HOW DOES SPRINGBOARD WORK?
1. Preparation Phase
The main objective of the preparation phase is to strengthen the business case, improve its attractiveness for investors and helping to prepare necessary set of documents for fund-raising.
As a part of the preparation following documents will be prepared: Executive summary (2-3 pages), Business Plan ( up 30 pages + financials) and Investor Presentation (ppt slides, for 15 minutes presentation)
Preparation phase advisory work is carried out by a mentor/external advisor. External advisor will be agreed with entrepreneur to avoid possible conflict of interest. Advisory work consists of providing document template, review and commenting of prepared documents and running meetings/ mini-workshops on strategic topics ( 2-3 meetings).
Preparation phase ends with a dry run – formal qualification for springboard event, at least 7 days before the actual springboard event. In the preparation phase, Connect Estonia commits up 24 hours of consulting.
2. Springboard panel event
Springboard panel event is two –hour tailor-made event to discuss the project.
Connect Estonia takes care of the venue and presentation equipment, recruitment of external experts and event moderation.
Participating external experts—panel discussant External experts are both investors, successful entrepreneurs, business executives, industry experts as well as various domain experts ( law, ip, accounting etc). Final participant list will be agreed with an entrepreneur to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
Springboard event will start with participant introductions. Thereafter entrepreneur will make a 15-minute presentation. After company presentation expert panel discussion will follow for up to 1 h 15 minutes. The discussion will focus both on the presentation- specific aspects (as if it used for investor presentations in the future), further business case validation, business driver identifications as well as additional opportunity spotting and advising next stage project executing.
Although springboard expert panel will likely consist of some potential investors, the primary objective of the springboard event is to give further feedback on the business case, give relevant tips how to fine tune the presentation, to learn what to expect from investors and to create valuable connections.
In the springboard event phase, Connect Estonia commits up to 14 hours of consulting and administrative time for practical arrangement.
4. Springboard Debrief
Connect Estonia will arrange a short wrap meeting to present feedback from panellists and learn specific needs of the entrepreneur for the next stage. Connect Estonia project manager will give also tips in terms of practical business steps.
Connect Estonia commits up to 2 hours for Springboard Debrief
