A nerve breaking expensive journey for many startups. Lots of winners but much larger amount of lost investments on consultants and submissions.
SME instruments were introduced more than 2 years ago with available budgets of 50k or 0,5-2,5 M EUR per startup in 4 cutoff dates annually. A large promise for many of the startups that are reluctant to give up huge equity for relative small investment and therefore are choosing the path of EU subsides. EU distributes equity free ‘gifts’ to promising startups in this SME program.
What goes here wrong? Only 5 % are winning and many startups win only after 3-4 submissions (a year). The only way to win this game to know the code and language. Many startups do not grasp the EU language. Many consulting intermediaries are producing the EU grants on an assembly line with old school language and models without grasping the reality of startups and ultimately lacking the passion for their product and team. What goes here wrong? There is no clear interface on reality, chances, prices and balancing between the different dynamics of the EU and the startups. I m working on system that can crack this reality and will give honest chances to startups without loosing much time and resources and will use the smartest ICT tools. Startups need to access to ‘cool and relevant’ EU info and they can pull together the proposals. If such an info portal will exist the world will change drastically. And we still have 3,5 years to prove it and to make the best out of it. Well join the journey and empower the startups! If you are interested join the first Cracking the Code session in Amsterdam. See more details here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breakfast-session-the-secrets-of-getting-eu-funds-for-tech-startups-tickets-34180881938?aff=es2
cfunds is the first platform where EU funds are interfacing with investments and many winners are sharing experiences and learnings. Most important questions when you start this journey: Can I access winners’ proposals and how will I reuse the proposal (business plan) for other fundraising and investment purposing. Then you have cracked the system big time. And the pain will be much less.
