The start-up program Gründerhub is open for new applicants until 2nd May. The program is free, and Business Developers at Bergen Teknologioverføring (BTO) carefully follow up the participants over a period of four months.
Gründerhub is located in our dynamic innovation environment at Marineholmen. Inspiration for the program was found at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and here start-ups learn how to build a business model, acquire investors, organize their companies and how to commercialize their idea.
Gründerhub members are expected to show progress and they all meet at the end of the program for a demonstration day (Demo-day). At the Demo-day, the start-ups show their development and product to both fellow program participants and investors. In addition, the start-ups compete for different prizes at the end of the program.
Prizes
- 50.000 NOK for best founder in the group (9 participants) The prize is awarded on DemoDay.
- 250.000 NOK is awarded the company of the year. These funds are to be used on developing the company, i.e. product testing or market analysis.
Current members of Gründerhub
The team team from Rubynor have several start-up projects behind them and are now experienced innovators. They are currently developing their skills at the Gründerhub, working with solutions for political voting and meeting administration.
– We already had some experience with running a business, creating budgets and managing leadership. Nevertheless, we had little knowledge about sales and marketing. For this, the Gründerhub program has been very useful, says CEO Karianne Berg.
– What we wish to get out of this program, is primarily to learn more about how we can commercialize our idea. We are quite good at user needs, MVP (minimum viable product) and development, but wish to become even better at communicating with investors and the market, says Karianne Berg.
Another team that are currently participating in the Gründerhub program is the team from Altered Power. They are developing a solution to prevent our electronic devices to run out of power – by recharging the devices with solar power from their pocket size mini power plant.
CEO Anders Even Kvåle says that the Gründerhub program has been a crash course in many elements of the start-up process. – There is a steep learning curve and working in this environment is a great motivation to learn from others.
– For us, the support functions in the program has been very important. However, the network is probably the most important feature. Working in this environment with both fellow Gründerhub participants and the innovation environment at BTO is both inspiring and motivating. Here we get to learn from each other, both from triumphs and failures.
The Gründerhub program has given Altered Power a lust for more, and now they wish to become a part of an incubator program.
– We would like to be a part of Nyskapingsparken and keep in touch with the network and innovation environment here at Marineholmen and BTO, says Kvåle. – That is our next step.
The program is a cooperation between BTO and Sparebankstiftelsen SR-Bank. Gründerhub is sponsored by SR-bank.
Facilitators at BTO are Hilde Indresøvde and Sonia Pandher.