Everything You Need to Know About StartupHighway

So you have been asking yourself lately, what the heck is StartupHighway and why is it doing the things it is doing? Well your sleepless nights are over, Eddy is here to help.

The short version (for those who are absolutely sure what kind of animals startups and startup accelerators are) -  StartupHighway is a European startup accelerator based in Vilnius, Lithuania, which recently launched its second call for applications for startups from Central Eastern Europe and elsewhere. No need to waste your time more, follow them in Facebook / Twitter and come to opening event on Monday at 6.30 pm in "La Boheme" in Vilnus and get on with your life.

But before the long version lets gets some things sorted out. A startup company or simply startup, is a company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Thus:

• SMEs - regular grocery shops, barbers, photographers, or any other traditional small business for that matter, family own or not - are not startups.
• Startups are risky, because they employ innovative business models and bring untested products and services to the market.
• They are often born-global, are highly specialized and/or technical, require flexibility and speed with investment.

Startups working in StartupHighway venue, 2011.

For all these and many other reasons startups are very different from what people are used to think about business. Well, if "people" think about business at all. My main point here is - startups are still misunderstood phenomenon, at least in Eastern Europe. Thus wee need educate our selves how to plan and operate in this new environment. For example, startups are not suitable for bank loans, or more likely banks are not suitable financing source for startups - banker would simply kill the entrepreneurship in a startup. Besides special funding sources, startups need special mentoring - regular training approaches don't fit, and are too rigid.

Thus, to help startups (and maybe make some money in the process) venture capitalists, angel investors, special incubators and seed (startup) accelerators exist. What differentiates startup accelerators from other startup funding organizations:
1) they begin with a cohort intake process and pick a set number per round.
2) they make an equity investment in the startups.
3) the primary value to the entrepreneur is derived from the mentoring and connections.

StartupHighway venue 2011.

This finally brings us back to our discussion topic, startup accelerator -  StartupHighway. In their 1st round in 2011 they received more than 200 applications, from which they selected four. Up to 14 k EUR was invested into each of them for 10% of equity. And they provide great mentoring with more than 80 experts. Besides numbers, they describe pretty well themselves: 

"StartupHighway is a European start-up accelerator based in Vilnius, Lithuania working in the wider CEE region. It is designed for those with the best business startup ideas to provide them with the tools, network and knowledge necessary to get in shape for angel or venture capital funding. The support comes as pre-seed funding, office space and a network of experienced mentors to help your business idea become a successful business, or to prepare your young business for the next round of funding."

Looking at results of StartupHighway's work, those four startups from StartupHighway 2011 round seem rather successful so far. Meaning that none of them have went bankrupt yet:

• Latvian startup Relead (allows to convert website visitors into sales leads) has more than 700 clients, for whom they have generated over 1 million leads.
• Estonian startup Utilimon (helps large companies get smaller energy bills with a software solution) is in Baltimore, NFMT 2012 conference (said to be #1 trade show for facilities professionals).
• Llamas valley is a Lithuanian online magazine. The first issue was read by more 20 thousand readers. They have just released the 2nd issue in English and trying to conquer foreign markets.
• Startup from Latvia Sellfy (tool to sell and promote your digital goods), has attracted 1800 merchants with 1550 products.

StartupHighway co-founder Rokas Tamosiunas claims lots of new improvements this year. They have attracted Amazon to partners (with more talks going on with other Internet giants, looking forward to hear about them) new people in mentor pool and advisory board. Finally changes in the program to put more emphasis on sales and other soft skills.

To sum up, startups are good and misunderstood little business creatures, that need special care. And I think it is fair to say that StartupHighway is adding its share of value to the startup community in Eastern Europe. Thus, I strongly support this initiative and recommend everyone to apply to StartupHighway's "13 weeks acceleration program that will take your business to the next level by working hard with our mentors, taking you through our program, fast-pace work, and up to 14 000 EUR investment". Application deadline is April 30th.

Good luck,

Eddy