Market Readiness Program
Throughout the year, you can register to participate in the Market Readiness Program using the form at the bottom of this page. The program is organized three times a year (spring, summer and fall). During the program you will attend weekly training sessions together with 7 other startups to prepare for a successful market entry.
In addition to informative and interactive training sessions, you will receive one-on-one coaching from one of our Business Developers or Investment Managers.
Who is the program for?
You are a technological innovative startup based in the province of Groningen, Friesland or Drenthe who understands the importance of involving the customer in the (further) development of your product or service and you are wondering how best to validate the market. Perhaps you are looking for funding for your startup and the market validation aspect is still missing and you would like to receive support to approach this in a structured and thorough way to strengthen your business case. Or maybe you have developed a technological innovation and would like to involve your potential customer in the further development of your prototype? Perhaps you are about to enter the market with a marketable product and would like to connect your first paying customer or you have been active on the market for several years with an innovative product, but have difficulty connecting new customers. Is your startup in one of the above mentioned phases? Then joining the Market Readiness program can be valuable!
What to expect.
The Market Readiness Program is a ten-week program in which you test all assumptions about your customer. You learn how to conduct effective customer conversations in order to pinpoint the customer's needs. You conduct weekly customer calls independently to gain focus on your early adopters within a specific customer segment. If after 6 weeks you have identified a customer problem worth solving, you will spend the remaining weeks working on your product and business model and working towards the higher goal: getting a commitment from your first paying customer.
The topics covered during the trainings are:
- The different market and customer types.
- Defining your market strategy and market size.
- Discovery of the customer problem and customer problem validation.
- Solutions and solution validation.
- Earnings models and pricing.
- Calculating the ROI for your ideal client and optimizing your sales process.
An edition of the MRP consists of up to 8 startups.
Our criteria & practical information
- At least one (co)founder has to attend the group training sessions (for 10 weeks).
- The MRP takes place in the spring, summer and fall. Group sessions take place weekly on Tuesday afternoons. These take place in physical and digital form with these taking place bi-weekly physically in Groningen.
- Spring edition: March 12 Summer edition: June 11 (international version) Autumn edition: October 22.
- You are an innovative startup based in the province of Friesland, Groningen or Drenthe.
- You have spent a lot of time developing a prototype and now want to engage the potential customer in further development, either you are about to enter the market and would like to attract your first paying customer or you have been in the market for several years with an innovative product, but are struggling to attract new customers.
- Group sessions are in both Dutch and English