When we recently announced that the Elorus team won a hackathon (and actually over-delivered on its requirements), we wrote that we were not really surprised because for a startup to be part of the Starttech family “means that we believe in them and their potential“.
But what about the inverse? Why should a startup believe in Starttech and want to be a part of our portfolio?
(Aside from our decades of entrepreneurial experience that is, and proven track record that includes several successful launches and large exits — which admittedly is quite a big aside).
Our key value as a seed fund lies in our holistic approach.
The funding given to a team is only a minor part of our contribution. The big wins coming from linking startups with the best mentors and team members, guiding them in creating a strong business plan and helping them execute it — with UX, visual identity, web design, content, marketing and SEO services and loads of other things besides.
So, how good is our help?
Award winning good.
Just this week, for example, Ioannis Belegrinis, our in-house graphic design expert, has been given the Bronze Award in the “Identity / Brand Logo” category at the prestigious European Design Awards ―one of the most important competitions of its kind, endorsed by the International Council of Design.
The award winning logo, praised by the ED-Awards jury (professional reviewers and authors from Europe’s most popular graphic design magazines), has been part of Ioannis branding work for the launch of our eHealth portfolio company, Blueline.
In other words, it was part of the standard service package that StartTech Ventures offers as a complimentary service to all of its portfolio companies.
It’s not like its Ioannis first award either ― with design studies in the UK and over a decade of graphic design experience under his belt (including several years of doing UI work for a large multinational) he has had his share of awards and distinctions for his web design, social media and GUI work.
And although we can’t promise all of you an award winning logo or UI design, rest assured that the same hard work and professional experience will be applied to any service that our team will perform for your startup, should you become part of Starttech Ventures family.
But we can assure you that it will be performed with the same skills, experience, and attention to detail as Blueline’s award winning logo.
And while you may not yet appreciate how important such things such a visual identity, logo design, SEO and content marketing are for the success of your startup, we do.
That’s why we devote Starttech’s premium resources at helping our portfolio companies get those things right — something that either does not happen at all at your typical incubator, or is done badly.
Our “Enhanced Incubation” model, giving startups the benefit of a team of full time seasoned professionals working for and with them is still basically unparalleled in Europe — perhaps because it’s also quite expensive to offer.
But, hey, it’s on us.
P.S. Read more about Ioannis Belegrinis‘s award winning visual identity work at the European Design Awards website.