Acceleration programmes are intensive programmes focusing on specific sector verticals that aim to fast-track new entrepreneurs to the next level of their venturing endeavour. The programmes include specialised workshops, mentorship, international market and corporate connections, media visibility and follow-up support to help boost high-potential ventures.
While expert-driven workshops do take place, the programme is centred mainly around mentorship, with participants receiving hands-on support by a curated list of mentors that bring in their entrepreneurial experience and industry-specific expertise to help them determine their strategy, gain traction and grow faster. The programme leads to a Demo Day where the participants have the opportunity to present their high-potential venture to a select audience.
The programme’s aim is to help ventures grow, scale and succeed. Acceleration programmes are high-paced and custom designed in collaboration with industry experts and corporate partners or other organizations. Though they are all based on similar growth-hacking methodologies and principles, for each we follow a tailor-made design approach, hence each Acceleration programme we launch is never exactly the same.
Acceleration programmes are organised on an ad-hoc basis and vary in time length, depending on the focus and targeted outcome. These intensive programmes are aimed at ventures ready to scale.
Past editions of the Acceleration Programmes are the “Ideas That Change Us” on Health-Tech, Prevention & Wellness, in collaboration with NN Hellas, and the “Farming the Future” on Food and Agri-Tech.
For the “Ideas that Change Us” programme, Orange Grove teamed up with NN Hellas to deliver a 3-month Acceleration Programme that supported 10 startups from the Health, Insurance and Wellness sectors. Powered by our knowledge partners Ideahackers in the Netherlands, the startups received intensive training and consultations by leading validation and startup growth experts in the Netherlands and Greece, with 14 international trainers being flown in to support the startups. Moreover, through the Embassy of the Netherlands, NN Hellas & NN Group, IdeaHackers and the established startup ecosystem of Orange Grove & its partners, the teams had access to an extensive network of mentors and valuable connections. The programme culminated in a Demo Day where the startups presented to a select audience their innovations.
The “Farming the Future” programme, which was also powered by Ideahackers, worked with 12 ventures from the innovative Food and Agri-Tech sectors. Over 42 trainers & mentors, from Europe and the US, for 3 months, provided hands-on support tailored to the needs and growth objectives of the participants. The selected startups received training, consultations with market experts, market testing, connections to large international networks of mentors & potential clients, and media visibility. The programme led to a special edition of the Squeeze Pitching Competition, organized in collaboration with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Greece and the U.S. Embassy in Greece where a selection of the participating startups pitched their solutions to a distinguished jury panel and an audience consisting of angel investors, venture capitals, startups, business professionals and entrepreneurship enthusiasts. The competition was an official event of the Road to the GES (Global Entrepreneurship Summit), one of the most important business meetings internationally, organized that year in the Netherlands.
