Startup in Residence, the programme that gets city and startups innovating together, is back. After a successful pilot in 2015-2016, the City of Amsterdam is once again looking for startups with creative and viable solutions for social issues. If solutions prove successful, the City of Amsterdam will invest in them or be launching customer, thereby significantly kick-starting the startup’s career.
Applications are now open for the second Startup in Residence Programme.
Startup in Residence 2.0
This time around the City has defined 14 social issues for which she invites startups to devise a solution. Themes range from waste, safety, health to tourism and more. Questions like how to stimulate bicycle use among youngsters in Amsterdam or how to guide the increasing numbers of tourists through the city need innovative answers. Innovative thinking being a skill startups are renowned for. A new addition to this year’s Startup in Residence programme is the Wildcard, reserving a position for a startup that wants to work on a social issue not defined by the City. “We learned a lot from the pilot programme. For instance the fact that there is a big difference in use of vocabulary between startups and civil servants, which sometimes slows down the process and causes misconceptions”, says Minouche Cramer, Startup Officer of the City of Amsterdam.
In the upcoming programme the City intends to reduce the gap between startups and civil servants by offering an additional training programme for the civil servants. In the first weeks of the programme time will be invested in helping the participating startups understand the municipal processes better. Presentations will be given about how decision making and procurement processes are organised, for example. Another change in the programme is the involvement of lead mentors, who will measure progress on a (bi)weekly basis and advise the startups when needed.
Startup in Residence graduates
Of the seven startups that participated in the pilot edition, the City now cooperates with five. MijnBuur, which stimulates the self-reliance and social cohesion of the people of Amsterdam, is currently validating their product in ‘Stadsdeel Oost’. City Makers is currently developing an app for bike depot ‘het Fietsdepot’.
Startup in Residence is the brainchild of StartupAmsterdam, the action programme designed to boost the startup climate of Amsterdam. The pilot programme was run in collaboration with the Chief Technology Office of Amsterdam and has succefully been adopted by other governmental organisations. The Hague, the province of Gelderland and Eindhoven are launching similar programmes to work with startups. San Francisco, who provided the basis for this programme, remains in close contact about proceeds. More information on all startup programmes is available on startupinresidence.com.
Practical information
The Startup in Residence Programme Amsterdam runs from November 2016 until the beginning of April 2017. During these 5 months the selected startups will work with the City of Amsterdam. The startups will be offered an intensive training programme, as well as the support of professional lead mentors and a big pool of specialised knowledge and expertise. Together with its partners the municipality provides working spaces and offers startups the possibility to do pilots and validate their products within the city. If solutions prove successful, the City of Amsterdam will invest in them or be launching customer, thereby significantly kick-starting the startup’s career.
All 14 social issues can be found on startupinresidence.com. Applications are open until September 18, 2016.