What participating in the MINI Impact Program looks like
The MINI Impact Program, launched in 2022, is the condensed version of our accelerator program designed specifically for companies that are based outside of the US.
It runs on the same platform and with the same characteristics of the URBAN-X accelerator, with two types of participants: we help early stage companies with pitch, product roadmap, and customer discovery, or more mature startups that have good traction locally and are interested in the US market, supporting them with US distribution, investors, and supply chain when needed.
Remote Phase
The first 3 weeks of the program are remote. We’re asking for 10–15 hours of your time to go through our preparation process. This will help us identify the work we can do together.
We start with an onboarding meeting with your fellow cohort members and the entire URBAN-X team, where everybody introduces themselves. We ask you to pitch to the group and we give you some feedback. We also go over some of the logistics and modalities of the program.
Right after that we do an assessment on these levels:
- Business Development / Fundraising
- Product / Software (if you have a software piece)
- Product / Hardware (if you have a hardware piece)
The goals of these meetings are to understand your company in more detail and identify potential gaps. We use structured sets of questions to cover as much as possible before we zoom in to what is going to make the biggest difference within the time in NYC, and to identify potential intros so that there is enough time to schedule meetings in advance if appropriate.
On-Site Phase
Most activities happen at Newlab, a tech and hardware hub located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They include:
- An opening session where we do intros and share the learnings from 7 years of urbantech innovation.
- Three sessions with our Experts In Residence on topics customized to your product and your business.
- A video interview and photo shoot so that the MINI team can tell your story when you’re back home.
- Some free time for the meetings you scheduled and also to deal with the ongoing demands of your company back home.
- A closing session where we hear your updated pitch and discuss your experience and learning from the program.
These sessions typically happen from 9:00am-6:00pm, leaving the evenings for you to explore the city, except for Thursday night when we have dinner together to celebrate your participation in the program.
After the program
The MINI Market team will welcome you back and find opportunities to tell your story, through their media channels, possibly some events and other collaborations. Do stay in touch with us at URBAN-X though, if you are moving forward with your plans to come to the US market of course, and also if not!
In Summary
This is a short program, but also quite meaningful, from what the pilot participants had to say about it. You’ll benefit from the deep experience of a well rounded team. We look forward to helping you make cities more sustainable, livable, and resilient.
