Application Guidelines
There are some essential prerequisites that you and your team have to comply with if you plan to participate in our LA Venture Program. Please read this carefully, it saves time for you and for us as well.
Stuff you need
To apply successfully, we need to see a professionally crafted one-pager of your business. Here’s how to do it in Hungarian. Also, you might check our favorite English language one-pager template from Cooley. Any further materials are welcome, just keep them short and clear. Having some kind of plan about your future spending is also important. Write a nice, yet brief email, explaining why you want to work with us. (Brief was the keyword.) Attach all the materials mentioned above and send it through to the secret email address. As a minimum,provide your email address, cell phone number, LinkedIn profile and Skype name – the more contact options, the better. We’ll do a little due diligence on you before the meeting, and letting us do it easy makes us happy.
When NOT to apply to the program
We specifically target the United States market with our startups. As a minimum, this requires fair level of English language knowledge – which can be upgraded to a highly professional level through intense training in the program. Please don’t apply if you’re not yet there being able to pitch your idea in English and talk about it on an informal way.
Our main competitive edge over the dozens of accelerators is the ability of facilitating real traction in the United States market for our portfolio companies. Acting on that market sooner or later will require you to move to the U.S. – at least for a couple of years, or at least involve people to your startup from Overseas. Please do not file an application if you’re not comfortable with such a vision, or if you hesitate making such a move. And yes, it’s a difficult, yet life-changing journey.
If you have an idea which hasn’t been validated, please do your homework and do not file an application prior to having a rock-solid proof that your idea worth putting efforts in it. You can read about validation here.
If your team consists of you and you only, please do not file an application. Having a complete team is not essential, however, having some kind of team is. The idea behind is that a startup CEO should lead, motivate, convince and manage other people through his way to the top. If you’re not able to win your buddies to your idea, how will you win the heart of foreign customers, advisors or VCs?
What matters the most?
How do we choose from so many startups? The team matters most for us. We like international teams and the ones that have a track record together. We look for smart, outstanding people – either you’re a Hacker, a Hustler or a Designer. Key skills are motivation, global thinking, ability to cooperate, a sense of humor, tenacity and the ability to learn fast. Experience helps but it’s not critical. Your idea worth much less than your hard work of validating and executing it. Most successful startups change their idea substantially. The ideal company would have two or three founders, however we’re not against more – until having more co-founders have a reasonable explanation. We don’t believe in single-founder companies and one-man shows are usually a red flag for us.
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