
Navigate through the valley of death

Are you an ambitious deeptech startup that wants to get ahead of the race as fast as possible?
Pole Position connects you to peers, experienced founders and Techleaps experienced and well-connected community. Together, we work on your challenges while developing a strong roadmap through the valley of death towards your dot on the horizon: a global scale company!
A new round for Pole Position, focused on Smart Industry, is now open for applicants. Deadline for registration is March 27, 2023.

Pole Position in short
Starting a Deeptech company is very challenging. Developing complex technology, operating in a complicated ecosystem while accessing the market, raising money ahead of traction and keeping up the spirit for yourself and your growing team requires a high level of ambition, vision, focus and endurance.
Because we need these breakthrough technologies to find their way to success through the valley of death Techleap designed Pole Position. A programme that challenges you and your team on your vision & ambition, market access, business model, leadership & team and funding roadmap. Pole Position is a programme for founders only to level with peers and get challenged by experts and experienced founders that are already ahead of the race.

Who is the programme for
It’s a programme for deeptech founders. You fit the programme best if you want to get challenged, if you need to go from successful pilots towards commercial deployments to get product market fit and if you are speeding up towards series A funding.
We select deeptech companies with the potential to scale and that want to have global impact and fit the following criteria. The programme is only for deeptech founders and at least one of the founders should be present at all the sessions.
Deeptech companies in Smart Industry develop breakthrough products and services that combine advanced hardware and digital technologies – such as robotics, photonics, AR/VR, artificial intelligence (AI), electronics, IoT systems, sensors or materials – into traditional manufacturing and industrial processes.
Application can range from Heavy industry, High Tech, Automotive, Mobility, to manufacturing and construction.


Planning the main phases
What does the programme offer?
Pre-phase
Intake
Provide us with necessary information we ask for in the application.
In preparation of the programme you will have to provide us with necessary information we ask for in the application. We will ask you for a video motivation of the ‘Why’ you started your company and what you aim for. When preselected, we will ask you for your roadmap and pitchdeck. These and your live pitch with Q&A will be judged by a jury of investors, founders and experts, chaired by Constantijn van Oranje. When selected, you will have an intake call with the Pole Position team and Race Captain.
Pase I
Assess
Getting to know and prepping you and your company.
This first part of the programme will consist out of assessing, getting to know and prepping you and your company by means of a scale scan, 1 on 1 sessions with our pitcrew and 2 kick-off days offsite.
Phase II
Insight
Work on your challenges and get insights on where to focus on as a company.
In four group sessions together with scale founders, serial (deeptech) entrepreneurs and experts you will work on your challenges and get insights on where to focus on as a company and to define the critical focus for the last phase of Pole Position.
Challenging elements of your roadmap like Market Access, Team and Leadership, Business models and Funding will be discussed in depth. There is always an inspirational element!
Phase III
Focus
Boost your roadmap towards global impact.
All the knowledge, shared learnings and insights will be put into a dedicated focus track to boost your roadmap towards global impact. All of this will be supported by the Techleap platform and the BOLD community.
Your planning timeline

Experts & Inspirators in Smart Industry

Constantijn van Oranje
Special Envoy Techleap.nl

Johan Feenstra
CEO Smart Photonics

Martina Barabas
Deeptech Equity NL

Rene de Vries
Founder Aito

Boudewijn Docter

Hamed Sadeghian
CEO Nearfield Instruments

Corinne Vigreux
TomTom

Vincent Kamphorst
Innovation Industries

Alexander Ribbink
Keen Venture Partners

Menno van Dijk

Ton van ’t Noordende

Ferdinand Grapperhaus
Founder PHYSEE

Arno van Mourik
CEO Airborne

Richard Visser
Founder SMART Photonics

Beau-Anne Chilla
Investment Manager Forward.one

Teska van Vuren
Partner Deeptech XL

Raoul Oostenbrink
Principle IVX4

Bram de Zwart
Co-founder Hubs

Soukaina Adnane-Murphy
Founder Onera Health

Fabrizio Del Maffeo
CEO & Co-founder Axelera

Pia Michel
Prima Materia

Guus Frericks
DeeptechXL

Jos Burger
Founder Ultimater

Lise Rechsteiner
Vsquared Ventures

Oscar Kneppers
ACE

Riemer Smink
FORWARD.one

Arko van Brakel
Ondernemen met Impact
Experts & inspirators in health

Sjaak Vink
Founder & CEO at The Social Network, on a mission to give everyone access to the best medicines

Dinko Valerio
Scientist-turned-entrepreneur, founder & former CEO of Crucell, mentor

Eline van Beest
CEO Hybridize Therapeutics and Venture Partner at Thuja Capital.

Derk Arts
CEO at Castor, Making Decentralized Trials Scale.

Judith Heikoop
InspiringFifty Europe winner, MedTech & Life Sciences, Scaling start-ups and C-Suite Executive and Board member.

Anke Huiskes
Early Stage Investor. Managing Partner NP-Hard at Ventures and Founding Partner Planet Positive

Jaap Maljers
Business man with a strong social drive, entrepreneur & investor in health care

Chretien Herben
Mentor for startups and scale-ups in Life Sciences, Biotech, Medtech and Cleantech

Jan Hunik
Building business in Biotechnology, Food and Biomedical materials

Alain le Loux
Partner at Dutch-American deeptech VC firm Cottonwood Technology Fund

Miranda Berkhof
Owner BeyoUnd Transformation. Developing thriving teams and authentic leaders

Anne DeGheest
Mentor Capitalist, Investor and Corporate Adviser. Pioneered the HealthTech space as entrepreneur. Founder of HealthTech Capital and MedStars.
What participants say about
Pole Position
Who participated in Pole Position?
These are some of our allumni

Are you a deeptech founder that matches the criteria but are not fitting the healthcare theme;
leave your details here so that we can keep you updated on future batches.
Meet the team

Annemieke Wisse
Programme Manager

Iris Visser
Project Manager

Lech Bakhuizen van den Brink
Batch Manager

Natasja Marchese
Batch Manager

Peter Maarten Westerhout
Lead Deeptech community
How do I apply
To apply, fill in the application form.
Once you submit your application, your candidature will be thoroughly reviewed by a group of experts. Eventually, we will select fifteen ventures that will be invited to pitch and do a Q&A in front of the selection committee on the April 19, 2023.
Application deadline March 27
Selection day April 19
You will get an answer on their decision ultimately on April 21, 2023.
What are the costs?
We do not seek equity. There are no participation costs involved besides your full commitment. We aim to build a thriving (deeptech) startup & scale community and therefore we do ask you to give back. For both Pole Position and this community, we believe that the more effort you put in the more you will get out of it. Let’s make an impact together!
What is the selection process?
Once you submit your application, your candidature will be thoroughly reviewed by a group of experts. Eventually, we will select fifteen ventures that will be invited to pitch and do a Q&A in front of the selection committee on April 19, 2022.
You will get an answer on their decision on April 21, 2023. Once selected you will be part of the greater Techleap community of serial entrepreneurs, investors and other ecosystem stakeholders.
What is Pole Position’s added value?
With the Pole Position Programme we will help you, as a deeptech venture, to bridge the so-called 'valley of death' with its complex obstacles. This includes expert support, peer-to-peer and role-model learning and access to an extensive and (sector specific) relevant network including great (intern)national exposure. Summarised:
- The benefit of 13 collaborating Dutch public incubators including their networks, their proximity to research and scientific facilities and their startup expertise.
- The benefit of Techleap’s network of high quality experts, including policymakers, top-notch entrepreneurs and other ecosystem stakeholders.
- You will gain (facilitated) exposure for your company on Techleap.nl and Incubators United channels.
- You’ll learn from like-minded entrepreneurs through our peer-to-peer sessions, ignited by theme specific role models.
Do you run the Pole Position initiative for startups from all industries?
Yes, however, we focus on specific themes to create added value among peers and address similar challenges. The fourth theme will be focused on Smart Industry. No other batch is planned afterwards.
In case you are interested in joining the initiative but do not fit any of these batches, please contact our Batch manager Lech Bakhuizen vd Brink at lech@techleap.nl or leave your contact details here.
Still more questions?
We are happy to answer them! Please reach out to our Batch manager Lech at lech@techleap.nl.