What is #StartKoro?

#StartKoro is a hybrid bootcamp for innovators, developers, designers, ideators, and entrepreneurs. Startups have always been hard. Even when you think you are putting in your best. In every crisis lies great opportunity if we are innovative. This is the time for you to roll up your sleeves and join #StartKoro Season 4. This bootcamp will allow you to learn from the best of the best local and international mentors, attend workshops, build your product, pitch in-front of VCs, and scale/launch your startup.

Why You Should Join?

The 5 virtual sessions and 2 in-person bootcamps of #StartKoro will be conducted by local and international expert mentors. You will learn from their experience and be able to build your product. There will be 1:1 mentoring, networking and collaborating opportunities. Organizers will offer access to funding, access to global networks and further support. Top participants will get the opportunity to win exciting prizes and support to scale up. In every session, 3 participants will win entrepreneurship related book sets worth thousands of taka...

#StartKoro 2020 Success Stories

“Out of all the participants of Start Koro 2020, 2 projects were funded by FNF Bangladesh, 3 supported by bdapps, 3 got Facebook ads credit by Facebook, 1 startup became a finalist in UNDP Youth CoLab accelerator and 1 project won global Facebook Online Hackathon by Facebook.”

#StartKoro 2021 Success Stories

There were 1:1 mentoring, networking, and collaborating opportunities. The organizers offered the participants access to funding, access to the global network, and further support. Top participants got opportunities to win exciting prizes and support to scale up. The focus areas of the program were tech startups/4th industrial revolution, female economy and f-commerce, social impact startups, and freelancer to entrepreneurs.

#StartKoro 2022 Success Stories

Expert mentors from abroad and locally led the three sessions and one Bootcamp of #StartKoro. The teams were able to build your product after learning from their mistakes. There were opportunities for one-on-one mentoring, networking, and teamwork. The organizers provided access to resources like funding, a global network, and additional support. Top participants received support to scale up and the chance to win exciting prizes. Three participants from each session received a book set about entrepreneurship worth thousands of taka.

2023 Focus Areas

🚀 Tech Startups / 4th Industrial Revolution (AI, AR, VR, Blockchain)
🚀 Green technology startups
🚀 Environmental startups
🚀 IOT/AI/Robotics/EV startups
🚀 Female economy startups, and other promising startups.

Prizes & Benefits


🚀 Top 5 startups will get funding support to grow or scale-up their business

🚀 In every session, 3 top active participants will win Entrepreneurship related book set as gifts.

🚀 Top participants will be invited in a physical bootcamp

🚀 Top participants will be prepared for global accelerators via bootcamp.

🚀 Top 10 participants will attend investor's night with the potential investors of the country and will have the opportunity to grab funding or partnership

FAQs

Do I need to have a startup to apply?

No. You just need to have the passion to build a product or startup to join the bootcamp.

Is it mandatory to have COVID-19 related ideas or startups?

No. You can have any kind of product idea that you want. As a major pandemic is going on, there will be ideas on new normal innovations but any innovation is welcome.

What is “New Normal”?

New Normal is a term that refers to the new way of doing things following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Is this a hackathon?

This is a bootcamp but this will prepare you to land to 3 hackathons after the bootcamp.

Do I need to be a coder or CSE graduate to be a part of this?

No. Anyone can join including startups, f-Commerce owners, ideators, business professionals, designers etc.

Do I need to have a group or team to join?

At this moment you can join individually. Later, you can form teams or continue as individual as well.

Will I get a certificate?

Yes. Winners of the demo day will win prizes. All participants completing the whole bootcamp will receive a certificate. You have to make sure you attend the sessions online.

How the top startups will be selected?

A jury board will decide the winners evaluating the overall participation in the event and the pitch sessions. The criteria of top participants will be 1. Innovation in Idea 2. Scalability and Impact 3. Skills & Strength 4. Consistency and Engagement in the Bootcamp

Organizers

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Preneur Lab

Preneur Lab is a "technology for social good organization" working to empower young people, women and entrepreneurs.

Participants Recognitions

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Insure Cow

1.Became the champion in the Huawei ICT Incubator 2022 competition.

2. Received iDEA grant from the iDEA (The Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy) project of the ICT Division of Bangladesh.

3. Became the finalist in the FT x Cardano Blockchain Challenge.


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Mullokoto

1. Has now more than 719K plus products from 13+ e-commerce sites.

2. Got selected for the Founder Institute Accelerator program

3. Operating successfully in the market and retailing numerous brands.


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Chalkboard

1. Chalkboard Communications Ltd. was the strategic partner of Stand-up for Sylhet II organized by Poriborton Kori.

2. Remarkable project: Fostering Responsible Digital Citizen Donor: European Union and FNF Bangladesh

3. Was a partner of “SHAAN” organized by Poriborton Kori.


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Lagvelki

1. Country’s first online pay-per-view movie streaming platform streaming Bangladeshi Independent films regularly Notable premieres: Dhaka An Opera, Color of Freedom (docu on Shahabuddin), Purnograsher Kal (Tale of an Ecliptic Time),

2. German cultural institution Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, in association with Lagvelki, organized an online short film screening session titled “Short.film.tour- The German short film award” (The German Short Film Award is the most important award to short films in Germany, endowed with the highest amount of money since 1956 to outstanding short film productions.)

3. Organized a remarkable session with documentary industry experts & filmmakers for helping aspiring filmmakers named “Preparing My Documentary Project”

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MainlyCoding

1. A personalized AI-powered Online Learning Platform dedicated to learning and teaching Programming practically in Bangla. Later Shikho, a Bangladeshi education technology startup, had acquired 'Mainly Coding'.

2. Has trained 5000+ students so far by now.

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Malamal.xyz

1. Nowadays, Bangladesh's leading B2B and B2C portal for dedicated industrial products.

2. It is a one-stop-platform offering more than 2,000 industrial products that best suit the needs of small to medium enterprises.

3. Starting from an anti-cutter blade that costs Tk12, Malamal.xyz sells products like an inverter welding machine that costs as high as Tk5,29,000.

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Psycure

1. Has won the 2022 Diana Awards.

2. They are continuously running various campaigns such as Unwind Mind, Spring Mental Awareness, and others to create awareness in Bangladesh.

3. They have achieved
*Joy Bangla Award 2020
*Bangabandhu Innovation Grant Award 2021
*Young Global Changemaker Award 2021
*10th place in Youth Co:lab
*Research grant from SimCubator.

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Best Aid Limited

1. Recently received investment from YY ventures.

2. Among Best Aid’s successes is
*ICT Fund
*Inclusion in the National COVID portal
*Entrepreneurship Worldcup 2021 finalist
*Imagine If Bangladesh’s 2nd runner-up position
*SimCubator 2021’s first runner-up position.

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Durjoy DSS

1. A startup based in Bangladesh and USA, making sales effortless for brands in South Asia.

2. Aiming to reinvent the supply chain of the retail industry of Bangladesh.

3. Durjoy DSS represented Bangladesh's startup story alongside Chaldal and Kotha in front of Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce and global audience.

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Wastech

1. The first online platform serving the best recycled and upcycled craft products of BANGLADESH.

2. Received BASIS ICT Awards 2019 on Research and Development cross category.

3. Has received the honorable award from World Vision for Air pollution pilot project in Ershadnagar,Tongi UP.

4. Has grabbed the championship in NEST 1.0.

2nd Runner's Up at Urbania - World Vision Air Solutions Challenge 2021.

Sessions

Session 1 Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Exploring the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, understanding the mindset, and key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. TBA TBA
Session 2 Ideation and Opportunity Assessment: Techniques for generating business ideas, assessing market opportunities, and conducting feasibility analysis. TBA TBA
Session 3 Understanding and using the Business Model Canvas as a tool for developing and refining startup business models. TBA TBA
Session 4 Techniques for conducting market research, understanding customer needs, and validating product-market fit. TBA TBA
Session 5 Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Strategies for developing an MVP efficiently, testing hypotheses, and collecting user feedback. TBA TBA

Bootcamp

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Demo day

TBA

Highlights from Previous Seasons

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