Business Lab
Business Lab is a pre-incubator where you can stay for 6 to 12 months to test your business idea. You...
Our offer
LEAD offers various programs based on where you are in your company’s journey and the area you operate in. Regardless of which program you apply to, we provide innovators and entrepreneurs with a wide range of targeted resources and services to help you achieve faster and more secure growth.
Applications to BusinessLab and Incubate are accepted year-round. BootUp runs twice a year, starting in March and September. Dual Use Acceleration starts in the fall and lasts six months.
To be a LEAD member
Regardless of which program you choose, you will receive our full commitment, accumulated experience, expertise, and extensive network. LEAD provides a comprehensive ecosystem for startups, including tailored business coaching, training, access to capital networks, and a community of inspiring startups to collaborate with and learn from each other.
Business coaching
Point you in the right direction, so you can maximize the potential of your business idea. You'll get our collective commitment, experience and expertise from our business coaches who have done the journey themselves.
Business Development Methodology
We help you build companies from the ground up with a methodology that minimizes wasted time and maximizes learning.
Funding possibilities
To achieve success and growth, external capital is usually needed at some stage, often early on. We have both the network and the support you need in this work.
Skills development
No one is perfect and we are constantly working on training initiatives to help you grow with your company, such as sales training, IP strategy and leadership.
Network
The right contacts, which can facilitate and open doors, are often crucial for your startup, which is why we have networks to find the right skills, partners, and customers.
PR & Communication
If no one knows you exist, then you don't. Visibility is a great way to reach customers and build your brand.
Community
Whether you're with us in our offices, in Linkoping or Norrkoping, or elsewhere, you'll be part of something bigger and get to know driven individuals on a similar journey.
Why LEAD?
We work with startups at different stages: from initial idea, to first paying customers, and on to building the foundation for scaling up. We are with you every step of the way, always tailoring our offering to your startup’s needs to help you succeed faster and safer.
A contract period is up to 6 months.
Selection
During the time that innovators and entrepreneurs work with LEAD, requirements gradually increase. At the start of the process, a selection is made, with LEAD looking closely at the team and the champion. We look at the goals and ambition, as well as the entrepreneur’s own drive and coachability. Then we check for the potential to build a scalable business and the presence of something new in the idea for solving an identified problem.
Formulation
As soon as a company is accepted as a member of LEAD, work on the formulation begins. Much of the focus is on market and customer needs verification, which includes exploring whether the market is large enough, how much interest there really is, whether the problem the idea aims to solve is the real problem, and what alternative solutions look like. Another important factor considered at this stage is scalability: how can we build on the idea with the entrepreneur? Can anyone copy it and how can it be protected?
Verification
The next step, verification, takes place when the company has received clearance that the solution is of interest to potential customers. Here the focus is on verifying the business model. We also look at what resources need to be put in place, for example whether there is a need for various training initiatives, such as sales training, Investment Readiness Process, financing, or other tools to build strong companies. A plan with clear objectives is drawn up and then reviewed on an ongoing basis. The goal for leaving this phase is to have several paying pilot customers who want to test and develop the solution together with the company.
Growth
When you have a business concept that has been verified by customers and market participants and a team that wants to invest, you are ready for the next step: scaling up the company and starting the journey towards growth. During the last part of the LEAD process, the growth phase, there is a comprehensive deep dive where we continue to work in the same way as during verification, but much deeper. Often the focus for the company is to step out of a kind of search stage and into a stage of establishing and scaling up. Taking the pilot customers and turning them into loyal customers. LEAD companies work to a structured plan going forward, with milestones on a six-monthly basis. Products and services evolve, as do the company’s own processes and roles. We use our extensive network of partners as a helpful resource.
Alumni
When the company leaves LEAD, it becomes an alumnus. The goal is that the company is a professional business that can generate growth and results on its own and live up to its vision and values.
As an alumnus, you are part of the LEAD community, and you are still invited to participate in seminars and lectures to share your experiences and tips with new member companies. Sharing is caring.
Ready to test
your wings?
Apply today and we’ll get back to you about your idea and how we can support you.
Read more
Dual Use Accelerator
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Incubate
LEAD offers two memberships based on where you are on the business journey. Business Lab is our early-idea membership where...
Become a member
Do you have a company or an idea and want to be part of LEAD? To become a member at...
BootUp
BootUp is an intensive business development program that ends with a DemoDay where you get to pitch to investors. The...