by Dilyan Dimitrov, founder at Eleven Accelerator Venture Fund

With this post, I will try to answer the question we get more and more often these days – “What happens at the end of the third month at Eleven?” Just to put it in context, Eleven is a 12 million Euro acceleration and seed fund based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Our investment cycle starts with funding startups with 25 thousand Euros for a period of three months, on average. After that, we have the option to either invest a full seed round of up to 200 thousand Euros, or follow up with another 25 thousand for a second acceleration period if needed. And of course, we always have the option to do nothing. This post is about what matters to us when deciding which way to go.

STAND ON THE RIGHT SIGN

About two months ago, in the end of January, Eleven teams had their first international Demo Day in London. Every time I am in London, the same thing impresses me over and over – people rush up and down the escalators in the Underground all the time. It does not matter that trains pass every other minute, or that the dash up will save them maybe 20 seconds – people are always in a hurry.  There is even the “Stand on the right” sign, meaning if you are on the left, you need to move. And you don’t see that same thing very often in the metro in Sofia – here, people generally take the more relaxed approach and just hang on to the rail, waiting for the next floor to come. And if you walk up, you are likely to face some reproachful glances from the people around.

Since this time around it was all in the context of our Demo Day, and we had spent about four months with our first batch of companies, I couldn’t help myself seeing things from that angle. And don’t get me wrong, I am not going to compare London startups to the startups in our programme. Rather, there are teams in Eleven doing it London Underground style, while few are taking it Sofia Metro way, and it makes a lot of difference.

At this early stage, one cannot tell when results are going to come, so it is more about moving forward than hitting some specific milestones. It is progress we prefer to track, rather than set targets – target setting has an inherent flaw – it distorts your viewfinder and one tends to focus on hitting that milestone, rather than doing what’s best for his startup. We erred in setting specific goals to some teams, and they responded by tweaking their focus in such a way that it made no sense at all.

PROGRESS

So maybe the most important part of the answer to how we decide what to do at the end of the first stage of acceleration, is whether we see more Underground or more Metro in a team. It is about whether a company is moving in the right direction and at a proper pace rather than did the company achieve certain set goals. If we see that, then we sit down and discuss the future.

 And I am not saying we expect our investees should be running full speed up the proverbial escalator all the time, but we will not be happy with them sticking to the right and just staying there. After all, the funding we provide for the first stage goes mostly to the team members so they can focus 100% on their startup. And to use another analogy, in this stage fuel consumption is measured in liters per hour, rather than litters per 100 kilometers, so if you stick to 1st or 2nd gear, you will cover very little ground on the fuel provided, while hitting top gears will get you much further in the same period.

ABILITY TO LEARN

Of course, if a team is steaming ahead in the wrong direction, it makes very little sense. Usually, when we get teams on board, it is a leap of faith for both of us. And early on, while working with mentors and getting feedback, the projects get shape and focus that can lead to a meaningful business. While most of the teams try to take the best of the programme (and ask for more), some prefer to filter the feedback and only hear the positive part that supports their hypothesis. And this is a big turn-off for us, as investors.

COMMITMENT

Again, it comes down to time and pace. Some teams take entrepreneurship as a lifestyle business, others dedicate fully to their projects and spend all of their time and resources on getting as far as possible as quickly as possible. No need to tell which ones have a better chance in getting a follow-up round from us.

METRICS

While we make our first investment decision based on gut feeling, we love to have our follow-up investments based on data. Any data that validates the market and the product should do, but with very little exceptions, we want to see that (early) hockey stick before we put more money into a project.

TEAM DYNAMICS

Finally, whether it is very early stage or not, the team is of critical importance for a project. We have teams join our incubator space in downtown Sofia, and we spend all our time there, so by the end of the third month we are pretty clear on how a team works and what makes it tick. And at the end of the third month, we want to see that the team is just as strong as it was in the beginning, and as capable to hit that next milestone, whatever it may be.

Furthermore, we are convinced that it takes A players to be able to hire other A players at a later stage of a project. And if in the beginning the founders should be sufficient for hitting the first milestone, it takes more resources, capacity and expertise to grow a project beyond its validation stage; so if we don’t see an A team early on, we will likely not see A players join it in the future.

 So, although there is no magic formula that gives a straight answer to the question what happens in the end of our first acceleration stage, our play is to invest in many companies, filter out failures and invest in successes. And how you fare in the first three months really matters, because if you don’t run up that escalator, someone will get there first, no matter where you are going.

Is three months enough to get to a proof of concept? – let us know what you think, join the conversation below.

Eleven Investment Panel

by Maxim Gurvits, founder at Eleven Accelerator Venture Fund

After we broke the news for you last week (here and here), we thought it’s a great idea to give you a little more background on the 13 awesome teams that will be joining the Eleven family in our third batch, on April 8. Who are they, and what is the secret sauce that got us excited about having them at Eleven? It’s our pleasure to introduce!

1. CASETREK - Legal case management in the cloud

We first met Ivan of CaseTrek back in September 2012, when he was pitching a different idea of an event, organized by Vukasin Stojkov, our scout for Serbia. A few months later, and after getting advice from Vukasin, as well as working with Ivan of Vetcloud, the guys at CaseTrek made it a no-brainer for us to decide to invest. Both the team and the market make great sense. Alexander and Ivan have formidable track record as developer and startup guru, respectively, and their domain expertise and product understanding stood out. The market is by no means easy – Max from the Eleven team actually tried unsuccessfully to innovate case management in his previous company – but we believe that CaseTrek’s positioning and early customer validation put them in a great place to make a dent in the lawyer universe at last.

2. CLICKO – Slide to unlock real-life doors

Damian, Kalin, and Daniel from the Clicko team have CVs that would make any recruiter salivate: a top-of-the-line security systems specialist, a software developer responsible for programs with which spaceships are built, and 20 years of mobile development experience. Next to that, Daniel has been active as a mentor for Eleven, knowing the accelerator model and our workflow inside-out. With the best skills available, a tremendous market, and the know-how to lean-start a project, this was an opportunity Eleven couldn’t pass.

3. DIVESQUARE- Global mobile and web platform for recreational diving

The right kind of team, united by a passion for a sport that is undergoing disruptive triple-digit percentage growth; that’s the best description for the guys behind Divesquare (Alexander, Miroslav, and Stoyan). Alexander’s UX-focused dev skills, Miroslav’s domain expertise, and Stoyan’s business acumen position Divesquare to exclusively penetrate prime validation and distribution channels, offering a great product to a growing and very hungry market.

4. GYMREALM - ERP, CRM, and social integration for gyms and their clients

Dimitar and Martin of team GymRealm are textbook examples of product development, having built customized ERP solutions for 7 gym management companies, before validating that there is potential to integrate the most desired and necessary features into a shippable product, all the while experimenting with social features that could not only solve the gym’s organizational needs, but also the marketing ones.

5. KID-A-MOM - Online video content channels for kids and parents

Bogomil, Christian, and Yavor, the guys behind Kid-A-Mom, have been leading the market for video content distribution in Bulgaria and the region within different businesses for years, witnessing the demise of traditional distribution channels. With Kid-A-Mom, they are teaming up to serve their trusted customer base in a completely different, new way: web and mobile.

6. LIONSHARP - Voice and gesture interaction for collaborative creation

Team Lionsharp first amazed us in January, when they pitched the Voiceboard product at a seminar that Eleven co-organized with Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia, in Yerevan. Giving up the security of stable jobs in a place like Armenia requires character, and this is exactly what Nigel and his team have in abundance; as well as engineering prowess and experience. Despite all the logistical challenges, the Lionsharp team will be joining Eleven in Sofia in April, building a product that disrupts interactive brainstorming and collaboration.

7. NUMBERPICTURE - Beautiful data visualizations

Domain expertise, multiple product experience, and an overarching commitment to beautiful design is what the NumberPicture team, led by South African-born Finn is all about. At Eleven, the team will iterate on the impressive demo version already released, changing the way we make charts from our spreadsheets.

8. SKIIPI- Stay connected and informed on the slopes

Ivan, Marko, and Mitch from Zagreb have impressive past experience, having built two successful businesses, including Croatia’s top branding agency, with offices in Zagreb and London. At Eleven, Skiipi team will tackle a market that is their great passion – skiing and snowboarding. According to Ivan, smartphones are more a nuisance than useful when skiing, while the worst part is coming home after a skiing holiday abroad and facing a triple-digit roaming bill. Skiipi’s hardware and software solution will change all of that, and more. And, of course, a few good words from our friend and Croatia scout, Ivan Brezak Brkan of netokracija.com, spoken at the right time didn’t hurt at all.

9. SOCIAL NINJA – Think WordPress for brand management

The guys behind Social Ninja run a leading European social brand management agency, based in London in Sofia, and through serving their customers in the past several years, have validated the need for an affordable and lean online campaign management tool for social campaigns. Bringing social brand management to the masses, Social Ninja is like Wildfire, but with more options, out-of-the-box, and at affordable prices.

10. STORE TO DOOR – Pret-a-porter e-commerce reimagined

What happens if you take a leading fashion model, an editor of a top global fashion magazine, and an e-shop development guru? That’s right, the next big thing in premium fashion e-retail. With an impressive list of successful previous projects, the guys from Store To Door are validating a distribution and sales model for premium fashion items, which has impressed leading brands, and will substantially improve efficiency and customer experience in this field.

11. WOBEEK – Bringing the cloud to beekeeping professionals and enthusiasts

The tale of the Wobeek guys from Novi Sad in Serbia is not only a tale of a great team (which Ivan and Novica are without doubt); but also that of a great market: beekeeping. Having seen the frustrations of his dad in managing his bee farm business, Ivan knew that with his experience, he can build a cloud product that can radically improve the efficiency of producers of this niche but impressively large global market. Which is exactly what he and Novica will be doing at Eleven

12. WONDER SWAMP - Top-quality video content for everybody

Hristo, Kalin, and Vladislav from team WonderSwamp excel in a quality that is rarely mentioned in startups: not only are they a great team tackling a great market, but they are above all amazing in execution. With a formidable record in video production, and having worked together for years, the three recently joined in WonderSwamp, offering a disruptive way for small businesses to build astounding video marketing campaigns.

13. ZZZZAPP! - Utilize and monetize your WiFi connection

Dilyan from the Eleven team first met with the US/Croatian founders of Zzzzapp last summer, during StartupLive Split, and we’ve been tracking the team since. Robert and Tino have extensive experience with building products and leading businesses, and with Zzzzapp they have tapped into the massive craving for free WiFi, especially when the user is abroad and the alternative is (expensive) roaming. With Zzzzapp, any owner of a connected WiFi router can engage, target, and monetize the captive audience of their wireless connection.

As you can see, companies that make it into Eleven either are equally strong in all of the following three, or impressively excel in at least one:

• Team

• Market opportunity

• Execution quality

While team means great interpersonal chemistry, prior experience, and founder personality, market opportunity is the awareness of where the puck is going, and the credible ability to skate to the puck, while making sure that the puck is big enough and worth it. Having said that, one of the most compelling reasons to invest in a team is a proven ability to execute. With teams like WonderSwamp, who are excellent video producers, Skiipi (leading branding guys), or Divesquare (professional diver and industry representative), we are putting more and more focus on teams that are really good at something, be it a personal competence or professional recognition, in the belief that if other components of a great startup are there, Eleven’s acceleration program can really propel such a startup project to global relevance.

We are full of excitement in the wake of this batch’s program launch on April 8; follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more stories soon to come!

Tell us what you think about the selected startups, join the conversation below. 

xerox

We would like to thank Xerox for their support in organizing this event and making this weekend happen flawlessly. Thank you, guys!

Webit

Having attracted over 500 teams from 52 countries in 2012, the Webit Congress StartUp Challenge will again highlight the work and ideas of 21 shortlisted startups, giving them the opportunity to exhibit for free and pitch in front of major investors, VCs, partners, 530 international media representatives / blogggers and over 6000 Webit Congress delegates from 70+ countries.

All 21 semi-finalists will get a free expo booth in the heart of the Congress – the StartUp Village and the chance to present their innovative products and services to the judges, audience, investors and media. Apart from the cash prize, which will be announced at a later stage, the Winners will also receive international media coverage from Webit’s global and local media partners and catch the attention, tweets and posts of the delegates.

So, if your company is less than 4 years old and is based or active in Europe, Middle East or Africa, all you have to do is fill in the online form by 30 April and enter the competition. You can find detailed information about the Webit StartUp Challenge and the Jury panel here.

Webit Congress 2013 will take place on 6-7 November 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Webit Congress StartUp Challenge Application form

See the StartUp Challenge Winners from 2012

“We should be doing this more often” was the general take from our London week. And it was not about the city… London was its usual not very hospitable self during this part of the year…it was all about the people we met.

But first things first, a big thank you to Google. Once again it was not so much about the place Google Campus, which hosted us, but about the 20 or more Googlers that met the teams, mentored them and gave them genuine feedback. And our teams loved them. Google has a very entrepreneurial culture and its people are either ex or future startupers, so they are on one hand very empathic to the pains of growing your idea and on the other hand very experienced in various fields.

A few more independent mentors joined us as well, so at the end of the day we could confirm what we were already suspecting. We have great people in Sofia, but it helps to go to a different city and approach each startup from a fresh and non-domestic perspective. We are sure that similar mutually beneficial meetings could come from other cities with a vibrant entrepreneurial scene, starting from Santiago, going through Berlin and reaching out to Singapore. We could learn something new and get better when we visit these great entrepreneurial hubs, while leaving a bit of our own local flavor behind.

The actual demo day was also fun. As it goes with demo days these days, it’s more for the show and FootballScout outdid it by having Dimitar Berbatov come for their pitch and endorse their launch. As for the VCs, the teams had the opportunity to meet some of them one-on-one over the next couple of days with Filement and Farmhopping scoring the most meetings.

So without much further ado about London, here’s what some of the teams shared about it:

“Sensika took so much from the Eleven Demo Day in London. We got tons of useful product and business feedback from smart and bright folks: Googlers, VCs, potential clients and experts. We established contacts with people that loved what we do and could support us in our quest. We understood the point of interest of VCs.” Konstantin Christoff from Sensika.

“MeisterPlus will continue to rock on, applying the experience that all awesome Google mentors shared with us! The whole week in London was amazing and we can not wait for the next demo days! Hopefully even more teams will join and benefit from this opportunity.” Stoyan Irinkov from MeisterPlus.

“Eleven Demo Day was a door opening experience for us” Hristo Alexiev from Playground.

“USEFUL and AWESOME! We want more The mentors really understood the idea behind Eventyard, and they liked it a lot. Probably because London is a huge world party center and many artists have started their career from there.” Kiril Velkov from Eventyard.

“Ulympix was delighted to meet Google. They helped us greatly validate our design ideas with their seasoned user experience experts, and hone on our value proposition with their business experts.” Daniel Lorer from Ulympix.

“KeenSkim got accelerated mentoring at the London Campus. You can see Google was involved: besides the great feedback and insights, we got some great suggestions on how to make the KeenSkim experience even better. Would love to have those Googlers on the team.” Tudor Vlad from KeenSkim.

“HintOrTwo‘s week in London was helpful and frankly inspiring. We gained a lot of useful insights into future product development and marketing strategies from brilliant Googlers, VC’s and mentors. It’s not everyday that you get the chance to have your business viewed from such a perspective. Best of luck to Eleven’s next batch. It’s an opportunity you don’t want to miss.” Maria Shishmanova from HintOrTwo.

“For La Koketa demo days at Google Campus, London were extremely beneficial and exciting. Our key strategic lines were validated by people with invaluable technological expertise and diverse background. The most cherished experience for La Koketa was the advent of fresh perspectives for product development and the potential for new strategic partnerships.” Angelina Krasteva from La Koketa.

For us at Eleven, this was our first more focused endeavour of going outside our region with more of our teams. This is an integral part of our strategy to tackle the isolation syndrome that many other local startups face. Was it enough? No. But we are very persistent and methodical in what we do. Next time it shall be Dublin, Berlin, San Francisco, Tel Aviv… and London again

Eleven Accelerator Venture Fund, with the support of XS Software (http://www.xs-software.com/company.php) will host a 6-months programme for game startups, to begin in April. Applications are taken online at www.f6s.com/elevengames

Eleven Games

Come April, the Roof will be a much more playful space. We are happy to announce the launch of the application process for our first games-only cohort, together with one of the largest players in the online games industry in the region – XS Software.

WHY GAMES?

In our first and second application windows (summer and fall of 2012) we saw a number of game startups, and we liked many of them. However, we aim to provide startups with Smart Money, rather than just money, and support them with expertise, know-how and network that can help them grow faster, and we did not feel we can do that. At least until now.

XS Software, one of the leading international companies specializing in browser games for over 7 years now, and headquartered in Bulgaria, has joined Eleven for its games cohort. XS Software will support the teams, invested by Eleven, in a number of way, including:

• know-how and mentorship through the Idea – StartUp – MVP – Post release period;
• advise on game design, platforms and business model;
• advise on structuring metrics and data collection from the very beginning so teams can take the best decisions for their game;
• advise on marketing and publishing strategy for the games;
• advise on the technical side of the backend of the game in order to reach flexibility and scalability;
• set goals and targets to reach a more successful product;
• prevent teams from taking the wrong decision on an early stage, thus saving money, effort and time;
• connections and strategic partnerships worldwide;
• access to the international gaming community.

That said, we are now ready to provide significant value added, on top of our investment, so game startups can really make a great impact with their projects.

THE GAMEPLAY

Game teams shall apply to our game cohort at www.f6s.com/elevengames. We are currently taking applications and our application window will stay open till Sunday, February 17, 24:00 (EET, GMT+2). Shortly thereafter, our Investment Committee, with the support of key members of XS Software team, will review and shortlist the top 50 applications, and schedule interviews over skype with the founders. The best projects will be invited to demonstrate their game to our Investment Panel during the second week of March.

The finalists will get funding and join Eleven’s game programme in early April.
For three to six months teams will work closely with the team of XS Software to develop their game and get it launched on a test market (usually Bulgaria). Once initial metrics are available, Eleven may decide to follow up its initial investment with another EUR 175,000 for global expansion and commercialization.

THE RULES OF THE GAME

Just as with other projects, anyone from anywhere can apply. We don’t have any limitations in geography as long as teams feel comfortable relocating to Sofia for the first 3 to 6 months of their project, where they will have the amazing opportunity to stay at the Roof – our awesome co-working space where all the magic happens.
Eleven will fund the companies with up to EUR 25,000, for up to 8% equity, but each individual project will be assessed based on quality, progress and potential, and different terms may be suggested at the end of the selection process.
XS Software will support the projects with all its resources, and based on the expected involvement of the company with each individual projects, the founders shall agree with XS Software, on the specific terms of their involvement, including an equity share similar to Eleven’s one to be awarded to XS for the provided resources.

PLAY!

You may check out some general guidelines of our programme and the application process at our blog here, here or here.

Looking forward to seeing your games at www.f6s.com/elevengames, and playing together.

On Jan 2, 2013 we announced the start of our third application window. You may go directly to the application here, or first read the below, as well as two previous posts: suggestions to applicants to Season II, and the statistics of Eleven’s Season I and II applications.

A few words about the process itself – once the application window is closed (Feb 3), our Investment Committee will review all applications, and we will schedule online or personal interviews with the top teams sometime mid-February. By the end of February we will extend invitations for our Selection Days in mid-March, when each shortlisted team will have the opportunity to pitch its project for investment.

Since this is our third application window, and having already reviewed over 800 applications and interviewed more than 200 teams throughout our previous ones, please allow us to give you a few DO’s and DON’Ts.

MVP

Don’t waste time on building a product with maximum number of features. Build one feature or even a promise of a feature that users want. Release early (i.e. NOW) and get as much feedback as possible from your target market.

It shows us two things: a) you are not building a “faster horse” that nobody wants, and b) you can do things, as entrepreneurs are doers not talkers in our view.

COMMITMENT

Make sure you can demonstrate to us that your team is fully committed to your project. We are not providing easy money for you to test IF IT WILL WORK. We are making an investment in entrepreneurs willing to dig up the earth to MAKE IT HAPPEN; teams truly believing in it and willing to dedicate 100% of their resources to it.

WASTE

Please don’t waste our (and your) time, if:

• You are not really sure, if you want our investment or not;
• You haven’t done your homework (don’t know your competitors, target market, etc.)

Please be concise and to-the-point in your answers. We are not really interested in your philosophical take on the meaning of life, nor in the number of mobile and smartphone devices in the world – we have heard those numbers before and they have little or no bearing on your project.

SIZE

While our investments are relatively small, we are putting several-hundred-thousand Euro valuations to each project with the goal of several-million Euro exits down the road, so your product or service should be:
a) addressing a big enough market; and
b) easily scalable.

DAMN LIES

Be honest in your application. Chances are we’ll catch lies, exaggerations and other omissions either directly or through our mentors. We actually appreciate both integrity and the ability to learn from your mistakes (and having the courage to admit any such weaknesses).

PROGRESS

If you re-apply and there’s zero or negligible progress on your project for the last few months, then you’ll definitely get the same answer.

On the other hand don’t be offended, if you were rejected or get rejected. The best way to prove us wrong is to show progress and impressive traction. Our investment decision process is not perfect, and we will surely miss on some great opportunities, but at least you’ll be able to rub your success in our face.

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO

Last but not least, don’t hesitate. Chances are that several months down the road there will be more competition in your domain and not less.

SO APPLY NOW!

We’re off to a rolling start in 2013, with the 8 new Eleven teams starting at Eleven HQ in Sofia on January 7. In case you missed it, here are our exciting new companies:

• CATALOGSTER | Bulgaria/Sweden | Deyan and Victor are two young but experienced techies, previously involved with rolling out major consumer internet products in large emerging markets. With Catalogster, the team is making an application to catalog and share all user items and belongings.
• EMOTION CONCEPT (GAMELEON) | Romania | The team from Bucharest is building a tool for publishing multiplatform games, which will allow marketers to easily create business-oriented gamification products.
• ISAY | Bulgaria | The four-person team from Sofia is committed to raising live interaction measurements of events and media broadcasts to a new level.
• NAYCHI.ME | Bulgaria | Naychi.me is tapping into the learning marketplace, providing a regional platform for students and teachers to find each other, and to host classes and trainings online.
• SHAREYOURCART | Romania | Adela and Andrei are two amazing entrepreneurs from Cluj-Napoca, and our second team from this Romanian city. With ShareYourCart, the team allows e-retailers to increase conversion through social interactions of their customers.
• SPONSIA | Bulgaria | Milen and Teodosy are the founders of a disruptive marketplace that allows sponsors and event organizers to find each other and to build branding and sponsorship relationships online.
• SQUEE.IT | Croatia | The Squee boys are building the app store of indie gadgets, leveraging the exploding global demand for niche gizmos, appliances, tech devices and accessories.
• VETCLOUD | Serbia | Ivan, Milan, and Mirza are three entrepreneurs from Nis in Serbia, who are building the first global platform for animal healthcare professionals. Think Basecamp for vets.

WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY

Having completed a second application cycle, we are finally getting some comparable numbers on how the applications to Eleven look like statistically, which we decided to share with you in this infographic.

Based on the above, here are three main takeaways.

1. It’s about the team – You’re most likely to get accepted into Eleven with a team size of three. Two or four are also an option, but you definitely need to be more than one.
2. Eat your own dog food – While Eleven accepts teams at any stage of development, even ideas only put on paper, it is common sense that chances increase if effort and sweat have been put in. Teams that have put in some of their cash and time towards building a concept are almost three times more likely to get shortlisted.
3. A (moving) picture says a thousand words – We have mentioned this in almost all our instructions to applicants, and having reviewed 800 applications in the past two windows, the numbers confirm it’s true: applications with a video are five times as likely to get shortlisted than without one. It doesn’t matter whether the video is a professional production or two-guys-and-an-iPhone style: nothing captures passion and character like a 2-min clip.

WHAT THE NUMBERS DON’T SAY

Of course numbers aren’t everything; someone said “lies, damn lies, and statistics” for a reason. Based on experiencing the progress of our first eleven teams, and on the winning selection aspects of the eight new teams, here are a couple of takeaways on non-numerical traits that show commitment and fighter spirit:

1. Getting out of the comfort zone – While common-knowledge for everyone involved in startups, we actually noticed that getting out of the comfort zone is most evident in non-local teams. This is not to say that applicants from Bulgaria are less advantaged than foreign ones: thirteen out of nineteen Eleven teams are originally Bulgarian. Yet, going abroad, to a place where you don’t know anyone, don’t speak the local language, and pitching in an unknown environment certainly shows more eagerness and hustle.
2. Practice matters – In continuation of the above, pitch practice matters a lot. In reality, most teams neither have the apparent experience or the killer MVP that makes an investment choice easy to make. So being good at convincingly telling a story is crucial. And as it goes, pitching can’t be learned from a book, it’s rather a matter of practice. We clearly see that teams that get out there and pitch at startup events and meetups are much stronger and better prepared for an acceleration program.
3. Market awareness – Lastly, there is a clear difference between great teams with an enigmatic or overly theoretical concept, and those with an idea that makes everyone go “why didn’t I come up with this”. And the latter is always a result of solving a global problem, together with getting the numbers right. These numbers include but aren’t limited to an understanding of the global market, knowledge of device penetration and payment statistics, and getting a grip on what the current funding opportunities are. Teams that solve global issues and also get their homework done have a clear advantage over those that don’t.

So, with this in mind and having opened the application window for the third batch of Eleven companies (open until February 3), we wish all startups an absolutely awesome 2013, full of launches, funding rounds, and all-out blasting success.

Cheers!

When we started Eleven back in April of this year, we learned one thing very quickly – despite all our blog posts, media coverage and Q&A sections, entrepreneurs wanted to have their questions answered by a real person. So we started our Open Meetings – an initiative that is still alive today – where we invite anyone and everyone for a cup of coffee and a chat. At that time it was three of us dedicated full time on Eleven, but now our team has grown to five, and we’re still growing.

Although Open Meetings are a great and fun way of spending our Wednesday mornings ever since, they did not optimally serve our goal to become not only the #1 accelerator in Bulgaria, but in the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe. So we started travelling – we covered London, Berlin, and virtually every major city and event in the region. And we still felt we could do better.

While travelling throughout the region, however, other than many great startups, we met many awesome people, who shared our goal of turning New Europe into the new hot place for entrepreneurship and innovation. Today, we are happy to introduce the beginning of our regional expansion through our Scout Network.

We are proud to welcome Bogdan Iordache, Ivan Brezan Brkan, and Vukašin Stojkov, our scouts for Romania, Croatia and Serbia respectively, to the network of Eleven. All three of them are currently mentors to our startups, and on their own are outstanding leaders of the quickly growing and blossoming startup communities in their countries.

Apart from generally helping startups in their cities, each of our scouts has the exclusive option to give away one contestant place on our Selection Day, which happens four times each year, and is the day when we select the 10-15 startups that join Eleven proramme from around 30 finalists, shortlisted from the approximately 500 applications that we receive each time.

With Bogdan, Ivan, and Vukašin, we’re looking forward to engaging even further with the exciting startup scenes of New Europe countries, and to bringing funding opportunities to the next generation of awesome startups that will come from this developing hotbed of tech.

Yesterday, October 4, we announced officially the start of our second application window. You may go directly to the application (link is at the end of this page), or take a minute to read this post before that.

The application will be open for one month, till midnight EEST on November 4 (so you have plenty of time). As usual, we are looking for great teams with awesome ideas that are easily scalable and can target global markets. Again, anyone from anywhere is welcome, and the finalists will have the amazing opportunity to spend the next three to six months at the Roof – our great co-working space in Sofia.

A few words about the process itself – once the application window is closed (November 4, remember?), our Investment Committee will review all applications, and we will schedule online or personal interviews with the top teams sometime mid-November. On November 19 we will extend invitations to the top thirty teams to join our Selection Days – November 26 to 28. On November 28 each team will have the opportunity to pitch in five minutes or less its project to our Investment Panel, which will consist of prominent entrepreneurs, technology gurus, Googlers and investors. By the end of the following day, we will extend invitations to the finalists to join our programme starting January 7, 2013, 10:00 am.

Since this is our second application window, and having already reviewed near 500 applications and interviewed more than 100 teams throughout our first one, please allow us to give you a few words of wisdom before you start working on you questionnaire.

What we saw in the first application process was that some applications clearly stood out above all others. Here are the key ingredients that we believe made these projects catch our attention.

PROBLEM

As Guy Kawasaki once said, to be a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to make meaning, and you make meaning in one of three fundamental ways – i) increase the quality of life, ii) right a wrong, or iii) prevent the end of something good.

For us it is very important to understand very clearly what problem are you solving – what meaning does your product make. And if you understand the problem well, all the better.

TEAM

Make sure you have the right team to take your project to the next level. We understand that talent may be hired or commissioned, but we’d love to see the critical set of skills and knowledge within the founders’ team.

Once you have your dream team in place, make sure you hit that big red button on top of the application page that reads “Invite More Members” – it is fine if you describe each team member, but it is much better if we see them with their profiles.

HOMEWORK

One thing that was very easy to spot in the first application window was the difference between teams that actually prepared, and the ones that just applied. If you are serious please, do your homework – understand the problem your product will solve, figure out what your market is (seriously, the answer is ‘everybody’ only if you are producing free air), google any and all keywords you may come up with and check if there are other projects in that space, find how they make money (or not). Learn all you can learn about the market, and if you still believe your idea will work, try to figure out how big your market is, how will you monetize, and how will you be better than your competitors. We will most definitely ask you at least one of those questions.

PITCH / VIDEO

A video is your best chance to make a lasting impression. And we don’t mean you need to be an awesome editor or hire a film maker to create a piece of art. We found out you may create a video with a phone camera, a piece of paper, and a lot of creativity and imagination.

Of course, the video is also your best chance to bore us to death, so if you decide to go along that path, please, choose a dark room, sit in a chair and mumble.

And finally, don’t make us download 500 megs of video; the guys at YouTube have done a decent job, so please, use them or some other similar service.

TIME

Don’t wait till the last moment to complete the questionnaire. Although it is a simple, 25-question questionnaire, how you formulate your responses makes a world of difference. You will find that for many questions you’ll have limited-space tweet-style response options. What you will likely also find is that it takes a while to define your answer within that limitation.

And please, although it will do to just copy and paste your LinkedIn profile or CV under “Describe each team member” question, we will very much appreciate if you could put some personality in that answer and really tell us who you are, what you do, and what you are great at.

CONTACTS

This one is very, very important – even if you skipped everything above, check this one: give us a contact email that ACTUALLY WORKS and that someone is checking at least once a day. We will try to organize one hundred personal and telephone interviews in less than five days, so unless you book your slot and are available at that time, unless we really love your project, we will not follow up more than once.

Well, good luck with your application, and we are looking forward to seeing you projects at www.f6s.com/elevenS2. Reach out to us with any questions you may have at eleven [at] eleven [dot] bg.