We have been following the offerings of Hungarian incubators and accelerators for a long time, and during last year the Food-scalEUp As part of the project, we also completed an extremely educational co-creation cycle. During this process, three important aspects were strongly raised by both clients and experts:
- PersonalityMost existing services work with groups; individual sessions are rare.
- Problem-focusedAlthough clients need a significant portion of the services on offer to some degree, it is by no means certain that they will receive concrete and actionable help to solve their current challenges.
- VerticalityThere are few groups that are able and willing to focus on an industry or specialist field, which is why the business and collaboration opportunities for both the network and the alumni are limited.
It is clear that cost-effectiveness and market size logically push knowledge providers in this direction. At the same time, the question arises as to whether there is a place in the market for an acceleration service that is specifically tailored to the individual, problem-oriented, and also provides a network of contacts that can be utilised beyond the solution itself.
This is how the idea of SPARK! was born: a special business sprint that works intensively with selected clients, preparing them through a coaching process for the optimal reception of mentoring and consultancy. Its aim is to develop real solutions over two months of work and help as many participants as possible make concrete progress.
In addition to the Food-scalEUp project's acceleration methodology, Digitaltech EDIH provided the funding for the pilot, and five credible, highly experienced experts – three business coaches and two business development mentors well-versed in the food industry – worked with the nine winning participants. We will report on the journey of the participating sprinters in detail later, but suffice it to say for now that everyone crossed the finish line, and based on the feedback, we ourselves can hardly wait for SPARK! to strike new sparks in the autumn – this time in the field of the creative and creative industries.
For participants, SPARK! is not just an acceleration programme, but can also be a genuine springboard that provides tailored support, a problem-solving focus and an industry networking web. Such initiatives create new opportunities and contribute to the innovation and development of the industry.
Follow our initiative's journey and experience the power of SPARK! first-hand!