The Gateway funding received by me was put towards the cost of attending a 10-week business accelerator and gathering the skills and tools needed to start my own biotech enterprise. The accelerator of intent was initially the Techstars accelerator which offers mentoring and incubation for startups and connects them to investors and a community of other startup founders. I made a pivot due to change in the program arrangement occasioned by COVID-19 and instead applied and was enrolled into the West England cohort and later migrated to the London-Silicon Valley cohort of the Founder Institute which is the world’s largest business accelerator offering mentoring, enterprise coaching, and exposure to investors. This accelerator is virtual and will last for 10 weeks and the total cost of the enrolment in the program was £552. Acceptance into this extremely prestigious accelerator has already yielded so many positive impacts which I am very pleased to share below.
- Enrolment on the Founder Institute has lent me credibility with other very reputable business education brands including the University of Cambridge Judge Business school as my business has recently been accepted to be incubated and receive continuous business support including access to a team of mentors and coaching, enterprise education, work space, and access to investment opportunities.
- I had also been accepted into the Global Startup Ecosystem which is the world’s largest virtual accelerator offering personal and business branding sessions and collaborations with major industry giants including Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Hubspot, and Forbes. I was accepted to the Her Future version of the accelerator which is targeted at female founders to help them build resilience and assertiveness in a male-dominated business world.
- I am very excited to share that as a result of the knowledge gained from this and other accelerator programs, I have now formed a healthcare startup called Biomasys which is duly incorporated and currently working on making the first product which is a device for detecting the risk of miscarriages and pre-term births in pregnant women.
The Gateway funding which I received was put towards the cost of registration for the Founder Institute accelerator program and setting up my startup and I am very grateful to have received this funding.
Mkpouto Pius
Genomic Medicine