The third edition of the one week boot camp will take place from 14 to 20 September at Speranţa Hotel in Predeal, Romania, and will bring together aspiring entrepreneurs from around Europe. Intrigued? There’s still time to apply.
No startup yet? No problem.
All you need to participate is a passion for business. Start Me Up is organised by Akcees and gives participants the opportunity to form teams, generate business ideas from actual market needs and develop viable business concepts under the guidance of trainers and reputable entrepreneurs and investors. Participants will learn the ABCs of entrepreneurship, build marketing and financial plans, explore financing opportunities, choose a business model, and last but not least, pitch in front of investors on Demo Day.
Join the graduates from Start Me Up Entrepreneurship school; Photo credit: Start Me Up
What to expect
The third edition of Start Me Up will bring together 25 participants who will get the chance to work with Daniel Ramamoorthy, serial entrepreneur and Treehouse Founder & CEO, as a trainer. During the program participants will also receive guidance from Marius Ghenea (serial entrepreneur and angel investor), Philipp Kandal (General Manager EU Telenav), Daniel Dragomir (Co-Founder TechHub Bucharest & CEO of How to Web), Bogdan Iordache (Co-Founder How to Web and VC 3TS Capital Partners), Cristi Badea (Co-Founder Mavenhut) or Andrei Costescu (Founder & CEO MReady) among others (Check out the complete list of speakers here).
In order to make the most of this experience, organisers advise the participants to be prepared for hard work. “Start Me Up is not a summer school where people get to have a lot of free time and enjoy the mountains. On the contrary, it is a bootcamp that pushes the participants out of their comfort zone, tests their limits and teaches them how to build viable business concepts by working with some amazing guest speakers and trainers. It’s a lot of work and they will live in the shoes of an entrepreneur for one week,” Irina Scarlat, Co-founder and Executive VP of Akcees explained.
A numbers game
The first two editions of Start Me Up brought together 49 young people selected from more than 460 applications, with 11 new business ideas being generated during the three day bootcamps, refined with the help of more than 30 mentors.
Successful alumni of this program include WASHescu, who managed to raise an investment after the Demo Day and also BlushR went on to bring their project to life.
Application window for Start Me Up school & scholarship still open
Applications for the Start Me Up school are accepted on a rolling admissions basis, so apply as soon as you can. The tuition fee is 340 euros and includes the cost of attendance, all training materials and six nights all-inclusive accommodations in Hotel Speranţa. All participants will benefit from mentorship one year after the event, membership to the Akcees community and discounts to Akcees and partner events. Apply here.
Moreover, to help finance participation, Akcees partners cover the costs of 15 full and partial scholarships (in total of 7500 euros) for talented young people with no financial resources. Applications for scholarships are open until Sunday 31 August here.
