The Bicky Chakraborty Program met in Stockholm

The Bicky Chakraborty Entrepreneur Program was set up following a SEK 5 million donation to KTH from Bicky Chakraborty - founder of Elite Hotels, and has been run by KTH Innovation since 2016. The program is tailor-made for KTH research and student entrepreneurs running innovative startups with potential to create growth and prosperity in Sweden. This year the startups Eatit, HiMat Engineering, Urban Oasis, Poki Robotics, Feedo and InnoBrain participate in the program. Read more about them here.

This year’s program kicked off in January, and the participants have since met twice. The first workshop took place in Gothenburg in February, and focused on business modelling, including customer interview techniques. This time, the participants met at Elite Hotel Stockholm Plaza to discuss customer and sales techniques. Led by Nicole Forsberg from KTH Innovation and Niklas Gustafsson from KTH Executive School, together with the invited lecturer Anders Ångström, from A-focus, they discussed how to minimize risk in the sales process, converting interested parties to customers, and several other aspects of increasing the efficiency in the sales process to ultimately create lasting and trustful customer relations.

Lisa Ericsson, Head of KTH Innovation says:
- Over the years, we have seen that many entrepreneurs often underestimate the value of sales, believing that if the product is good enough it will sell itself. While in some cases this might be true, in most situations that is not the case. In order to succeed in growing your business, you have to be able to convert people into paying customers – a long process where the customer needs to be in the center. Performing in sales is really a make it or break it kind of situation.

By letting a smaller group work closely together over a longer period of time, the Bicky Chakraborty Entrepreneur Program lets the participants focus deeply on relevant issues, whilst exchanging valuable insights with each other. Participants also get access to a large mentor network and receive a 70 000 SEK grant in verification funding

- Meeting with the mentors is one of the best things about being part of the Bicky Chakraboty Entrepreneur Program, says Theresia Silander Hagström, co-founder of Eatit. They not only share their expertise in workshops and lectures, but also generously share their time and give feedback on each of our individual startups. For Eatit, this has been incredibly valuable.

By combining an educational program with access to mentors, many of whom are some of Sweden’s most successful entrepreneurs, KTH Innovation aims to provide the participants with optimal conditions for success. Nicole Forsberg, Program Manager says:

- It is truly exciting to witness the entrepreneurs’ development over the course of the year, and what more very satisfying to see that last year’s participants have grown on the Swedish market, while continuing on their global journey.

The aim of the Bicky Chakraborty Program is to give tools that the entrepreneurs can continue implementing after finishing the program.  

- The combination of academic workshops, industry knowledge and the mentors’ practical experience is extremely strong, says Nicole Forsberg. We are happy that we can provide such a good program for the participants together with our partners.