Last Updated on March 29, 2021 by Larious
As competition to get the best startups into incubators gets increasingly challenging, many firms may find themselves looking earlier and earlier into the life of a company in order to get their attention — and part of the company through an investment.
That also includes looking internationally, and 500 Startups is looking to tap into that by now getting Israeli startups into a short bootcamp and train them into the firm’s specialization: marketing and growth. 500 Startups is launching a four-week program in Israel that targets pre-seed and seed companies as they get to the stage where they begin marketing their products.
With a big staff specialized in marketing and growth, 500 Startups is basically betting that its brand is one that will attract companies looking to figure out how to quickly build a large customer base for their products. 500 Startups naturally competes aggressively with firms like Y Combinator to get the best startups into its programs, and targeting them earlier in their lifetime may help serve as a kind of pipeline to find those companies.
Of course, it’s not necessarily for free, with 500 Startups taking 1 percent of the company for $25,000 earmarked to marketing experiments. The company is launching its first program with nine business-to-business startups. Here’s a quick rundown of the companies in the first batch:
Wizer — create, analyze, collaborate and personalize the learning experience; it’s as easy as making a worksheet.
Distribyte — a simplified cloud environment for companies seeking to expand their digital presence.
CybeReady — reduces the risks of phishing through automated end-user training.
Ubeya — Uber for temporary workforce in the events industry. Provides a SaaS platform for businesses from the events industry to manage their workforce. Connects between staffing agencies and event companies for staff on a daily basis.
ONDiGO — provides VPs of sales with visibility into their team’s performance, activity and major KPIs. Sales-ops will see what works and what doesn’t in the company’s pipeline, account management and customer success.
Udobu — helps better monetize live sports events for clubs and media rights holders struggling with inventory and capacity utilization, as well as revenue-generation issues.
MuvingApp — create a visual inventory in less than 10 minutes. It facilitates a transparent, easier moving experience as well as myriad related services: packing, insurance, even connect utilities in your new house.
GreenQ — a smart waste management service designed to meet the needs of collection vendors, system integrators and municipalities.
Market Beyond — uncovers our customers’ blind spots in a fragmented e-commerce space by deriving insight from billions of e-shoppers’ decisions across the global e-commerce universe.