REACH Incubator - Part 3 of our experience

In the first two blog articles, we already shared our experiences with the EU's REACH Incubator. But how exactly do the events on site work?

Explore Phase - Final Pitch Event in Paris

Out of approximately 160 complete applications, 40 teams advanced to the "Explore" phase of REACH. For our batch, the Explore Phase ran in April/May 2023, and at the end of May, all teams met in Paris for 2 days to present their results and - hopefully - move on to the next phase.

In Paris, the first day was reserved for the technical presentations, and the second day for the business pitches.

The technical presentations took place in a closed setting in front of a technical jury of 3 experts. Each day could present its solution and answer questions, for which a total of 15min per team was scheduled. It was clearly recommended to not only show mock ups in the form of slides, but also a first rough working MVP.

On the second day the business pitches took place: each team had 3min per pitch and 2min for the Q&A. Doesn't sound like much - but still takes around 4 hours (with breaks) with 40 teams.

In the early afternoon, after all pitches were heard, there was a group photo while the jury made their decisions. Finally, the 10 teams that were allowed to move on to the next phase were announced.

Experiment Phase - Workshop Week in Bilbao

Just two weeks after the event in Paris, the 10 Experiment teams met for a week in Bilbao at Deusto University. There everyone could get to know each other better, exchange experiences and network.

The week was reserved for business workshops on Monday and Tuesday, but also team exercises and icebreaker sessions to let the 10 teams get more familiar with each other.

Wednesday and Thursday were "tech days", with various workshops around Data Science and the technical implementation of our solutions.

On Friday, we only had a half-day program, and learned tips and tricks from the winning team of the last REACH batch, among others, on what to look out for during the rest of the program.

Experiment Phase - Final Pitch Event in Bilbao

At the end of September, our Experiment Phase will end and all 10 teams will meet again in Bilbao. So everyone's preparations are in full swing right now....

The event in Bilbao will probably be similar to the one in Paris: again, the first day will be reserved for the technical presentations, which will not be open to the public. On the second day, the business pitches will take place, and at the end of the second day, it will be decided which 5 teams will enter the "Evolve" phase. However, compared to the event in Paris, we will have a bit more time for both the technical and business presentation.

You can find all the info about REACH here: https://www.reach-incubator.eu/ and in the other blog articles here at Urban Monkeys.