At the end of every Cohort program is Demo Day - a powerful platform for startups to showcase market-ready prototypes and solutions to an audience of investors, thought leaders, press and influencers.
We also hold Investor Days in New York and Silicon Valley - a valuable time for startups to meet one-on-one with investors. Startups meet with an average of 15 investors during Investor Days.
We provide guidance to startups to create, implement and manage effective strategies for communications with mentors, customers, and investors. We also provide media training to founders on how to talk about their company to media.
We work with founders, investors and advisors who have built many of today’s most transformative, urban-focused startups. Startups meet with founders and partners who can provide the most critical insights needed. We are uniquely positioned to offer pilot opportunities for startups working in areas like mobility, food and waste, govtech, the built environment, water and energy.
Weekly check-ins with the URBAN-X leadership team are an invaluable part of our accelerator program. During these meetings, we provide essential assistance in areas where startups needs the most help. Together we tackle some of the hardest parts of early-stage company building like time allocation, milestone and goal setting, and prioritization of resources.
Our partner, Urban Us has created a playbook for startups working on city problems. The playbook explores topics ranging from selling to local government, working with regulators, and getting your solution to market in real estate and mobility. The startup playbook builds on curriculum we’ve developed with the National Science Foundation’s iCorps program and has been tested with the first urbantech startup class at the University of Chicago Booth School.
The URBAN-X program is fully online.
During the five-month program, startups are immersed in customer development and product development, all in preparation for fundraising. We work with teams to help them level-up, package their product as a full solution, and craft their vision into a narrative that investors, media, and new team members can believe in.
MINI has a unique view on business innovation with technology and design on equal footing. MINI founded URBAN-X to advocate for startup companies who share that view as part of our own continued exploration of projects that improve urban life.
As cities evolve as centers of opportunity, we aim to shape the conversation around which ideas will break through – supporting meaningful change through inclusive dialogue and an unrelenting passion for rethinking the status quo.
Urban Us created the first venture fund for startups re-imagining city life. They’ve invested in many notable early stage companies. Using a unique approach to work with a community of over 2,000 investors, founders and advisors their goal is to find and support promising startups.
Before founding Urban Us, the team went to schools like MIT, Harvard, Penn and Georgetown and went on to build successful startups, ran venture and angel funds, and funded city projects around the globe. They teach the first urbantech startup class at the University of Chicago Booth School.