Philips Innovation Award as validation check for investors!

As a student entrepreneurship award, we do not believe in a ‘winner takes it all mentality’. We focus on offering a learning trajectory from which all participants can benefit. Our partners invest in the process by delivering coaching and feedback. They are essential throughout the whole trajectory. The input and advice given to every participating start-up will help them grow and realize their ideas. Through our multiple stages, the start-ups can develop themselves. Below we have shortly described our stages; however, the emphasis of this article lies with the final paragraph.

The Stages

Our trajectory starts with the Idea Stage. In the idea stage, a one-pager must be submitted in the form of an executive summary. The applicants of the one-pagers receive feedback from the Young Advisory Group, which is the first evaluation moment.

Secondly, we have the Developing Stage. In this stage, a business plan must be submitted. We have a Business Panel, consisting of more than 120 experienced experts in the business world, who evaluate all the applications. The top thirty plans will continue their journey.

In the third phase, the Refining Stage, start-ups get the chance to improve their skills and their start-up. The stage starts with Investor Day, where multiple investing partners give masterclasses to the start-ups and provide them with personalized advice.

Later, there are two Prototype Days where start-ups can improve on different aspects of their business. Lastly, the semi-final takes place in an Innovation Market. The participants can meet experienced entrepreneurs, other start-ups and partners who are leaders of the industry. The best five of the Innovator League and the best three of the Rough Diamond League will continue to the next stage.

A Coaching Day and Pitching day will occur in the fourth and final stage. During the coaching day, our partners will finetune several business aspects. The Pitching Day provides the opportunity to practice and improve your pitching skills. The whole process ends with the Grand Final and two winners, one Innovator and one Rough Diamond.

Validation check for investors

Our jury will grade you during two moments in our trajectory. First in April, during the semi-final and in May during the final. During the finals, you will be graded by our main jury, consisting of industry captains in the Netherlands. In addition to our valuable learning curve, the trajectory also serves as a validation check to investors and other parties interested in start-ups. Graduate Entrepreneur makes this official with their Wildcards. They provide the eight finalists with a wildcard for all of their services. Even if your start-up isn’t originally from Rotterdam or Delft, you will still qualify for coaching, funding and other benefits of their ecosystem.

Also, many other investing parties see the Philips Innovation award as corroboration of high quality. Recent examples of our validation check are Rapidemic, which received funding from the Graduate Entrepreneur and Scope Biosciences from GenDx (both happened to be diagnostic start-up companies).

Making it to our finals will evolve your start-up to the next level and show that many institutions will recognise you are a high-quality start-up. Thus,   you do not participate solely for the win as you will benefit in any respect!