Telenet idealabs forms partnership with These Days Y&R
Telenet idealabs is an intensive accelerator programme from Antwerp in which start-ups with fresh, innovative ideas evolve into operating companies in 4 months. To give start-ups greater support in marketing, Telenet idealabs will be collaborating with These Days Y&R.
Ten start-ups were selected from more than 450 candidates, and each of them received a financial injection of €25,000, office space and the opportunity to call upon an extensive mentor network of experienced entrepreneurs and employees of Telenet. With this accelerator programme, which ran from September 2014 to January 2015, the start-ups could develop their idea into a product or service that is ready to conquer the market. After an intensive four-month accompaniment process, a jury evaluated the ten start-ups on their progress and their ambition to continue growing in the coming months. Strong emphasis was placed on the evolution of the product and the business plan, as well as the capacities of the team.
The jury selected five start-ups that will be able to further develop their company for four months during the growth programme. They are being supported with an additional €50,000 each and a coaching programme where the focus is on growth, sales & internationalisation.
These 5 start-ups are participating in the growth programme:
Campr: an online platform introducing a new way to travel: both camping in luxury and in someone´s garden. Think of glampings, urban camping or adventure camping. www.gocampr.com
Dot: a mobile app that allows the user to give an identity to a place. In this way you can discover new places falling within your area of interest. www.dotisfun.com
Intuo: an interactive platform for companies that want to train their employees & customers. It enables companies to give the right training courses at the right time, taking each individual’s level of competence into account. www.intuo.io
On Air: a mobile app that weaves videos from different people into a single story. Travelling with friends, at a festival, everything is a story. www.getonair.co
Pith.li: the yellow marker for the internet. Pith.li enables you to highlight articles on the internet. Pith.li doesn´t save a link, but provides the essence. www.pith.li
Growth programme
During the coming 4 months the start-ups must take a major step forward. Their product will evolve, their team as well as their go to market strategy. The latter is an important link in the programme for the start-ups. And in order to clearly stand out from other accelerators, Telenet idealabs is forming a partnership with These Days Y&R.
Most of the start-ups are headed by technologically-trained experts. They think about technological innovation all the time, but often forget that business innovation is equally important. That’s why idealabs went looking for a partner who could help the start-ups in marketing their products. In These Days Y&R, they found the perfect DNA match.
This advertising agency, part of WPP (the world´s largest communication services group, with 179,000 employees in 111 countries), offers the start-ups a wide range of resources: infrastructure (e.g. the mobile device test lab) and specialists (marketing, communication strategists, branding and design specialists, product developers and creative technologists) as well as access to their worldwide network.
Employees at These Days Y&R can offer the start-ups advice on specific problems, or connect them inside and outside the company (think of introductions to the brands for which These Days Y&R works). In this way the start-ups can set up test cases and validate their assumptions concerning their product. Invaluable input for a young company. So they’re continuously learning from customers and building a product for which there’s genuine demand.
Erwin Jansen (CEO These Days Y&R):
"In the past, a number of These Days Y&R staff members had already worked for several of the Telenet idealabs start-ups in a mentor role. This experience demonstrated that our DNA perfectly matches that of Telenet idealabs. After all, with our own These Days Labs, we have an internal innovation department that develops creative technology applications for both clients and ourselves. Inside These Days Y&R we have the people who are necessary for achieving this on a larger scale, and moreover we’ll be looking at how we can connect the Telenet idealabs start-ups with our international network – the ambition must be to be able to capitalise on our innovation hubs , as well as establishing a direct relationship with major players such as Google, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, all thanks to the Young & Rubicam Group and WPP relationships.”
Cedric Deweeck (idealabs)
“We constantly try to differentiate ourselves as a builder of start-ups, and we’re always looking for the best possible partners who can play an important role in their evolution. As an agency, These Days Y&R provides a perfect mix for us: from building brands to building digital products.”