“I’d like one day also Milan, city I know well because I used to work there, will host a Startupbootcamp”, says Ruud Hendriks talking with Startupbusiness about the new opening of the Amsterdam Startupbootcamp.
Startupbootcamp is indeed announcing the opening of its Amsterdam affiliate as part of the first European startup accelerator program already running annually in Copenhagen, Madrid and Dublin. During the year Startupbootcamp will also be expanding to Berlin and London.
Startupbootcamp Amsterdam is founded by Patrick de Zeeuw and Ruud Hendriks. Both have started up and invested in many media companies but also have worked in large corporations. Both were part of the Endemol Entertainment management team that grew the company from 3 to 18 countries.
Other shareholders will be Vodafone Netherlands, Boer & Croon and entrepreneurs such as Kees Zegers (founder NU.nl) Derk Haank (CEO Springer) and renowned journalist and investor Willem Middelkoop.
Startupbootcamp is a highly selective mentorship driven 3-month program. Teams are given a maximum of 17000 euros, six months free office space, free software and access to over 75 mentors per program including serial entrepreneurs, investors and corporate managers. The program concludes on Investor Day where teams showcase their startups to over one hundred of Europe’s most active Business Angels and Venture Capitalists.
The first Startupbootcamp edition ran from mid-August to mid-November 2010 in Copenhagen and attracted ten teams comprised of 32 entrepreneurs from 12 different countries. Since pitching at Investor Day on November 16th half of the teams have raised external funding totalling over 1 million Euros with European Business Angels and VCs.
The next program will run in Dublin from mid January to mid April 2012; Applications for Amsterdam are open now and the deadline is February 12th. From all received applications the 15 with the highest potential will be invited to a ‘Startupbootcamp for a day’ event at the end of February 2012. From those 15 Startups the 10 best will be selected to join Startupbootcamp Amsterdam which will start on the 9nd of April 2012 and run till 6th July 2012.
Teams can apply to any program and there are no nationality requirements. Startupbootcamp Copenhagen had teams join from Germany, Denmark, the UK, USA, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Austria, Israel and even as far an Argentina.
“We are focusing mostly on digital, telecommunication, healthcare and media startups – adds Hendriks – and we are creating an organization of independent companies that runs Startupbootcamps around Europe with synergy and collaboration that in our plans will grow even further in the future”.
A startup accelerator is a highly selective mentorship driven 3-month program. Accelerators were pioneered by YCombinator and TechStars in the US. Accelerators are a phenomenon driven by the lowered costs of IT and the power of networking. Startupbootcamp was the first Global Network partner of TechStars and will continue to benefit from the privileged relationship with the U.S.’s premier accelerator program.
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