WORTH Project Making Sense of the Fashion Entrepreneuship Ecosystem
At WORTH Weekend in Valencia, I gave a presentation on how startups and ecosystem enablers can navigate the entrepreneurship ecosystem more effectively to find better fits and mutual success
WORTH Project
The WORTH Partnership Project, is a European Union funded program that provides investment and an incubator program to pan-European ventures working within the creative industry. Its aim is to facilitate project partnerships and economic output across Europe.
What They Needed
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The WORTH Partnership Project was running its first iteration of its incubation program including a large cohort of pan-European creative industry innovation startups. As part of the program, the incubator participants converged in Valencia, Spain for WORTH Weekend — a weekend of mentorship, acceleration, and networking.
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With startup and ecosystem enabler participants in the audience, WORTH approached me to give a presentation about how startups can engage with the ecosystem more effectively, and how ESO’s can support startups better.
How We Collaborated
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At the WORTH Weekend, in Calatrava’s City of Arts & Sciences complex, I gave a presentation to the audience covering best practices for navigating the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The contents included information about available resources for startups at different stages, how they can engage with accelerator programs with greater success, and how ecosystem enablers can overcome common challenges and provide more impactful support in their roles.
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The presentation revealed first-hand learnings from running an accelerator and working with many others, highlighting common challenges that startups and ecosystem enablers have. It provided real-world use cases revealing effective practices with measurable positive results. I also provided a wide range or resources that startups could engage with for fundraising, acceleration, operations, and more.
The Results
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The presentation was met with a very positive reception, including many high engagement in the Q&A session. The feedback was that presentation was filled with very useful, actionable insights that both startups and ecosystem enablers could utilize.
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The startups learned many “shortcuts” in terms of how to more successfully find and engage with entrepreneur support organizations. On the other side, the ecosystem enablers in the audience learned useful tools to implement as they move forward in supporting their ecosystem.