What I Learnt From My First StartUp Incubator

I recently participated in a startup incubator and I can scarcely measure the extent to which I was blown away by how much I’ve taken with me. So much so that I’ve set sights on hopping between incubators and accelerators in Stockholm - home to CandyCrush, Spotify..you get the picture.

Startup Incubators

The quintessential definition of a startup comes from Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steven Blake (check out his blog here): “A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”. Delving into this deeper, Randa Kriss argues that the key difference between a startup and small business is that a startup aims to disrupt the market (read more here).

Disrupt - I like that word a lot - let’s turn things upside down.

Following on from this, a startup incubator is a space for nurturing and growing startups whilst in their early stages. Often an incubator includes hands-on workshops from experts in the industry on various elements of building a successful startup, funding, pitching and more.

The Demi Strategy as a Startup

Participating in the incubator was one of the first times I had ever viewed The Demi Strategy as a “startup”. Since its conception in May, I had never liked using the word “business” and leaned a lot more towards describing it as a “service”. However, after seeing applications for the incubator being publicised and realising The Demi Strategy fit the description, my mindset changed.

Taking from the definition earlier, The Demi Strategy aims to disrupt the way in which Gen Z approaches our early careers. There is often a disconnect between career education providers and this modern workspace and The Demi Strategy aims to fill that gap by offering support by Gen Z for Gen Z, free from the cliches we’ve all heard. This startup is excited to own its own part of the internet, www.thedemistrategy.com

The Structure of The Incubator

The incubator that I participated in had 6 main sections

Idea Validation
From Business Idea to Business Plan
Legal Framework
Finance Basics
Go-to-market, Branding & Marketing
Pitching Effectively & Getting Noticed

My Favourite Lessons

I learnt a lot from this incubator, most notably:

Design-thinking & having a people-centred approach to my work within The Demi Strategy will help me stand out
Client experience can act as a competitive advantage for a startup. Usually, when we think of competitive advantage, we think speed, price and aesthetics, but simply how people feel throughout the process of working with me can serve as a differentiator.
A pitch is unique in being a dedicated time for everyone to have attention turned to you. Use this opportunity for an ask or call to action that can benefit The Demi Strategy in the long run, regardless of the result of the pitch.

Incubators in Ireland

If you are based in Ireland and interested in participating in an incubator, here is a short (and by no means exhaustive) list of startup incubators in Ireland:

Yours,

Demi | Founder of The Demi Strategy

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