– Why German Food Entrepreneurs should apply to 33ENTREPRENEURS Accelerator?
At 33entrepreneurs we believe that there is place for disruptive innovation in wine, food, and tourism. In France we have a great image, the skills, talented people, strong industries and some money to invest in these areas. We are attractive for international StartUps. We have gathered world class mentors willing to help our StartUps grow.
Therefore we provide all accelerated StartUps with an initial investment of 15,000€. At the end of the Program, we may reinvest several hundred thousand euros into the most promising ones.
– Why did you select the location in Bordeaux? (What are the specific location advantages?)
We selected Bordeaux as it is the world wine capital and has a dynamic tech ecosystem. Besides, Bordeaux is a well known brand in the world, that is intimitaley associated with France and its way of life : good wines, fine food, fantastic resorts… It sounds a great place to gather entrepreneurs, to grow their StartUps, surrounded by a great vineyard, a vibrant Tech ecosystem that was recently awarded the label FrenchTech.
– What kind of startups are you looking for? (Which stage of development? Which industry? Tech startups too?)
We are looking for Tech oriented StartUps that push forward game changing products or services in the wine, food and tourism industries. Entrepreneurs, we believe that success mainly relies on the quality of the team — its members‘ competences, complementarity and ability to create great relationships.
With our analysts, we are constantly looking at the world’s StartUp ecosystems to identify early-stage projects. We are seaking for StartUps that solve a real customer pain points and have a profound impact on their market. We want to be part of each adventure from the very beginning.
– Who are people behind 33ENTREPRENEURS accelerator?
The accelerator is 100% private, runned by passionate entrepreneurs and tech lovers. Vincent Prêtet founded 33entrepreneurs because of his passion for new businesses with strong competitive advantages. He is an entrepreneur, investor and consultant who likes helping founders to think big. He has convinced many sucessful entrepreneurs with outstanding profiles to join the adventure as mentors — such as Jon Bradford (Techstars), Franck Le Ouay (Criteo), Thomas Duroux (Chateau Palmer) and Florian Mesny (Groupon) among others. At 33entrepreneurs, we truly believe in big successful history, built together- with our team, startups, investors and mentors. Our motto is: Play to your strengths.
– The main hurdle for the most of startups is establishing relationships with industry partners, because it takes often too long and startups cannot survive over time. Are you planning to solve this issue with 33ENTREPRENEURS by providing contacts to industry?
Our strength is precisely to connect StartUps with the right partners : wether customers, investors or top board members and talented employees. Innovating in those industries can be very difficult when you have limited networks. Because we focus on three verticals (wine, food and tourism), we have strong connections with industry partners. We are happy to help StartUps and our partners build sustainable relationships between one another.
– You are organizing startup pitch competition in Berlin, to select german startups to participate in 33ENTREPRENEURS. Do you also have international network of partners to support startups that plan to establish business outside of France?
We have been traveling around Europe for more than a year now to meet with tons of people from innovative ecosystems and connect startups to influencers — thanks to our international juries. Because we want to support startups that want to grow international, we have built important partnership with others accelerators like H-Farm Ventures (Italy), Lisbon Challenge and BGI in Portugal, the Global Accelerator Network and Techstars (USA) to name a few. Vincent Prêtet, 33entrepreneurs’ founder and CEO, also met with American accelerators during a roadshow in 2013. In that regard, we plan to tour the US and Canada this summer by organizing startup contest in 8 major North American cities.
– And last but not least what is the business model of 33ENTREPRENEURS Accelerator? What are the conditions for the startups?
We want to offer the best conditions to the StartUps we are accelerating. Starting with a great place to work, at La Bourse Maritime in the very heart of Bordeaux, competitive pre seed-investments and help for settling during the program (15,000€ for less than 4% equity), highly skilled and experimented StartUp friendly (yet challengeing) mentors and an Accelerator Program that has proven its efficiency (thanks to our partnership with Gan.co).
P.S. Meet 33entrepreneurs at the Food Startups Meetup in Berlin on the 19.02.2015.