Last week, the Boost spaceship entered its final phase of the Startup Journey Pre-Accelerator and landed in its final destination: Demo Day. All participants underwent a tough but necessary training to compete for the grand finale. Our crew invited on board experts who were willing to offer their help and share their knowledge through insightful workshops and an intensive training. With such great cooperation, the business industry is made easier to understand for startups who are now eager to take on challenges. We listed key moments of teams experience among us during the Demo week.

Pitching Workshop and Training

Yuliya Salorenko joined us in space to deliver an important workshop on how to build a great pitch. She shared with the audience tips and tricks – such as a 10-slide pitch deck to use for any occasion, and 7 fundamental points to building an awesome pitch.

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The following day, Wille Heino shared his story, and helped participants have a great stage presence and a catchy pitch that would blow people’s mind. The pitching training was a good opportunity for the teams to prepare their ultimate weapon for Demo Day.

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Demo Day

For 3 weeks, all of the Startup Journey Pre-Accelerator participants worked really hard to build a solid path for their dream startup. With the help of our staff, coaches, mentors, and all the useful and available tools on board, the teams succeeded in delivering pitches full of emotion and passion. We, at Boost, witnessed such great team work, determination and hard work to make their journey an amazing Startup Journey!

On Thursday at 5pm, the clock stopped and participants were invited to pitch their idea in front of the judges Elias Savonlahti, Startup ecosystem developer and Chairman at Shift Ry, Raoul Lehtonen, CEO at Monttu Ventures Oy, and Maria Jensen, Founder of Aavagen. After a long and tough pitching competition, the winners of the Startup Journey Pre-Accelerator were finally announced by the judges: Go Play People. Their startup aims at developing educational board games to help teachers and parents discover culture with young children in an entertaining and interactive way. It was a tough call, since everyone gave everything they had for the Demo Day. All members of Boost were very surprised by the quality of the pitches and the amazing growth of each team during those three intensive weeks.

Afterwards, everybody hopped on Remo for the Demo Day after party. After shedding some tears of joy, we got the chance to sit down with the winning team and ask them few questions of their overall experience during the Startup Journey Pre-Accelerator.

Justin: How does it feel to win?

Ramona: It’s amazing. We can’t believe that our idea was chosen. We did put in quite some time. And the process was excellent because we had mentors and coaches. Everybody was there and it helped us a lot.

Alexandra: I am still shaking. It was three very intense weeks and we did something that was out of the comfort zone.

Justin: What was your favorite part of the whole event?

Ramona: Today, actually [laugh]. The Hackday and the 1-on-1 meetings with the mentors.

Justin: What is your advice for the next participants who want to join the Startup Journey?

Ramona: Don’t be afraid to put in the work and take advantage of all the free advice given by the mentors because those are priceless. For me it was remarkable that the mentors gave their full attention to our team. You could even ask them anything after the meetings and contact them by email and LinkedIn.

Alexandra : I would like to add that you should give a try and always take it as an experience.

Our crew would like to thank everyone for your participation, your commitment and hard work. We are wishing you the best of luck in fulfilling your dreams and bring your startups to the top! There is a long way ahead and Boost will always be there to assist you. Apply for the Startup Journey Accelerator until the 30th of May if you are ready to get serious about your business. 🚀

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