"We want to create a community that gets KTH research and student ideas to the market!"
The application for batch 6 of the KTH Innovation pre-incubator is now open. Batch leader for this autumn is Donnie SC Lygonis, and he's hoping for a record number of applications to reflect the great demand during this year.
– We want to create a community that gets KTH research and student ideas to the market and accelerates the startup process. Everybody with some kind of business idea that you can build a startup around should get applying right now, says Donnie SC Lygonis.
Entrepreneurship an investment for the future
KTH Innovation is running the KTH Innovation pre-incubator and is looking for people who have an idea, want office space to work from to get their innovation off the ground, but also get tools for developing their idea. Donnie SC Lygonis, business coach at KTH Innovation, says that it is becoming increasingly popular to start a company as an alternative career to traditional employment.
– Today it's a lot more accepted to "become an entrepreneur" and "run a startup", both in society as a whole and as a student or researcher at KTH. The fact that you are a lot more employable as an engineer with an entrepreneurial streak makes it a really good investment, regardless of the outcome.
Oskar Andersson founded and is running the startup Cling that was accepted into the KTH Innovation pre-incubator in 2016. They had heard a lot of good things about KTH Innovation and wanted help to move forward with their idea.
– The tips from all the experienced coaches, coupled with the fact that KTH Innovation opens the door to funding and investment has been exceedingly useful to us. When you start a business you find yourself in all sorts of situation that are completely new to you and it has been great to have someone to ask for advice, says Oskar Andersson.
Talk to the customer
Cling has developed a service that helps contractors put together and send tailored quotes online. They have come a long way, having had a space at SUP46 and are now accepted into the incubator STING where they will move in during September. But the entrepreneurship journey has been far from problem free says the founder.
– A typical mistake we made early on was not to talk to customers as a first step. Today we know that an idea has to be tested on the market as soon as possible and it's a mistake to sit in isolation and work on your idea for too long. Action is better than precision!
The difference between the ordinary KTH Innovation support and that of the pre-incubator is a more defined process and hand rail to hold on to during the 12 month long program, but there's also evaluation and pitch training along the way.
– You are part of a so called batch with 8-10 other projects, having weekly meetups, workshops and lectures on relevant subjects. The meetings follow a pre-determined schedule and is usually educational in style. But we don't work with one-way lectures, everything is interactive and we have noticed that the entrepreneurs develop as much by sharing their experiences as hearing about others', says Donnie SC Lygonis.
Click here to apply for batch 6!
The KTH Innovations pre-incubator is for innovative and technology based projects where the core team is researchers or students at KTH who want to verify and develop a strong business concept. Over 100 startups have completed the program. Find out more ...