Fit 4 Start is Luxinnovation’s flagship 16-week programme of coaching and weekly follow-up by “Lean Start-Up” experts. The graduation event hosted by Jean-Michel Ludwig, Director for Startup Support and SME Performance, Luxinnovation and Laurence Hulin, Start up Support Advisor was the biggest and brightest to date for Fit4Start. This is testament to the quality and success of the core ingredients of the programme: the selection process, coaching, financial support and international visibility.
Inspiring Speakers
Michele Gallo was followed by an outstanding keynote speaker: Piet Colruyt is one of four family directors of Korys, the family holding behind Colruyt Group, Belgium’s leading retailer. Greatly inspired by the book, “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas,” by David Bornstein, he went on to create his own holding company Impact Capital. As one of the jury members, Genna Elvin, co-Founder of Tadaweb tweeted, “Great seeing the leaders of highly profitable, global businesses caring about #SocialChange and #impactinvesting,” as Piet offered inspiring success stories of social investing.
The large crowd in attendance at Kineopolis was also there to watch the most promising candidates for the Fit 4 Start Spring 2018 edition who pitched their business ideas and competed for a place on the programme. Luxinnovation’s Fit 4 Start Spring call drew a record number of applicants. 163 projects were submitted of which 39% came from Luxembourg and the rest came from abroad. Of these 29 pitched at this event and 10 start-ups have been selected. Congratulations to: b2bpay, bNesis, inkspired, integerAI, HOPES, Metri, Machinations, MYMedBot, salonkee and univize.
All in all, the entire day was exhausting and exciting and everyone involved deserved the celebratory cocktail and networking afterwards. Now it is up to the new participants to confirm quickly and start the next stage of their business development journey in Luxembourg.