3 reasons to steam in Startup Sauna
Hyvää päivää, Habr!
The monthly program of Startup Sauna, one of the best business accelerators in Europe, runs in Helsinki twice a year. A week and a half ago, the batch spring call ended, during which 17 startups from Europe, Russia and Africa worked sparingly to take their companies to a new level.
Participation in the program is free, plus 1,500 euros will be allocated for flights and accommodation. More than 400 startups submitted applications for participation, our team from distant Siberian Tomsk was lucky enough to qualify. We share our impressions of a month of unique life experience.
Startup Sauna is a free, all-day, round-the-clock coworking on the campus of Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. In the days of the acceleration program there are a lot of people here: two participants from 17 teams, organizers, plus start-ups of students and employees - 50-60 people are recruited every day.
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The site operates according to the principle - who first got up - that and sneakers. You come in the morning, choose any table and work, and when you’ve finished it, you take it all away. The next day, you can choose another workplace.
There is a fully equipped kitchen where you can make breakfast, a free coffee machine. Of course, round-the-clock access to the main fuel of startups - beer is provided. To provide them with 60 people a day, we need thousands of bottles of beer.
Task: how many start-up founders need to drag 6,000 bottles of beer?
Every Wednesday, the participating teams united nat. the basis and set the task - to organize a barbecue party for 60 people. The budget is 400 euros. The party starts at 18:00. Nobody controls anyone, but at 6 pm 60 people suddenly start demanding food from you.
It is important that teams compete with whom the party will be more beautiful. In the course are culinary talents, cultural customs. It turned out that organizing a really fun party for such a crowd is not so simple.
It was fun and tasty. Especially in moments of vodka time!
Every day there are 1-3 lectures, practical tasks, 1 to 1 coach sessions. Within a month, top managers, vice-presidents, venture investors, business owners spend dozens of hours to make a beautiful, packaged start-up in which it is pleasant to invest money.
Organizers and coaches do their work pro bono (for free). And they expect participants to take advantage of the opportunities they are given to learn and apply new knowledge. Those who are late, lazy, or consider themselves the most intelligent - just get the cuffs. Typical dialogue: you can not find 30 potential customers in a week? Buy a ticket home, do not waste my and your time.
IS the difference between coach and mentor ...!
Coaches refer to start-ups as a senior Hartman combat and drill drill instructor for Full Metal Jacket recruits. They are demanding, but fair and they work not to make you feel good, but to make your startup survive. This approach worked wonders. The teams that initially mumbled something uncertainly about the technologies that they use and “we have a great team”, a month later they staged a show in a hall with 600 visitors.
A moment of glory for those who worked hard
From the Sauna we left new people.
Over the course of a month, we invented and tested a strategy for entering the market, identified segments and channels for attracting consumers, checked them and collected traction. Shoveled a bunch of analysts, built a financial plan, found out how much money we need to take the company to a new level (from the investor's point of view).
We have a better product focus, we deliver a unique life experience to our customers. We know what needs to be thrown out of the product, and what needs to be added. Invented features that are so lacking. And we created a community in 3 days, which attracted us more than 500 first users.
All Startup Sauna participants have a lot of work ahead of them; according to the program statistics, some of us will receive millions of investments within two years. Someone closes, someone will make a way out.
It is difficult to tell everything in one post, so ask questions, we will be happy to answer!
UPD.
We are doing bombsquare - a war game for mobile, you are fighting on a real world map with players from different countries. You launch rockets, complete missions, and get military ranks. The demo version is available in the Appstore for iPhone and iPad in some countries, updates about once every 2 weeks.
The monthly program of Startup Sauna, one of the best business accelerators in Europe, runs in Helsinki twice a year. A week and a half ago, the batch spring call ended, during which 17 startups from Europe, Russia and Africa worked sparingly to take their companies to a new level.Participation in the program is free, plus 1,500 euros will be allocated for flights and accommodation. More than 400 startups submitted applications for participation, our team from distant Siberian Tomsk was lucky enough to qualify. We share our impressions of a month of unique life experience.
Coworking
Startup Sauna is a free, all-day, round-the-clock coworking on the campus of Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. In the days of the acceleration program there are a lot of people here: two participants from 17 teams, organizers, plus start-ups of students and employees - 50-60 people are recruited every day.
')
The site operates according to the principle - who first got up - that and sneakers. You come in the morning, choose any table and work, and when you’ve finished it, you take it all away. The next day, you can choose another workplace.
There is a fully equipped kitchen where you can make breakfast, a free coffee machine. Of course, round-the-clock access to the main fuel of startups - beer is provided. To provide them with 60 people a day, we need thousands of bottles of beer.
Task: how many start-up founders need to drag 6,000 bottles of beer?
Barbecue on Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, the participating teams united nat. the basis and set the task - to organize a barbecue party for 60 people. The budget is 400 euros. The party starts at 18:00. Nobody controls anyone, but at 6 pm 60 people suddenly start demanding food from you.
It is important that teams compete with whom the party will be more beautiful. In the course are culinary talents, cultural customs. It turned out that organizing a really fun party for such a crowd is not so simple.
It was fun and tasty. Especially in moments of vodka time!
Educational program
Every day there are 1-3 lectures, practical tasks, 1 to 1 coach sessions. Within a month, top managers, vice-presidents, venture investors, business owners spend dozens of hours to make a beautiful, packaged start-up in which it is pleasant to invest money.
Organizers and coaches do their work pro bono (for free). And they expect participants to take advantage of the opportunities they are given to learn and apply new knowledge. Those who are late, lazy, or consider themselves the most intelligent - just get the cuffs. Typical dialogue: you can not find 30 potential customers in a week? Buy a ticket home, do not waste my and your time.
IS the difference between coach and mentor ...!
Coaches refer to start-ups as a senior Hartman combat and drill drill instructor for Full Metal Jacket recruits. They are demanding, but fair and they work not to make you feel good, but to make your startup survive. This approach worked wonders. The teams that initially mumbled something uncertainly about the technologies that they use and “we have a great team”, a month later they staged a show in a hall with 600 visitors.
A moment of glory for those who worked hard
Specific results
From the Sauna we left new people.
Over the course of a month, we invented and tested a strategy for entering the market, identified segments and channels for attracting consumers, checked them and collected traction. Shoveled a bunch of analysts, built a financial plan, found out how much money we need to take the company to a new level (from the investor's point of view).
We have a better product focus, we deliver a unique life experience to our customers. We know what needs to be thrown out of the product, and what needs to be added. Invented features that are so lacking. And we created a community in 3 days, which attracted us more than 500 first users.
What's next?
All Startup Sauna participants have a lot of work ahead of them; according to the program statistics, some of us will receive millions of investments within two years. Someone closes, someone will make a way out.
It is difficult to tell everything in one post, so ask questions, we will be happy to answer!
UPD.
We are doing bombsquare - a war game for mobile, you are fighting on a real world map with players from different countries. You launch rockets, complete missions, and get military ranks. The demo version is available in the Appstore for iPhone and iPad in some countries, updates about once every 2 weeks.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/227011/
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