Yes. Participation is open: a) to existing companies, b) to groups of co-founders or individual founders of business ventures who have not yet started a business.

The cost of organizing this year's Next Stage Challenge is covered by the iCBA program, which aims to help startup founders and businesses operating in the specific Region.

Yes. Not all team members have to be from Thessaloniki, Kilkis, Pella, or Florina, as long as one member of the founding team lives there.

Yes. A company can participate if it has a headquarters or branch in the target areas, or if a legal representative resides there permanently.

You should be ready to invest about 25 hours, over a period of 8 weeks, in order for us to work together on your project. Preparation for the 30 startups that will be accepted starts on May 15, 2021, and lasts until July 15. Every week you will be doing either a three-hour training workshop with all teams participating, or a coaching session for your team only.

Full attendance at the training program is not mandatory but we believe that in most teams it will be catalytic, in order to claim their qualification to the 15 finalists and a distinction in the finals. A minimum level of participation in coaching and training sessions is a prerequisite for participation.

The preparation of the 30 teams (15/5 - 15/7) and the semifinal will be conducted online. If the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic allow it, the final competition may take place in Thessaloniki, requiring a physical presence.

In brief:

1. Degree of clarity in the description of the customer need and the value proposition
2. Complementarity and team readiness
3. Market size / economic perspective
4. Degree of innovation

In more detail:

1. Degree of clarity in the description of the customer need and the value proposition

• Based on the stage of the project, how clear is the problem faced by the potential customer or the opportunity/gap that exists in the market? *

In particular, for groups at different stages:

• Idea stage: Has any need of the client been described in the form of pain to be solved, desired benefit, or job to be done? Is a potential client profile identified to the extent that it would allow market research to be launched or would identify some interested parties for the initial interviews?
• Prototype stage: Have the customer needs been identified to a degree that would allow specific stakeholders to be involved in testing the prototype?
• Revenue / business stage: Is the data collected so far sufficient to consider the customers' needs confirmed? Is the target audience identified to the extent that it would allow a systematic promotional process to be launched through specific channels?

2. Complementarity and team readiness

• To what extent do the team members have the necessary skills in order to take the project to the next stage? *

• Idea stage: Are the skills of the existing team members enough to develop a minimum viable version of the product / service that could be tested by potential buyers?
• Prototype stage: Can the existing team develop a functional product / service and promote it in the market to acquire its first buyers?
• Revenue / business stage: Are the skills of the existing team enough to lay the groundwork for the whole project to scale (securing and managing capital, finding and managing new human resources, scaling up production and promotion processes)

3. Market size / economic perspective

• Based on the data presented, how big does the market seem to be? Would it allow the business to scale? Could it have international potential? *

(Common criterion for teams of all stages)

4. Degree of innovation

• How innovative is the team's approach compared to existing direct or indirect competition in the market? *

(Common criterion for teams of all stages)

Not necessarily. We strongly encourage participation by founders who seek to bring innovative technology to market, or seek to utilize technology to create new services and products. The key objective is business model innovation and this does not necessarily have to come in the form of new technology.