How did you first hear about Luxinnovation and our Fit 4 Start programme?
At idea generation stage of our venture, we first heard about Luxinnovation and Fit 4 Start. We met with the Luxinnovation team early on in our journey to get some feedback and advice. Besides the public posts and ads in magazines like Silicon Luxembourg, Luxinnovation has a lot of visibility in the local start-up ecosystem. Moreover, we were told to apply by a Canadian entrepreneur who was part of the acceleration programme.
What was your biggest achievement?
Our biggest achievement so far was to enter the Fit 4 Start programme. We applied without success already in 2017, which is why we are especially proud our project got selected for the 2018 edition. Besides that, other achievements include joining the incubator Lux Future Lab, raising a pre-seed round, and pitching among the top 200 start-ups at Web Summit in 2017 and top 8 start-ups at Unbound Bahrain in the Middle East.
Name 3 things you especially like about the Fit 4 Start programme?
- Challenge: We like how the Fit 4 Start coaches and jury members challenge us constantly, which helps us rethink our value proposition and create a viable business. They are very critical, which is crucial for us to develop as a young start-up. Every day is a new challenge.
- Size: It is great to be in this programme with 9 other start-ups. It’s a perfect size for such an intense programme, and one meets a lot of interesting people able to share views on different topics.
- Mix of sessions: The mix of external sessions, internal coaching sessions, and steering committee presentations is very refreshing – it is not a « monotonous » process where every week looks the same.
What did you learn so far by participating in the Fit 4 Start programme?
So far, we have learned that there are many directions we could go and many different paths we could choose to achieve the same overall goal of our mission. We are at a critical pivot point in our venture’s journey, which we were able to identify with the help of the coaches. The programme was very beneficial already because this pivot point will take Univize to the next level and we might not have achieved this otherwise.
What are the upcoming challenges for your start-up?
Through the critical comments of the judges and our own critical thinking stimulated by the various coaching sessions and steering committee presentations, we learned a lot about our venture and identified the need to change our business model. This is the upcoming challenge, since we are currently defining where to go and how to get there.
Tips and tricks of an entrepreneur:
Go out and talk to people, test what you aim to bring to market, bring it to the market and repeat the whole process for the rest of the journey. We learned that product-market fit is the core of the whole business and has to be identified as early as possible in the journey, as well as evaluated and adapted as you go.
“Never stop learning from your customers and never stop evolving.”
CEO/COO: Kenan Muhovic/Felix Hemmerling
Founding date: 07/12/2017
Registered office: LuxFutureLab
Contact email: contact@univize.com
Website: www.univize.com
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