This document is a welcome letter from instructors of the Lisbon Challenge Spring 2014 accelerator program. It discusses the 12-week program which will guide startups through exploring their market assumptions, building their organization, managing resources, designing processes, and developing sales skills. The program includes weekly themes, masterclasses, workshops, mentorship and networking opportunities to help make the startups investment-ready. It encourages the participating startups to fully commit to the program and work hard in order to get the most from the experience and resources available.

1. A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH A SINGLE STEP
Chinese philosopher Laozi (c 604 bc - c 531 bc)
All great journeys start with the first step. Creating a startup is probably one of the greatest journeys in one’s life.
We hope your journey is inspired by Lisbon.
It’s now over 500 years after Portuguese explorers like da Gama and Magellan departed in search for spices, gold
and glory, and visionaries like Columbus first stopped in Lisbon to announce to Europe the discovery of America.
Risk-taking was part of the game in the old days of navigation explorers. Do you think it was different back then?
You’re right, it was way harder! To get funded, to get a team, to access knowledge, there were no printed books, to cross
an ocean with no maps, only the unknown wating for you…
In a sense, you’re lucky! Entrepreneurs being the new daring explorers of modern times, willing to take risks and inspiring
a whole generation of young entrepreneurs rest on “sholders of giants” of proven methodologies, and a wealth of
consolidated knowledge on creating new ventures. At Beta-i, we believe that Lisbon is kicking again with startups that
want to give a new global tone to the city. Following the success of Lisbon Challenge past years’ edition, Beta-i is very
proud to welcome you to Lisbon Challenge Spring’14 class, a 12-week accelerator taking place in from May 2nd till
July 27th.
We want to create an international reference startup accelerator to connect entrepreneurs with investors, mentors and
service providers. Each week has a theme, guiding you through the process of questioning your market assumptions,
to building your organization, to manage your resources, to help you design your processes, running a sales driven
structure and other skills that technical founders lack. The program is designed to make your startup investment-ready,
and it has the following structure:
INSTRUCTORS WELCOME LETTER
TO LISBON CHALLENGE SPRING’14 CLASS
www.lisbon-challenge.com
W0: Welcome Bootcamp (2-4 May)
W1: Open Week (5-11 May)
W2: Market Exploration (12-18 May)
W3: Product Development (19-25 May)
W4: Product Testing (26 May - 1 June)
W5: Customer Relationship (2 - 8 June)
W6: Sales Process (9 - 15 June)
W7: Bulding Culture (16 - 22 June)
W8: Investment (23 - 29 June)
W9: Pitch Preparation (30 June - 6 July)
W10: Term sheets & Negotiation (7 - 13 July)
W11: Roadshow - London (14 - 20 July)
W12: Roadshow – San Francisco (21- 27 July)

2. We’ve also developed a comprehensive array of masterclasses and workshops around the above topics and invited
experts to run them. We also believe in doing, in hacking, in discovering that the best of you and your team is yet to
come. But, it takes more than management and technical knowledge to be successful, that’s why we’re welcoming you
with the Bootcamp Weekend devoted to developing your skills such as flexibility, active listening and leadership with a
team of former Portuguese Navy Marines in an offsite location.
During the entire duration of the program, each team will have an assigned instructor, a partner from Beta-i, to support
and guide you throughout the program, making sure that milestones are well defined and achievable. The mentors,
experienced entrepreneurs, will try to ask you the right questions to advance your business and focus your attention on
how to avoid common mistakes, helping you find alternatives. They will not give you the answers, it will be up to you to
make the best decisions. Trust your gut!
You’ll also have the opportunity to meet with developers and designers, have office hours with potential suppliers
and listen to successful CEOs. We hope you can make the most of your time and access to all the Beta-i network.
We hope that during these 3 months we’re going to have the opportunity to know each other really well, and you should
take this period to work as hard as possible on your project to make the most of it! Allocate your resources wisely and
efficiently.
We live in a global, competitive world and being an entrepreneur is really, really hard! Success will come to those who
commit, we expect you to do exactly that with Lisbon Challenge, don’t skip mentorship sessions, trainings or classes.
Remember to follow your dream and work with passion, and allways keep in mind that as a collaborative program, your
fellow colleagues will be your greatest support.
This letter is our personal commitment to you, as we wish you good luck and good work,
A message from your Lisbon Challenge instructors,
Lisbon, May 2ND
2014
André Marquet
Lisbon Challenger Coordinator
Ricardo Marvão
Lisbon Challenge Deputy
Tiago Pinto
Beta-i CFO
Pedro Rocha Vieira
Beta-i President
Manuel Tanger
Beta-innovation Coordinator
www.lisbon-challenge.comEUROPE´S MOST CHALLENGING ACCELERATION PROGRAM