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TWIST was a Horizon 2020 action under Startup Europe Programme which aimed at supporting web entrepreneurs on scaling up their business and in cutting the high failure rate of startups within the 4 ecosystems from Italy, Sweden, France and Poland.

TWIST focused on the digital industry from Rome, Lille, Stockholm and Warsaw, and offered an opportunity for innovative digital entrepreneurs that wanted to learn how to better manage their startups and scale them at a European level.

TWIST came as a direct response to the fact that 75% of all startups fail within the first 2-3 years and European innovative startups and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) reach a failure rate between 80-90%.

Key Points

With over 72 meetups, 3 bootcamps on life science, cybersecurity and key enabling technologies, 27 e-pitches with investors and with more than 2.500 participants to our initiatives and events, TWIST has managed to bring together the key players on the European startup scene.

In addition to these events, in order to cut the high failure rate amongst startups, TWIST has helped digital entrepreneurs and startups by:

  • Introducing them to international mentors and their potential future investors
  • Improving their business and technical skills through co-working laboratories
  • Defining their specific management process (startups are not smaller versions of large companies)
  • Co-developing hand-in-hand with their future clients
  • Facilitating access to the right type of finance
  • Getting in touch with large corporates through the TWIST platform to solve their technological and business challenges (Microsoft, Adecco, Meet In Italy for Life Science, Tech-Tour, International Cybersecurity Forum, CISCO, Android, PSA)

The TWIST Training

Through our training formats, coaching events, mentoring events, meetings with partners, investors and successful entrepreneurs, startups learned how to define a challenge and find solutions to improve their cities and to implement their solutions all over Europe.

The methodology applied in the TWIST project was based on the “lean startup model”, customized specifically for European digital entrepreneurs and startups:

  • Valorisation  of  the  talent:  helping  web  entrepreneurs  to  recruit,  train  and  retain  the people that can help them grow, and connecting them with the right mentors;
  • Access to capital: assisting web entrepreneurs in identifying the sources of capital available to web entrepreneurs in various regions and sectors and linking them to the most interesting hubs in Europe that offer a favorable ground for growth;
  • Internships: developing the concept of co‐living and co‐working under the guiding principle of “competences contamination”. Unemployed youngsters who would like to become web entrepreneurs will get internship experiences with the  partners within the TWIST co‐working laboratories.

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