Join Founder Challenge by Startup Norway: Get your startup idea validated and kickstarted
Over the course of two weeks this fall, you can participate in the Founder Challenge program and learn what your idea needs to become a real startup.
The startup community is full of creative people — many of us have ideas spinning in our heads even when we have some time off. Where do these ideas come from, and are they actually valuable? Should they be heard by someone else, and one day exist as real companies with innovative products and services?
Knowing how to manage your brilliant idea might be hard, especially in its early stages. For a creative person, an idea can easily swell to something so big that it seems impossible to create outside the creative’s head. This is one of the reasons why taking the opportunity to tell someone about the innovative idea is one of the first stepping stones to making an actual, real product.
Two-week evening program
The startup journey is full of risks — and the early months and years are not exempt: Will your family members and friends believe in your idea? Do you have the finances to support your idea until you get your first investors? And how financially secure and ‘ready’ should you be before you start a company?
There is a lot of uncertainty when starting up, and learning from someone having dont it before is of great value for aspiring entrepreneurs.This fall, Startup Norway will launch a new two-week’s evening program to help all of us with startup-ideas to take the first step of starting a startup — Are you up for the “Founder Challenge”?
The program will serve two purposes for its participants:
- We will provide resources and support to develop and validate your business idea, to see if it is has potential and is worth pursuing
- We will help you develop a personalised plan to get started, whether that is today, or perhaps in a year. This will help guide you on the next steps you should take to continue developing your business idea further.
The whole Startup Norway team is excited to help you get started. Starting is hard, so let’s do it together. Are you up for the challenge of becoming a founder?
Starting whilst working a full-time job
Knut Wien, co-founder of Startup Norway, started from an idea he developed whilst working another full time job, and making the decision to start full time was hard.
I don’t know about you, but I had daydreams about starting my own company while I was working at my former job. I had a long list of what I considered to be good ideas for my future company. I knew the inside of my industry well, knew what the customers needed, and what I thought would be a good idea. But taking the first step into the startup life sure wasn’t easy.
Even Ifar Fossland is the Startup Manager of Startup Norway, and will follow the program closely as a host, alongside Wien. As a part of the team behind the Fundraising For Startups program, he is regularly advising startups on how they should work to do good fundraising for their startups. During 2020 so far, he has been advising 228 startups in 2020, 65 of them this fall. Fossland is very ready to give his take on the ideas of participants at the Founder Challenge.
Participate at the Founder Challenge to meet experts within the startup community, and get help at understanding everything ranging from business models, to how you can apply for funds, and how to get your idea validated, says Fossland.
Virginia Vegas is the Director of Programs and Investment Manager at Startup Norway, and is heavily involved in many of the programs and initiatives run by Startup Norway. She says the Founder Challenge is happening at a very good time — not only for the startup community, but for the world as a whole.
This program is very exciting — and very relevant for the new context of our world as we are battling a pandemic, and need new innovations to do this. By creating the Founder Challenge, we are supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs in Norway, and this is part of the Startup Norway DNA. We have been committed to providing this support since 2010. For the Founder Challenge of 2020, we hope many women founders want to join us — as we must close the gender gap of entrepreneurship in Norway, says Vegas.
Are you curious about the opportunities of entrepreneurship and startups, and want to create the next big innovation? A first step of the way could be to have your idea validated by skilled professionals from the community, who can teach you things you need to know before you enter into a new and exciting chapter of your life.
Program brief:
There will be 6 evening sessions to learn and work.
There will be workshops to:
- Test and validate your business idea — develop a solid business presentation
- Work on the plan to get started — have the milestones to make a decision clearly written out
There is a new learning topic every session:
- Session 1: Problem / Solution Fit
- Session 2: Market & Competitive Analysis
- Session 3: Business Model & Team
- Session 4: Identifying Assumptions
- Session 5: Testing Assumptions
- Session 6: Funding Sources & Financials
