Startup Sauna: Accelerating Startups from Northern Europe & Russia
Study Summary - Fall '11 ReportPaolo
26.1.2012
Introduction
Startup Sauna open sources seed acceleration for early stage startups in Northern Europe and Russia since 2010.
Activities financed by Tekes and Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship.
Pro-bono support from talented coaches.
We executed a study to map the current status and assess the performance of Alumni teams.
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Background
Seed Accelerators: structured, temporarily help for early stage startups to maximize success.
Concept born with Y Combinator (USA) in '05:● open, competitive application process● focus on small teams● temporarily help, intense coaching, Demo Day● Batches
No earlier studies covering Startup Sauna, key question: is Startup Sauna helping teams?
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Methodology
Quantitative survey in October - December '11:
● hypothesis and questions● online form emailed to 38 Alumni teams● 89% response rate● complemented data with own knowledge● data consolidation and analysis● peer review & finalized findings
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2 Years of activity
(*): Including Fall '11 Batch in Admitted teams
+1600 Students, Entrepreneurs, Investors & Media Exposed to Startup Sauna message!
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Growing Interest
First batch in Spring '10:● 60 applications, 100% Finland● 23% acceptance rate
Last batch in Fall '11:● 240 applications from 6 countries● 7% acceptance rate
More selective, applicant quality increasing!
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+100 entrepreneurs coached during camps
3 Batches, 38 graduate teams
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Evolution of Teams
+76% of Alumni launched their product8
25 Companies in 5 countries
11223
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Increasing diversity, growing the community!9
Industry coverage
(*): EVCA model 10
Accelerating Fundraising
+339%
+33%
Attracting International investors!11
8.2 M€ Funds Raised
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10 companies with revenue for a total of 420K€/y
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5
2
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Growing Entrepreneurs
+65%
+15%
16% Female Entrepreneurs (Founder, CXO)14
138 People Employed
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76
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Growing the next generation of entrepreneurs!15
Conclusions 1/2
Startup Sauna has a positive impact on teams.
Alumni more successful at raising funds after camp:● 20 teams, avg 60K€ before the camp● 25 teams, avg 210K€ post camp● 11 teams raised more than 260K€ within 1 year
Startup Sauna has a great momentum with youth and helped develop the local startup community in size, diversity, attitude.
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Conclusions 2/2
Deal flow is growing, teams quality is improving.
Showcases: Blaast, Campalyst, Ovelin.
Opportunity to further develop the alumni survey:○ Repeat the survey every 6-12 monts○ Improve quantitative metrics○ Batch level data granularity○ Extend methodology to qualitative data○ Evaluate Social Impact○ Benchmarking (Finland/global, teams/accelerators)
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Back-up Data
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ReferencesDonna Kelley, Niels Bosma, Jose Ernesto Amoros (Jan. '11): Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: 2010 Global Report. GEM, available at http://www.gemconsortium.org/article.aspx?id=165
NN (Nov. 2011), Enterprise Capital Report 2011. EVCA, available at http://www.evca.eu/knowledgecenter/PublicationDetail.aspx?id=PBECR11
Paul Miller, Kristen Bound (June 2011): The startup Factories. NESTA, available at http://www.slideshare.net/avanzisrl/the-startup-factories
Nicola J. Dee, Finbarr Livesey, David Gill and Tim Minshal (September 2011): Incubation for growth. NESTA, available at http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/Incubation%20for%20Growth
Juha Ruohonen (July 2007): VICTA – Virtual ICT Accelerator, Technology Review 219/2007. TEKES, available at Tekes.fi
Gianluca Dettori, Aziz Gilani (June 2011): Accelerators in US and Europe: Speed and scale in capital formation. Kauffman Fellow program, available at http://www.slideshare.net/dgiluz/accellerators-in-us-and-europe
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Start-up Alumni Surveyed Alumni Spring 2010 batch
1 Aalto Brain Company
2 Audiodraft
3 Barisma
4 Finders Base
5 Blaast (ex Hipui)
6 Kassi
7 LucSens
8 MakuMaku
9 Relationship Games
10 Videolla (ex RoMM)
11 Shobble
12 Thermophotonic Heat Pump
13 Asema Electronics (ex-Widsen)14 Wikimaps (ex-DreamTravel)
Alumni Autumn 2010 batch
15 Co-housing Suomi
16 DealMachine17 Dentatube
18 FunRank
19 Hookie Technologies
Alumni Autumn 2010 batch (cont.)20 Reach.ly (ex Lisa monitoring)
21 Ajelo (ex MetroDRT)
22 Lifeportfolio (ex-Octarine)
23 PowerVTT
24 Titan BGA
25 Tribestudios
Alumni Spring 2011 batch
26 Campalyst
27 Double Defense
28 Fund Friends
29 Futureful
30 Hakema
31 Mighty Fingers
32 Ovelin33 Solu34 Stereonic (ex fluorescent nanoscopy)
35 SunyRide
36 SynchMachine (ex-Tohina)37 Twonicorns
38 Walkbase 20
Quantitative Questionnaire# Question
Basic Info
1 Original/Current Team Name
2 Start-up Sauna/Bootcamp attented3 Are you still active as Start-up Team?
4 Do you have a Legal Company for your Start-up?5 Is your Product/Service live with customers (yes/no, if private/public, since when/target launch date)
Quantitative data
6 How much Sales Revenues generated from your product/service (no sales / estimates K€/Year based on current quarter data)7 Headcount before the camp (Full Time Equivalent)
8 Headcount during the camp (Full Time Equivalent)
9 Headcount at present (Full Time Equivalent):10 Funding collected before the camp (timing & amounts in K€: Founders/Angels/Governments/VCs, also specify if grants or equity
investment
11 Funding collected during the camp (as above)
12 Funding collected after the camp (as above)
13 Have you done an Exit, Merge or Acquired any other team? (specify company name, timing, amount in K€ and # people involved)
14 Are you actively looking for additional funds (timing, amount in K€) ?15 Are you interested in the opportunity to meet investors in events organized by Start-up Sauna in the near future?
Others16 Other notes and comments:
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Summary Table 1/2Parameter # (*) %Number of Start-up Applications 525
Number of Start-up Coached 270
Number of Sauna Batches 4 Number of Start-ups Admitted to Sauna 54 10%
Number of Start-ups Graduated from Sauna 38 7%
Number of Start-ups still Alive 31 82%
Number of Startups Launched Product/Service 29 76%
Number of Startups that have raised Funding 33 87%
-Before Sauna 20 53%
-During Sauna 10 26%
-After Sauna 25 66%
# of Qualified Financing Events (>300K$/260K€ within 1Year) 11 29%
(*): Data as of 5.12.'11 with 89% answer rate excluding Fall '11 batch (except Applications, Admissions) 22
Summary Table 2/2Parameter # (*) %Total Funding raised (K€) 8176 -Before Sauna (K€) 1215 -During Sauna (K€) 1621 +33%
-After Sauna (K€) 5340 +339%
Number of Exits 1 3%
Value of Exits (K€) (*Lucsense acquired by Almare solutions 100% stock) -
Number of Start-ups with Revenues 10 26%
Total Revenues (K€/Year) 423 Headcount before Sauna (FTE) 84
Headcount during Sauna (FTE) 96 +15%
Headcount after Sauna (FTE) 138 +65%
Number of Teams with Female Entrepreneurs (Founder, CXO) 6 16%(*):Lucsense acquired for Stock in '11 by Almare Solutions, no public value. 23
'Boro' Paolo Borellamobile +358 40 4808333skype paolo_borellaemail [email protected] @paolo_borellalinkedIn paoloborella
Contacts
AkcnowledgementsBig thanks to the all the Sauna Coaches that provided help to shape the survey, and feedback to tune and Improve it. Special Thanks to Kristo Ovaska, Mikko Kuusi and Juha Ruohonen to trigger this discovery journey, to Ville Simola, Antti Ylimutka and Natalia Gaudet to keep it alive, and Gianluca Dettori @ Kauffman Fellow for the inspiration to do the survey. Our forever gratitude to the Sauna Alumni: without your efforts & energy we'd not exist.
Ville Simola, Captain+358505984561
Startup SaunaBetonimiehenkuia 3EspooFinlandemail [email protected] @startupsaunaFacebook/startupsaunastartupsauna.com
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