Until 5 December, entrepreneurs can apply here for the warm-up day of the Investment Ready Program taking place on 12 December at Impact Hub Vienna. The goal of the programme is to support social ventures in gaining access to venture capital and thereby helping them grow.
All too often, a good idea and smart brains are not enough to successfully establish a venture. “Frequently, startups fail because they cannot convince investors,” says Lena Gansterer, manager of the programme. Especially social ventures struggle to obtain venture capital. Sometimes, they don’t even recognise the possibility of doing so.
The problem doesn’t always lie with bad profit outlooks: “Particularly investors specialising in social ventures are often patient, as long as there is a positive impact on society,” says Gansterer. Instead, entrepreneurs often don’t manage to outline the societal benefit of their idea. This is where the programme comes in: “We help founders to properly approach investors and convince them of their idea.”
On the warm-up day, which is also conducted in seven other European cities besides Vienna, successful applicants learn how to think like an investor and make their venture “investable”.
The 15 most promising participants will be invited to join the three-month Investment Ready Academy (starting in Spring 2014), where they will receive extensive individual coaching from experts, for example from the Boston Consulting Group, but also access to investors such as the global TONIIC-Network.
Charly and Lisa Kleissner, two pioneers of the impact investment scene and long-time supporters of the programme, have already reserved a fixed amount to be invested into the most promising participant of the IRP Academy 2014.
What are you waiting for? Apply now!
