Startathlon | Turn a Business Idea into a Validated Business Model

Acceleration to success

Follow the 7-step Startathlon program and fill in the blanks.

You and your co-workers will be guided by mentors and investors during an intensive 7-step start-up accelerator program.
We’ll give you a head start with one-on-one training sessions, coaching and knowledge exchange.

Peter De Ranter

Peter De Ranter, Managing director at Tilroy

"Startathlon brought us a lot of inspirational moments. New insights into marketing approach, price settings and pitching our story made the sessions very valuable. It gave us a headstart in our roadmap for Tilroy."

Toon Timbermont

Toon Timbermont, CEO and project manager Skryv

"Before following the Starthatlon program, we already knew the vision and ambition of Skryv. We had gathered a great technical team to build the software we needed. But we did not know how to pitch and sell. Startathlon helped us to prepare for prospects."

Katya Vladislaveva

Katya Vladislaveva, Chief Data Scientist and CEO at DataStories.com.

"Joining the Startathlon program has been one of the best investments I’ve made. I was struggling to make advanced predictive analytics look easy and attractive, not an easy task. The mentors and my fellow Startathloners really helped me with that. I learned a whole lot in a very short amount of time."

Frederik Petre

Frederik Petre, Entrepreneur in Residence at Flanders Make

"Startathlon is a must for every (would be) entrepreneur! This go-to-market coaching trajectory helps you to shape your initial idea into a viable business. Much like a sculptor who starts with a slab of marble which, over time, with skill, passion, hard work and the right coaching is shaped into a piece of art!"

Pascal Binard

Pascal Binard, Marlin

"Session after session, pitch after pitch, Startathlon helped us structure our thinking and present our business in a clearer manner. While listening to other participants, we learned much about ourselves and our own business. And we initiated business relationships that appear to be meant to last. BIG thanks to the Startathlon team."

Frank Berckmans

Frank Berckmans, Account manager at Home Publishers

"We were flabbergasted at the creativity and technical know-how our colleagues presented, but soon found ourselves at ease, thanks to the mentors, the excellent atmosphere in which the program was run, and also the belief in our own project, however low-profile it seemed under the circumstances. Although we put our project on hold throughout the program, the ultimate go-to-market and following revenues have no doubt been sped up by our participation at Startathlon."

Karim Chadir

Karim Chadir, Home Automation for The Elderly

"Startathlon is a very good go-to-market training; sessions are well distributed in time and the content is very interesting and consistent with the reality on the ground. The mentors and the organizer were of high quality but also the group of trainees was coherent and curious. The group was interested in others' subjects and readily shared its feelings and experiences with others; thank you all"

Alexander Prym

Alexander Prym is the founder of Mondays Like Sundays, a recruiting company that finds "hidden gem" candidates, still employed by other companies

"When I first saw the Startathlon program, I thought that it would only be interesting to me after the 3rd session. I have to admit I was wrong. It turned out that all the sessions had a perfect mix of theory and practice. The program is straight to the point and ready for direct implementation."

Inez Michiels

Inez Michiels is researcher, consultant and trainer at City of 8/Genetic Coding

"At first I thought it was too early to participate in the Startathlon program. At the time, my product was not quite there yet. Besides that, I was very impatient, and not very eager to take yet another step before building my product. Fortunately, the program turned out to be a great help, thanks to the interaction with experienced entrepreneurs and experts in different domains."

Companies who succeeded

Flickr

Flickr started off as a multiplayer online game. Photo sharing was just a side feature. However, it generated way more traction than the game did. The founders fought for a while trying to stick with their original idea, but it soon became obvious where the real need was. So they shifted the focus to photo sharing.

PayPal

PayPal started as a PDA payment solution. It turned out that no one wanted to use it. The founders of PayPal recognized what people really wanted, and where there was money to be made: online payment. Now we all know PayPal as the leading online payment service.

Companies who didn’t succeed

Google wave

Remember Google Wave? A technically superior product, supposed to replace e-mail as the next generation collaboration platform?
Google engineers were using it successfully before the multimillion dollar launch. The launch was a major flop.

So, what happened? Apparently, the product didn’t solve a real problem. On top of that, Google Wave proved to be confusing for users.

GeoCities

How about GeoCities? In the early days of the Web, it was the platform to host a homepage. It was a very popular product, solving a real pain.
Unfortunately, Yahoo! had to close down the product, as they failed to successfully monetize it.

Program

Startathlon: the 7-step program

During the Startathlon program you can carry on developing your business. You get all the information you need during a combination of training sessions, one-on-one coaching and exchange with other innovative companies. In between workshops you can apply what you have learned. You'll get feedback and help from our mentors and your peers. We know your business is unique. We are more than happy to look for answers for the specific challenges in your field.

Validation of the Problem-Solution fit

Your product won't sell if it doesn't respond to necessity or desire.

Are you building the right product?
Will it really improve the lives of your customers?
Is your major product feature solving the identified problem?
Do customers think it's a must have?
Are there any barriers to adoption?

Customer development
Running Lean
Customer interviews

Go-to-market design

You can't create a viable business without customers.

How will you market & sell, generate leads and close deals?
Do you have a clear path to your customers?
Is your communication adjusted to your target audience?

Online Lead generation
Sales funnel design
Landing page design

Go-to-market communication

Talk the talk, but don't forget to convert the talk into sales.

Do you have a good communication pyramid?
Is your message clear?
Do you have sufficient online conversion?
Which tools do you use for your communication and conversion?

Communication and branding
Online marketing tools
Pitching design

Go-to-market execution

If your sales strategy is not efficient, scaling of your business will not happen.

Is each sell a time-consuming effort with a lot of involvement of the entrepreneurs themselves?
Do you know your focus customer segments?
Do you know how to reach them?
Do you have the right tools?

Content marketing
SaaS stack

Pricing, revenu & cost modeling

A business without profit is risky business.

Are you making money?
Have you found revenue streams?
Did you determine and validate pricing that will be accepted by your customers?
Is your revenue model viable?

Pricing
SaaS Business models

Prepare for scaling

Tackle your growing pains.

Are your team and contractors working in an aligned way?
Is your venture prepared for growth?

Face2face mentor session

Get funding and partners

No money, no acceleration.

Do you have enough resources to build your business?
Did you find the right partners and investors?
Is your communication clear enough for the different partners?

Venture valuation
The VC view
Basic Financial SaaS parameters

Each workshop is led by a moderator and an external expert. Our experts are not theoretical people – they have proven themselves, each in their own domain. They share their knowhow with other entrepreneurs.
All sessions are in English.

Meet our experts

Sirris teamed up with the brightest experts and entrepreneurs in Belgium.
Sirris is a not-for-profit, industry-owned knowledge center founded by Agoria, the federation of the Belgian technology industry.

Our team

Omar Mohout

is a serial entrepreneur.
After he sold his last company, he started to help out European companies with a go-to-market strategy for Europe and the Middle East. He’s also professor of entrepreneurship at the Antwerp Management School.

Thomas Cleenewerck

is a scientific entrepreneur. He’s always looking for new key concepts to turn them into a commercial succes. He runs several SaaS companies in markets with high and very diverse customer needs. He’s an expert in finding the best fit between maximum customer service, minimal products and lean business models.

Dirk Creado

is venture capital consultant. He has founded and supported several companies and projects for over 15 years.

Vladimir Blagojevic

is entrepreneur, lean startup adviser, blogger and organizer of Lean Startup Circle Brussels. He started as a software developer.

Nick Boucart

is software engineer, web & cloud computing adviser, and co-author of The Art of Software Innovation.

Jo Martens

is online communication, strategic positioning & team dynamics

Peter Verhasselt

is engineer, jurist and strategist with a large network in the Belgian high tech industry. Peter started the Mistral program at Sirris. This program guided more than 70 companies in the search for the right technology strategy.

The number of participating companies is limited to 6 due to the interactive nature of the sessions.

Success lies further than a good
idea and enthusiasm

Why guess, when you can
start with knowledge

No need to guess

You need a valid business plan and go-to-market strategy.

Acceleration to success

Follow the 7-step Startathlon program and fill in the blanks.