“We’re digitally re-creating our accelerator program to offer an advanced product suite designed to accelerate more startups. Miro is anindispensable part of our vision.”
That’s how Giovanni Vaccari, Head of Product at Startupbootcamp, describes their mission to democratize accelerator programs on a global scale.
It’s no secret that startup accelerators are highly competitive, and for good reason. The companies that are accepted enjoy incredible access to funding opportunities and world-class mentorship. And instead of waiting years for market readiness, an accelerator can help a startup achieve maximum growth at a fraction of the time.
Jaïr has a founder mindset with a passion for innovation, technology, and start-ups. In the Netherlands and internationally (Nordics and South America) he worked with leading brands and with Governments and NGOs. Helping startups grow is what he loves to do.
Currently, there are an estimated 1-2 million tech-related startups created each year, yet only a few thousand of those companies are lucky enough to join accelerator programs.
That’s a lot of startups being left out! Startupbootcamp (SBC) hasn’t overlooked this opportunity to reach more startups. They are in the midst of a digital transformation of their acceleration program with an ambitious goal to help 1 million startups grow and make an impact within the next 10 years.
Democratizing the accelerator model
SBC was founded in 2010 with a singular mission: to support the world’s best innovators through all stages of their growth. Like most accelerator programs, startups apply for a three-month session with about 10 companies making the final cut.
Not satisfied with helping only a handful of companies, SBC iterated on their accelerator model and launched the program in other markets, expanding their mission across six continents. Today, they have the most industry-focused accelerator programs in the world. But it still represents a tiny percentage of global startups.
By creating a digital platform that covers all the stages of the acceleration process, from starting up to scaling up and exiting a company, SBC can now scale acceleration to thousands of startups.
We are democratizing acceleration. Maybe some are not ready to apply, but the open program allows companies to start the process and gives them exposure to be accepted into our dedicated programs.
Giovanni Vaccari, Head of Product at Startupbootcamp
SBC’s digital suite provides the tools, content, and community to help startups tackle their challenges at speed while creating opportunities to connect with the right people in their industry.
Scaling mentorship with Miro
One of the most important benefits of an accelerator program is getting access to industry experts, coaches, and investors. Entrepreneurs who are open to advice, suggestions, and criticism more often become the top performers with thriving businesses. Mentorship is a cornerstone of any great accelerator program.
For SBC to re-create its program online, it had to ensure that the mentorship sessions translated in a scalable way. Every startup needs a collaborative workspace where mentorship can happen asynchronously. SBC had already been using Miro, and it was an obvious fit to help scale its digital products.
Miro allows us to get a lot more actionable during mentorship sessions. Instead of presenting slides and asking for feedback, mentors are actively working with startups to improve the ideas.
Giovanni Vaccari, Head of Product at Startupbootcamp
Participants using the accelerator platform learn the fundamentals by reading and watching SBC’s instructional content and then hop on Miro to apply the learnings to their business.
Startups can do a workshop independently, and mentors can drop in anytime to collaborate, give feedback, and work with them more fluidly.
SBC content works with Miro’s startup canvases
Over the past 10 years, SBC has created and refined a content flow to help accelerate startups worldwide. It covers everything from customer fit and business modeling to growth hacking and pitching. SBC provides the knowledge for every stage of the startup’s lifecycle.
When companies begin the SBC acceleration process, they are introduced to Miro on day one. All the Miro canvases needed to validate the business are ready in the SBC platform, including Business model, Customer development, Pitch, and Product-Market fit canvases.
We accelerate hundreds of startups across the globe by using Miro to help us scale the programs. Now startups can use the Miro canvases to work on their business models, workshops, etc., with or without our hand-holding.
Giovanni Vaccari, Head of Product at Startupbootcamp
Vaccari’s advice to any startup who wants to experience the same type of collaborative work sessions is to go to the Miroverse startup section and use the pre-built canvases.
For example, SBC uses the Product-Market Fit canvas as a master whiteboard to house OKRs, KPIs, Customer Interviews, as well as other canvases. Since Miro can infinitely expand, startups can create one central workspace with subsets of other canvases.
Within the Product-Market Fit template, SBC includes data from customer interviews. This way, the team can constantly refer back to the insights while working on other aspects of the business.
And when you zoom out, you can see the business model canvas, customer development forms, and lots of other relevant information easily accessible by mentors or team members.
In addition to centralizing all the work, Miro’s collaboration features such as video calls inside the canvas make it a living, breathing workspace.
We can get on a video call within Miro and guide a startup through the canvas no matter where they are. And even without a call, the canvas and our platform provide all the necessary information.
Giovanni Vaccari, Head of Product at Startupbootcamp
Your startup is next
SBC and Miro are working together to empower as many startups as possible. And this shared passion for the startup community goes beyond the products—it’s ingrained in our cultures.
All startups and startup partners, incubators, and accelerators are encouraged to apply to Miro’s startup program, which includes a $1,000 credit towards a Miro team plan.
Your startup might not be part of an accelerator program yet, but that shouldn’t stop you from learning and working to accelerate your business on your own. Miro’s startup canvases and the resources from SBC are a good place to start.
Start up faster together with Miro Startup Program
Giovanni Vaccari, Head of Product at Startupbootcamp
