#BehindTheScenes at Start it Graduation: Fall 2021 cohort kicks off their future
It was that time of year again: our beloved fall 2021 cohort graduated from the Start it @KBC program on November 3. Something to celebrate! But what did this special graduation evening look like exactly? We’ll take you through the highlights:
A milestone for the whole community
Twice a year we celebrate a major milestone: the graduation of last year’s cohort and their passage to becoming Start it Accelerate alumni. It is a time of reflecting on everything they have achieved and how they have evolved over the past year. It is also a time of letting go, becoming more independent and kicking off the next growth phase.
Now that another year has passed, it is the turn of the fall 2021 cohort to shine! They were the first wave since the pandemic started to experience physical bootcamp again, and the first wave to have the chance to follow Ellen Bruyninckx’s completely renewed Academy program.
The entire Start it Accelerate network was invited to the spectacular former brewery, De Hoorn in Leuven, and 169 people signed up to take part in the celebration: 99 graduates, 22 partners, 18 community members, 13 mentors and 17 Start it Accelerate team members. Because they all played a part in the Acceleration track these startups have successfully followed!
Honouring our most impactful startups
At our graduations we always take the opportunity to shine the spotlight on some soon-to-alumni who really stand out during our awards show. The Start it Accelerate team nominated startups for five categories of awards. Our business coaches were in charge of the selection, and put together a small story for each startup on why they were nominated. They included milestones the startups had reached, and concrete impact made: for example, reaching the goal of 100,000 plastic bottles saved. The rest voted on one of three startups per category based on this info. The nominees were:
- Biggest growth: BRAUZZ, TipToh, Homate
- Greenest startup: BRAUZZ, ClimateCamp, Sofar
- Most resilient: Publican, Artfuse, Crowwd
- Best win: Carbon+Alt+Delete, Make it Mine, Genvision
- Community award: Bevoy, Track Abilities, 3DEE
Business coach Inge Wouters and COO Mieke Daniels kicked off the awards ceremony and talk show at 8 pm. Each category of nominees came forward together, and Inge and Mieke took 15 minutes with each to look back on the past year: the highs, the lows, the lessons learned. For example, BRAUZZ took away the lesson, “start sooner, don’t overthink, and talk to people faster.” 3DEE reflected that “the most valuable thing people can give you is time, and that is what I got a lot from in the community.” And Sofar learned to “spend your energy wisely to get you to the next step as quickly as possible.”Now that another year has passed, it is the turn of the fall 2021 cohort to shine!
The entire Start it Accelerate network was invited to the spectacular former brewery, De Hoorn in Leuven, and 169 people signed up to take part in the celebration: 99 graduates, 22 partners, 18 community members, 13 mentors and 17 Start it Accelerate team members. Because they all played a part in the Acceleration track these startups have successfully followed!
Then all the nominees got to use the pitching skills they’ve honed with us when they got 60 seconds to convince the audience why they should win. Some startups took time to prepare beforehand, and others winged it, confident that by now they knew how to present their product or service in their sleep.
Photo: Esther Noëth, co-founder SOFAR
And the winners were…BRAUZZ, SOFAR, Artfuse, Genvision, and 3DEE! Each winner got a month of free co-working in their hub of choice plus a golden ticket for our investor matchmaking happenings! For these events you normally need to grab one of the highly valued places for startups to pitch to mentors, partners, investors, experts and business angels. So those spots are very exclusive and in-demand!
Always paying it forward
And then it was time to celebrate! We opened the bar and hit the dance floor with DJ Jules Juten. But the party doesn’t stop there: not only the award winners, but all our alumni will remain in the Start it Accelerate network. They get lifelong access to extra benefits such as admission to the Academy. As Mieke put it during our awards show: once you’re a part of our community, you’re always a part of it, and you’re still welcome to all of our events as well as programs like Market Me and Women in Tech.
Our accelerator startups may not have paid a cent for their year-long program, but we do ask them to pay it forward. We’ll be calling on them to come back as speakers or mentors to lend their experience to the next generation of startups! Don't forget to check out the pictures right here!
Don't forget to check out the pictures right here! Our next graduation will take place during the first week of May 2023 at our coolest event, Connect X. The whole Start it Accelerate network will be invited once more: hope to see you there too!