Our call for applications ended on the 15^th of July and we’ve started working hard on the next edition which kicks off in September. It’s going to be a great edition as Web Summit falls smack in the middle. More than the largest tech event, Web Summit and the hundreds of side events will make Lisbon the place to be if you want to meet up with some the world’s leading tech talent. So how do we evaluate the start-ups?

As we believe that founders will inevitably define the success or failure of the start-up, we are fine tuning Lisbon Challenge to make it truly founder centric – everything we do will be to support the founders and ensure that they have all the necessary resources to succeed. From experience, we know that only a strong team can overcome the daunting challenges associated with creating a successful start-up.

Whilst most top tier accelerators focus on scaling and growth, our focus will be in accelerating the product – getting it ready for primetime. Practically all start-ups will have to choose between something a small number of people love, or something a large number of people may like. We will be focusing on the former – that’s how all successful start-ups begin.

The 3-month program will be one of the most intensive programs you have ever gone through. Are you prepared to say goodbye to everyone for 3 months? Isolate yourself from everything non-start-up? Focus is key and having a well-defined plan, ambitious milestones and aggressive KPIs, you’ll find that the 3 months in Lisbon could very well turn out to be the most productive period of your life so far.

As many founders have asked us about the evaluation process, we thought it would be useful to introduce some of the people involved whilst also shedding some light on the process. It is important that you bear in mind that this is not a process of choosing “the lucky ones” but instead an opportunity for us to find the most suitable start-ups for the program whilst founders should take the time to ask us all the questions necessary to make an informed decision. This is as much about you and your start-up as it is about us and the program.

PHASE #1 – Founders – 29^th July

Validation of start-up-program fit - stage, industry, product and alignment with LC

We are now in the first phase of the evaluation process whereby we will be looking carefully at the founders and the idea. As program director, I will be heavily involved in the process along with Isabel who is the program manager and has a lot of experience with start-ups and past editions of Lisbon Challenge. We will be joined by 2 successful seasoned entrepreneurs that will also evaluate the start-ups in this phase whereby any differences between what we see and they see, will be carefully analyzed. Being part of the ecosystem and intensely involved in this process, sometimes blinds you to some important nuances. They are there to keep us in check.

PHASE #2 – Skype Interviews – 5^th August

Validation of founders-fit - especially founder-fit with the product and market.

Once we perform the initial evaluation, we will move on to 1-on-1 skype interviews with the founders for a deeper look. Are they coachable? Are they committed to the program? Do they have the necessary skills? Are they aligned with each other? Do they have founder-product fit? Above all, we need to ensure that founders have the necessary technical and business acumen to succeed. It is at this stage that founders should also be engaging with us, asking us all the questions they have, in order to make an informed decision. Again, this is as much about you as it is about us.

PHASE #3 – Internal Review – 12^th August

Validation of start-up as an attractive investment and whether the market is a scalable one.

Having analyzed the founders, we will have narrowed the number of start-ups to around 20 in order to perform the final interviews where both Isabel and I will be involved as well as 2 entrepreneurs from our Alumni, investors and experts in market-product fit. This validation is skewed towards product and investment, having validated the founders.

PHASE #4 – 19^th of August

This is the final phase whereby we gather all the information and decide on the final 10-15 teams that will join the Lisbon Challenge Fall ’16 Edition. We will notify all start-ups from the 19^th onwards on whether they will be joining us or not. Those not selected, will receive an email outlining the reasons they were not chosen. It is important that you understand that this is not a scientific approach and deals with a high degree of subjectivity derived from the experience of those involved. We believe in transparency and ask that you respect this by receiving the comments in good faith – after all, most of you have asked for this. It is in no way a validation of your future success/failure, but instead a respectful and transparent method of finding the fit between the program and the start-ups selected.

On a final note, for now, feel free to come and visit us at Beta-I on Fridays from 18h00 until 20h00 if you want to meet the team, our Alumni and other like-minded people. Also ensure you subscribe to our blog as we will be documenting this process whilst writing about topics we feel are important for founders and start-ups.