EAE News
The second edition of the EAE LAB acceleration program gets under way
03 de July de 2018
EAE presents the entrepreneurship promotion program EAE LAB, which is starting its second edition. The deadline for submitting applications is 6th July.
The submission period is now open for applications for the EAE LAB acceleration program, which, after its great success last year, is starting its second edition. EAE Business School promotes entrepreneurial ventures with the accelerator, the objective of which is to help new entrepreneurs develop their business, as well as giving them access to the mentors and tools required to get their ventures up and running effectively.
On 20th June, the Barcelona Campus of EAE Business School presented its acceleration program, which fosters and helps the growth of innovative business ventures. At the presentation, the Directors of the Professional Careers Department took part, such as Francesca Ricaldi, who participated in last year's edition of EAE LAB with the project FranZO and Anindya Saha, the founder and partner of Nero Ventures, as well as a mentor in this program at the School.
Last year, 10 projects were selected (8 in Madrid and 2 in Barcelona) from a total of 64 proposals presented. In the 2018 edition, 10 business ventures will be picked from the applications submitted to the program. Students who want to take part in EAE LAB have until 6th July to present their applications.
The EAE LAB program encompasses a 5-month training period, during which the School provides them with a physical workspace, advisory services in different areas (legal, administrative, accounting and employment), specific skills development sessions and fortnightly training modules throughout the program (from September to February, with six sessions, 24 hours in total, depending on the needs of the project), as well as coaching and mentoring sessions, among other activities.
The entrepreneur must be able to dedicate themselves full time to the project. "If there are various members in the group, at least one of them must be working on the venture full time", explained Francesca. Attendance at the Incubator and Work Centre is compulsory, as well as all of the training sessions. The projects submitted must be innovative and not exclusively digital projects, while the candidates must be current or former students and lecturers of EAE Business School.
The EAE LAB Incubator sets aside a special place for networking between the entrepreneurs from the different projects, as well as organizing presentations from leading companies and institutions.
Anindya Saha explained the benefits for entrepreneurs of taking part in this program. "It is important to take advantage of the opportunity that the School offers because everything is a lot harder when you get out into the world". Anindya emphasized the importance of setting a challenge at the beginning, establishing some objectives and knowing where you want to get to. In response to the questions asked by the students and future entrepreneurs about the type of partners on a project and what happens if it is necessary to make a change in this respect, the investor highlighted the need to work together for a while to see how it goes, "but it is fairly complicated if there are differences in terms of performance. If the whole team is not demanding, it is hard to drive the project forward". The founder and partner of Nero Ventures encouraged the students to take part in EAE LAB and start their own business.