Open call: Join the Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program

The City of Košice, together with Creative Industry Košice and Civitta Slovakia, is announcing an open call for Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program within the Košice 2.0 project to support innovation and entrepreneurial potential.

The open call is intended for teams and young companies developing an innovative product or service, aiming to improve the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants.

What is the Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program?

The Challenger Urban:Creative acceleration program is a tool that will provide business education to up-and-becoming teams and companies and at the same time bring an opportunity for a community of young companies – startups to work with the city of Košice on solving urban challenges.

Programu duration:                                10 weeks

Indicative timetable

Bootcamp:                                                23. 4. 2021

Introduction:                                           1 day a week starting from 26. 4. 2021

Sprint 1:                                                     3 – 4 days a week starting from 3. 5. 2021

Sprint 2:                                                     3 – 4 days a week starting from 24. 5. 2021

Sprint 3:                                                     3 – 4 days a week starting from 14. 6. 2021

Individual mentoring and coaching: according to the agreement and time possibilities of the participant

Demo Day:                                                  29. 6. 2021

Who is the acceleration program for?

Challenger Urban:Creative is designed for teams and starting companies that work on innovative solutions that will improve the city’s quality of life and services. An independent team can also apply for the program as a group of employees developing a new product or service.

The condition is that the product or service falls into one of the following areas:

• Cultural and creative industries
• Game industry
• The urban and digital environment

Only teams, not individuals, can apply for the acceleration program. For this call, a team is defined as a collaborative group of people (at least 2) that jointly develops a new product or service with a view of commercializing it. We also understand a team as a dedicated unit within a larger company developing a new product or service that the company has not yet commercialized and is still in development.

What will the acceleration program bring to the participants?

• Participation in group workshops and subsequent individual consultations on the following topics:
  • Presentation skills
  • Knowing your customers and segmentation
  • Hypothesis validation techniques
  • Piloting
  • The needs of the city and opportunities for cooperation
  • Sales and marketing techniques
  • Market entry strategies
  • Financial planning
  • Sources of financial support and preparation for investment
  • Legal bases of companies and basics of intellectual property protection
• Individual mentoring with experts in two areas, determined based on an introductory interview, in a total of 6 hours per company
• Individual coaching by program leaders, in a total of 6 hours per company
• Opportunity to publicly present your product or service during the public Demo Day event
• The winner of the acceleration program will receive a prize of 10,000 Euros

How to apply?

The application is registered electronically through this registration form. The application can be submitted no later than April 18, 2021. Applications submitted after this deadline will not be considered.

Contact

E-mail: challenger@kosice2.sk