If you want your business to grow quickly and aggressively, kill several birds with one stone, and do marketing and raise extra money for product development, then the Prototron competition could be a very good opportunity to realize these goals. This idea came to me when I was developing my startup and I managed to realize this idea. This article will be a guide to my-our experience.
Prototron - what is it?
First, let's take a look at the contest itself. Prototron is a project launched in 2012 with Swedbank Science Park Technopol and Tallinn University of Technology, which is dedicated to turning smart and innovative ideas into reality, i.e. to create the first real prototype, if there is none, or to refine it.
How much do they give?
Protoron will finance up to 35 euros each competitive round, which is actually quite a good amount for a start-up company.
And most importantly, Prototron has a simple and transparent system for receiving money and their implementation. Only 2 interim reports and quite adequate procedures for receiving money, and their subsequent control (yes, you will have to report for them). Here I say hello to the hemorrhagic EAS! ))) I wrote about the processes in EAS and obtaining grants here.
In general, the conditions really sound quite simple. I went to the site, filled out an application and sent it for verification, and then you wait according to deadlines.
It should be noted that I applied as many as 3 times before the project was noticed at all. The first 2 times failed to get anywhere. The last time a letter suddenly came that we were selected in the top 40 teams and they are waiting for us for a preliminary meeting! 🙂
Now that was a victory! By the way, in writing an application and providing materials, we or I (I was responsible for this in the team) became very skilled. You need clean and understandable materials, with beautiful design and design, focus on the most important thing - on the product / service, its easy and quick description and your earning model or what you want to be different. This is mega important, it’s not worth writing a poem, no one has time to read them. But here on white or yellow paper you should be enough and here you have to give your whole soul!
Stage 1, if you liked your materials
In general, then the procedure was as follows. The top 40 Prototron teams were simply invited to a meeting, made some useful presentations for start-ups, explained the subsequent procedure and what would happen next. This meeting did not promise anything and, in fact, was just some gratitude for our work and the sent application. They invited us to get to know each other, to look at us and show ourselves.
After the meeting, we waited, hoped and waited. And then on a significant day, a letter arrives - a refusal, that no matter how sad it is, but you are not selected in the top 20 teams 🙁 . Here is such a specific oblamingo. It seemed that the project should conquer the world, but in the end they won a maximum of 5 minutes of attention to our files.
As you can see, I decided to write and it turned out to be just to the point! As they explained to us, we lacked some fraction of a point there. After a short letter, a phone call followed. We talked for a long time and it turned out that we are in 21st place out of 20, but there is nothing to do and this is the competition and its outcome.
To admit at this moment, I lost faith in such competitions and undertakings a little. Perhaps you just need to focus on business, and not waste time on filing files.
Step 2
But fate had its own plans. One of the working days they called me and asked. “You know, we got one team (it just didn’t come), now we have presentations in front of the jury, are you ready to come?”
"By what time should we arrive?" I asked.
“Well, in general, you should already be here and your presentation should already begin 😂,” they answered me.
I thought that this was our chance, and then fate itself said that if you want, please take it, but now you just have to “take it”. In 30 minutes I was already there.
In a way, it wasn't entirely fair, we-I didn't have time to prepare. The teams could make presentations, get ready, get enough sleep in the end, and I just had faith in fate, and I want to believe some kind of charisma and idea! 😁
The day passed quickly and stressfully. There were about 10 different jury groups to talk to. Make a pitch presentation and answer the questions why we are worthy of receiving the main prize?
Further it is even more difficult. Stage 3 and final
Further it became more difficult. In order to get to the final, 3 more stages will follow:
- Firstly, the performance again in front of a new jury and a kind of show where they give you 3 minutes to make a super pitch in front of cameras and a fairly large audience. For me, the unpleasant news was that it happened on the same day as the performance in front of 10 different jury groups. That is, I got up on stage as tired and unprepared as possible, since I received information about the whole day just a few hours before the start. But! The good news is that at this stage, the TOP 10 teams will be selected and we are lucky to get there!
- Secondly, the presentation is again in front of the new jury and here you have more time, about 20 minutes. It's already happening on another day.
- And thirdly, the final performance of the top 10 teams (yes, it turns out that they count all 10 teams in the final). The good news is that at this final stage there is already an announcement of the winner on the same day and in fact your presentation does not decide anything here, the winners have already been chosen at the last stage.
We did not win a grant, but we were among the 5 winners and received 7500 euros. The contest cleverly distributes the budget among the few contestants they believe in. So get ready that you will not receive 35 euros, but for example 000 or 7500, depending on the faith of the organizers in the viability of your business.
Then they send you a contract to sign, which has several provisions for checking your business, progress, and so on in return for receiving a grant. But this is a fairly common state of affairs.
My conclusions from the entire competition and procedure.
A rather energy-intensive process, but you are doing business or embodying some idea! Here are a few points that I took away from the entire participation in the competition
- The logical procedure of the competition, at all stages they keep in touch with you, communicate about all the upcoming stages.
- A good opportunity for teams to highlight their business, show themselves and introduce their product, while still getting a good grant.
- Good amount without much burden. You get the money all at once to your account without any invoices or estimates. You are quite free in the implementation of the received grant and are not burdened with excessive bureaucracy.
- To win you will need a lot of time and resources. Your acquaintances and previous achievements will be a good help. Unfortunately, if you are going straight for the very first time and no one has heard anything about you before, then your chances are small.
Of the minuses
- Transparency of evaluation at the stages of selection in the TOP 40 and in the TOP 20. You do not know the criteria and results, as well as how you compare with other teams. This is a strong minus, since you cannot influence this process in any way and keep you essentially in the dark.
- You need connections, you need to be known. You are given little time to effectively and fully communicate all your ideas. You need focus from both you and the jury, and if they had a bad day, then it will be difficult for them and it would be great if they have already heard something about you somewhere or they can rely on the opinions of other members jury. In the style of at least having them talk among themselves and have someone say, yes, this is a good project (objectively). And for this, you should have everything ready, an info field, a beautiful and concise website, and so on.
- Preparedness and response. You are expected to be maximally mobilized if you make it to the top 20. From now on, you should be ready for a force major, a radical change of plans and a quick response. Perhaps our case is an exception and, according to the rules, all teams have more time, but in our case it turned out to be quite stressful time.
In custody
I will say that participating in Prototron was a great experience. I advise you to go through it even just to cover your business. Tell and share your ideas and, of course, develop your product, if you manage to get the coveted grant, then do not forget that the finances you receive impose responsibility on you and your journey is just beginning.n