More than 300 million startups are founded every year, but only 10% of them survive, which shows that the entrepreneurial journey is a painful one. It is precisely when entrepreneurs encounter challenges that the Startup Clinic comes to the rescue, offering help to startups through the Startup Plus program, with carefully selected experts in the various fields that startups need to develop and attract investment. 

 

The Startup Clinic is available to recipients of the P2 start-up incentive, the SK75 convertible loan and the SI-SK co-investment facilitated by the Slovenian Enterprise Fund. The clinic provides the best advisors in each field to help solve startup pain points completely free of charge. 

 

Help in the areas that cause startups the most pain

When your business is stuck, and you don't know how to move forward, the Startup Clinic plays a key role, offering help to solve your toughest business problems in a variety of areas with its experienced experts:

• Investment readiness
  Product and technology
  Business organization
  Business model transformation
  Law and intellectual property protection
  Financial management and accounting
  Processes and ICT support
  Marketing and sales
  Human resources management
  Multimedia
  Preparing for tenders
•  

Work with top experts who solve specific challenges

Maja Križan from Business Angels Slovenia, which runs the Startup Clinic program, said about the program:

"Startup Clinic is not a mentoring or group program. Startup Clinic is an individual work of a startup with a selected expert to solve specific challenges that the startup is facing. The dynamics of the implementation are tailored to the needs and progress of the startup and in a direct agreement between the startup and the expert. Business Angels Slovenia connects the startups included in the Startup Clinic with the best and proven experts in the field where the startup is facing challenges and continuously monitors the progress."

 

"SEF offers its portfolio companies a rich and high-quality range of content support. Take advantage of it."

 

Help finding investments

Business Angels of Slovenia also play an important role in the Startup Clinic, helping companies that are ready for investment to find an investor. They also help startups with guidance and networking to help them become investment-ready as soon as possible.

 

Nina Dremelj from the Startup Clinic and President of Business Angels Slovenia pointed out:

"Finding an investment is not and cannot be quick. It is not a quick process, but it is something we can prepare for sooner. I always tell startups to come at least 9 months before they need money. You have to come fast enough, be ready to work and make things investable. It starts with the internal organization and processes.

 

It is important to know, understand and prepare well for investors before we start to attract investment. The company needs to be aware that the investor has to exit sooner or later and that the value of the company has to grow very well to be able to provide a sufficient return to the investor.

 

Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often have unrealistic expectations when looking for an investment, unrealistic estimates of the value of the company, and they are very fond of inflating the numbers and not understanding the steps taken to get to those numbers. The value of a company depends primarily on its content and is not something that can be made up. It has to be done in a rational way so that the company can continue to win the next rounds. The more things are in place in a company; the easier it is to get investment."

 

"The key is to paint a realistic picture to investors."

 

Nina Dremelj

 

One of the most common challenges is B2B sales

Currently, one of the biggest pain points for startups is B2B sales, which can turn into success if they seek help from the Startup Clinic. There, they will find top sales expert Matjaž Slak, who has helped more than 20 startups in his career and follows the following, "To succeed in B2B sales, you have to stop thinking about yourself and your product and put yourself in your customers' shoes."

 

Matjaž Slak, Source: UL Technology Transfer Office

 

 

The Startup Clinic is just one of the top Startup Plus programs

The Slovene Enterprise Fund also organizes a number of other cutting-edge entrepreneurial programs for portfolio companies, such as the Web 3.0 Accelerator Programme, Push2Start, Podim, Hardware START, ScaleUPgrade, Teambuilding and many others. These programs effectively complement the P2, SK75 and SI-SK financial products, which provide Slovenian start-ups with between EUR 54,000 and EUR 600,000 in start-up funding.

 

 

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The program is co-financed from the Slovene Enterprise Fund and the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund. This is implemented on the basis of the Content Support for Funds Recipients (SMEs) Programme in the 2018-2023 period, under the Operational Programme for the Implementation of the European Cohesion Policy 2014-2020.