lisbon Investment Summit the first time around?
Daniel Araújo: We were part of the Beta-i community even before the first edition of the Lisbon Investment Summit, so when we heard about it we were very excited about having an informal gathering of many of the key European investors interacting with early-stage Portuguese startups. Since that first edition, Beta-i always brought a nice element of surprise, in the content and in the venues, that kept the event’s unique positioning untouched.
RT: What did you enjoy more in your experience at LIS?
DA: I’d highlight the vibe that you feel among all the attendees – positive, open, constructive. There’s always a lot to talk about around the content of the panels, and the event feels designed to leave some room for casual interactions. This makes it incredibly fruitful. Did I mention that everyone seems to be having a great time? 🙂
RT: How did your attendance at LIS impact your business?
DA: Every year, participating in LIS allows us to strengthen and reinforce our connections to the ecosystem, especially around investors. We’ve got several investors that we meet only at LIS, despite us participating in other events across Europe and the US. We also got to meet many partners of the Portuguese ecosystem, which have supported us in so many different ways over the years. I get asked many times by early-stage founders how to kickstart their network, and my invariable answer is: go to the Lisbon Investment Summit – network and absorb the great content.
RT: You recently announced your latest investment round of $1.2M, led by Mangrove Capital and Indico Capital Partners. Did Beta-i or LIS help you get in touch with your investors, or in some other way?
DA: Beta-i and LIS are intrinsically linked to our company’s first steps, so they played – actually, they still play today – a very important role in our development and growth. Not only did the event kickstart our network when we were starting, but we also refined and tuned our pitch, improved the way we communicate our vision and contributed to us getting access to TechStars. After meeting several dozens of investors, Mangrove, Indico and we were incredibly aligned on our vision for what Attentive can become. Moreover, they have an incredible track record, which will surely help us as we grow.
RT: Why do you think Portuguese startups are so relevant and able to attract foreign investment?
DA: There’s a very combination of benefits that Portuguese startups can and should take advantage of, several of them have been shown repeatedly at #LIS: English-speaking, global ambitions, strong universities, and talent. In the last few years, as investors started to come for LIS and the Web Summit, they have built a local trust network that gives them the confidence in our talent. I’m pretty sure that will only increase over the next editions of LIS!
Lisbon Challenge by Beta-i, our flagship accelerator program, kicked off today in our Beta-i building, for its 11th edition.
Get to know one another
The day started with really getting to know each other. After a healthy breakfast to break the ice, Ricardo Marvão, Co-founder and Head of Education at Beta-i, spoke to the teams about the history of Beta-i, and the scope of the team’s work.
Eduardo, Head of Acceleration at Beta-i, and the Lisbon Challenge’s team walked them through the schedule and highlights of the program:
Workshops on methodologies with the Beta-i team;
Contact with alumni from the program and people who have been through the entrepreneurial journey;
Mentorship from a vast network of entrepreneurs, investors and corporate partners.
Alumni Talks
This year, Lisbon Challenge’s teams got an inspirational talk from alumni of the program – Miguel Santo Amaro, co-founder of Uniplaces and André Miranda, founder of Musiversal.
Mainly they spoke of how, at the time, they applied the methodologies learned in the program and were able to grow their business through that:
Because we validated with clients a lot of things we were doing right and wrong, we were able to grow our operations. We didn’t do any sales pitching or advertising – just by listening to people we adjusted the service, it cost us zero, and we were able to grow our sales because satisfied customers came back with bigger projects.
Miguel Santo Amaro also shared a lot of his experience as a founder of Uniplaces – from his struggles with being a first-mover in the market to their pitch to investors to Uniplaces’ pivots.
Like André said, “This is not fluff advice, I really think if you keep this advice in mind, you’re gonna take much more from the program.”
First Pitch
The startups will pitch their solutions for the first time for the Beta-i team and the ecosystem of alumni and mentors. It’s an exciting moment for all – for the startups it’s the first impression they are making on the ecosystem, for the team is a chance to learn something new. It’s also a good memory to have – so the teams will know how much they grew in the program.
Read about the startups joining the spring edition here.
Lisbon Challenge by Beta-i, our flagship accelerator program, will be kicking off its 11th edition – the Spring Edition of 2019 – next Monday, April 8th.
Having a startup is probably the toughest business there is. Lisbon Challenge was built to help founders grow 1 year in just 3 months. The program’s methodologies are focused not only on growing the business but also in preparing founders to transform difficulties into learnings and to see problems as opportunities.
The founders joining the program will be challenged in their assumptions and challenged to gain a better understanding of the problem they’re solving, their clients and the solution they’re building, to bring them closer to a product market fit.
It’s going to be an intense 3 months! So, without further ado, we present you the 8 startups joining the Spring Edition of Lisbon Challenge by Beta-i (click the names to learn about each startup):
ARANMI
Africa’s foremost SME friendly on-demand supply chain marketplace.
Country: Nigeria Founders: Michael Iyanro and Gideon Olanrewaju Website: http://www.aranmi.com
git//scale
Breakthrough platform for open source projects serving enterprise clients.
Country: Portugal Founders: Diogo Lemos Pereira e Nuno Barrocas Website: http://www.gitscale.io
Hirefreehands Inc.
Freelancer hiring marketplace for entrepreneurs, startups & SMEs.
Country: Nigeria Founders: Sunkanmi Ola, Abel Agoi, Jime Akpusugh and Gabriel Esu Website: http://www.hirefreehands.tech
OutboundSales.io
SaaS B2B Sales Platform for Enterprise Sales Teams.
