For Startups
We help you eliminate questions concerning
Building a startup in the chemical industry isn’t easy.
It takes more than just a great idea and a laptop. Industry specific know-how for example. And suitable equipment and infrastructure.
That’s where we come in.
Think of us as your very own startup advisors. Someone you call to discuss your next strategic move. Someone who challenges you. Someone who asks inconvenient questions, so you avoid making mistakes. But also someone who has a lot of empathy and a ton of respect for what you’re doing. Because we know what it’s like to start a company.
Join our six month program to benefit from:
Bi-weekly coaching sessions
Custom-tailored workshops and trainings
Top-tier industry experts and investors
Joint PR
Access to our community
100% free of charge
How does our
startup support work?
How we work
You say hello!
STEP
1
Application
It all starts with you saying hello. Therefore we kindly ask you to fill in our application form and send us a non-con pitch deck of your startup.
We will then schedule a first online meeting that helps us get to know each other better. During these meetings we tell you everything you want to know about us and answer your questions concerning chemstars. Of course, we are also curious to learn more about you and your ideas.
STEP
2
Pitch Day
In a second step, we will invite you to our Pitch Day. Your chance to present yourself in front of our jury and us to win a seat in our support program.
Your 7 minutes pitch should include your vision, current team set-up, the problem you are trying to solve, the solution/ product/ service you are going to offer as well as your business model and your target market. Please also prepare information concerning IP situation, financing strategy and roadmap or timeline. Of course, we are also curious why you have chosen us as a partner and what you hope to achieve from working with us. Your pitch will be followed by a 7 minutes Q&A session with our jury.
After our Pitch Day we review your application carefully and we come to a go- or no-go decision. This might take a few days as it is no easy decision for us. Either way, you will receive qualified feedback on your application.
STEP
3
Our Support Program
After a positive jury decision, we will accept you into the program and our journey together will begin. From now on, we are by your side and you can count on our support!
We kick off six months of intensive support with an extensive onboarding workshop in which we speak in depth about the current status of your startup and jointly define goals and milestones for you to reach the next big step in your development. This can be landing a pilot customer, scoring a collaboration partner or becoming investor-ready.
The core aspect of our support are our bi-weekly online meetings. We speak about what has happened over the past 14 days – what went well, what didn’t – and discuss your plans for the upcoming two weeks. If you have experienced challenges, we try to help solve them or find somebody who can. From time to time, we also ask inconvenient, but important questions that we believe are important for you to progress faster.
Whenever we discover topics that are particularly pressing for more than just one startup, we address those in trainings and workshops that are custom-tailored to your needs.
We have industry partners, which have committed to open their doors and share knowledge and insights with our startups. When we feel that speaking with an industry expert or investor will help you move forward, we do our best to get you in touch with real experts that have long-standing experience in their respective field. This way, you gain access to industry-specific know-how you won’t find elsewhere.
Communication is incredibly important, if you want to build a successful company. We help your startup’s PR efforts by featuring you on our website, social media profiles and by telling our media contacts about why they should write about you.
We believe networking is one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do. That’s why we also host events that bring our ecosystem closer together. They provide the unique opportunity to mingle with fellow entrepreneurs, meet potential collaboration partners, customers and investors and share insights and knowledge about starting a company with like-minded people.
STEP
4
Evaluation
After three months, we take the time to look at your startup’s progress from a bird’s eye view. We jointly reflect on achievements, evaluate our collaboration and discuss next steps. After six months, the progress you’ve made ideally allows you to proceed from intensive support into our Alumni community.
STEP
5
Alumni Community
Becoming an alumni doesn’t mean our journey ends. You’re still very much part of our community. And of course, we still invite you to events and facilitate contacts to suitable people in our network, if we see fit. However, it also means that we’d love for you to give back by becoming an advocate for our activities, by mentoring other startups and through speaker engagements at our events.