Desafia San Francisco is offering Spanish tech startups the opportunity to scale their businesses faster and globally through its Spring Immersion Program in Silicon Valley.
The program, established by ICEX Spain Trade and Investment and Red.es, and run by the innovation advisory firm Mind the Bridge, will be hosted in its Innovation Center in San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) from May 1st to 12th, 2023.
C-Level officers and founders from past editions include successful companies like Wallbox, ByHours, and Beonprice and, more recently, very promising companies like Finboot, Brickbro, and Sateliot.
The program aims to provide startups with the experience and knowledge necessary to scale their business models with greater guarantees of success and to facilitate the landfall of selected startups in the North American market.
The Desafia program will consist of a preparation period followed by an immersive program in Silicon Valley to scale faster and globally.
The selected startups will participate in a workshop in Madrid, prior to the immersion in San Francisco, where they will get to know the content of the program in detail, get in touch with the Desafia operational team, define objectives and expectations, and participate in preliminary activities to the program.
Into the US ecosystem landscape
The two-week intensive program in Silicon Valley will be structured in two blocks.
During the first week, startups will receive training and practical sessions, attend networking events and visits to the main players of the US ecosystem, including research centers, campuses, and corporates.
They will learn about the US business landscape, refine their storytelling, value proposition and pitching specific to a VC audience in the US, build strong networks with VC, corporate leaders, and mentors, and visit a corporation born out of startup culture.
During the second week, startups will attend seminars, mentoring and interviews on strategic topics related to marketing, finance, investment, business strategies, legal advice, talent acquisition, and visits to large technological corporations in the SV, among others.
This week will focus on understanding how to compete globally and grow revenue, ensuring IP is protected, learning how to build a strong cross-cultural multi-functional team, meeting other startup founders and grabbing insights from their journey.
The Spring Immersion Program in Silicon Valley represents an opportunity for Spanish tech startups to learn from workshops and activities, explore Silicon Valley, generate networking opportunities, and nurture the entrepreneurial mindset unique to this region.
Interested startups can apply until March 15th.
