Navigate through the valley of death to get your breakthrough technology towards global impact!
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 Healthtech, is now open for applicants. Deadline for registration is August 30, 2022.
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.
Criteria to enter the
Pole Position Programme
Have initial funding
Have a dedicated founders team
Have found your problem-solution fit
Have found your beachhead market
Have a TRL 4+
Fit the healthtech theme
Have a scientific, technological basis
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 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.
Selection committee
Constantijn van Oranje
Chairman
Harrold van Barlingen
Thuja Capital
Patrick de Boer
Founder Aiosyn
Fenna Heyning
Meike Bomhoff
Hull Associates Ltd
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 October 8th, 2024.
Application deadline September 23rd 2024.
Selection day October 8th 2024.
You will get an answer on their decision ultimately on October 9th.
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 October 8th, 2024.
You will get an answer on their decision on October 9th 2024. 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 (with tough love) and access to an extensive and (sector specific) relevant network including great (intern)national exposure. Summarised:
- The benefit of getting challenged by experts and experienced founders that are already ahead of the race.
- 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's 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 upcoming (7th) theme will be focused on the 'Future of Compute'.
In case you are interested in joining the initiative but do not fit our upcoming batch, please contact us via deeptech@techleap.nl
In case you are interested in contributing with your knowledge and experience (as a entrepreneur) feel free to reach out to our Programme manager via lech@techleap.nl
Still more questions?
We are happy to answer them!
For general questions reach out via deeptech@techleap.nl For specific questions reach out via lech@techleap.nl.