Last week Rick Salmon held a series of workshops and training sessions in Ramallah, Palestine for PICTI (the Palestine ICT Incubator). Read the press release here: http://www.ameinfo.com/272755.html

What motives you as an entrepreneur? What is the real reason that you are willing to work long hours 7 days a week with low pay, few colleagues, no flashy benefits, no fancy office, no job security, and the constant risk of failure staring you right in the eyes? Are you crazy, reckless or just stupid?

15 technology start-up companies from the ESA program will participate in 3 day business acceleration workshop led by Xelerator. April 28-30, 2010.

More info here.

How long should I hang onto the dream? See blog: xelerator.blogspot.com

Technology entrepreneurs should take this 1-Minute Reality Checklist. It might just save your business plan. Read the blog entry here:  http://xelerator.blogspot.com

Xelerator facilitated a workshop for a group of entrepreneurs who are participated in the ESA Galileo Application Days in Brussels, Belgium on March 3-5th, 2010. These selected companies are part of the ESA (European Space Agency) incubators and have developed applications and technologies for the Galileo Satellite program.

(Oslo, Nov. 11, 2009)

Rick Salmon has been appointed as President of the Selection Jury for 2009 European Venture Contest Finals which will be held on December 14th and 15th, 2009 in Barcelona. The Jury will consist of 45 distinguished members representing the Venture Capital community in Europe.  Over 700 startup companies have competed in the contest this year and the top 25 have been chosen to go to the finals in Barcelona.

Jury members will select a winner in each of the 5 categories of cleantech, life sciences, new media, software and electronics. From these top 5 companies, 1 overall winner will be selected and awarded a cash prize of EU 90,000.  The companies will be evaluated on the basis of 7 factors (including business development, investment potential, team and presentation, etc.).

Rick Salmon competed in the 2008 European Venture Contest as CEO of company RPR Technologies AS (Norway) and was selected as winner of the Cleantech category. This year, he has been asked to be the President of the Jury in order to represent and promote the entrepreneur viewpoint and to acknowledge his work with empowering European entrepreneurs.

For more information about the Eurecan European Venture Contest, see:  www.e-unlimited.com

RPR Technologies has been an Xelerator client for the past 3 years. In 2006 Rick Salmon took over as CEO for RPR in order to help the founders get their patented prototype on the market. The first thing Xelerator did was to assemble a professional Board of Directors and to raise the initial seed financing needed to launch the company. By the end of 2006 the first products were shipped and in 2007 the company passed breakeven. Today RPR employs 6 people, has established sales channels in N.America and W.Europe and has been publically recognized as an exciting and growing young Norwegian business. As part of a strategy to position the company with potential investors, RPR entered a series of venture competitons in August 2008. After winning both “Best Presentation” and “Best Elevator Pitch” awards in the qualifying rounds, RPR qualified for the finals of the EURECAN EUROPEAN VENTURE CONTEST and went on to win the award in the Cleantech category. Note that this is a strategy that Xelerator would recommend for all startup companies. If you are interested in learning more about how to succeed with this type of tactic, contact Xelerator today.

If you listen too much to the financial news these days, you can put yourself into a deep clinical depression within about 15 minutes. Most of the experts are predicting global slowdowns and catastrophe scenarios, but how do you adopt a strategy to keep your small startup business afloat? Is it possible to even thrive in a recession?

To accelerate your startup during a recession you must have a
STRATEGY for SURVIVAL and GROWTH.

Here are four tips:

1. Don’t lose your belief and your will to win, even though most others around you are losing theirs… No other piece of advice is more valuable. Guard your enthusiasm and optimism carefully. This is what makes you special as an entrepreneur. Do not let anyone diminish this! The great news is that most people will give in to negative thoughts and walk around with a cloud hanging over their heads. You, on the other hand, will refuse to let this current (temporary) situation affect you and you will have the sunshine on your face at all times. Prospects and customers will notice this and be drawn to you.

2. Have the intellectual agility to quickly adapt… to modify your product or services, to repackage, rename or even reinvent what you are offering to harmonize with the dominant fears and beliefs of the times. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, companies that sold men’s neckties actually increased their sales. When consumers had less money, they put off buying a new suit, but invested in a new tie instead. Have you thought through how your business could adapt to actually benefit from the current situation? Can you change your message or packaging in order to reflect this?

3. Redirect your efforts at better, more likely buyers… (i.e., focus on those buyers that are the least or the last to be effected by the recession). We all have different types of customers. Which of your customers will be less affected by a recession? Look at public (government) spending. Take a look at the companies that are still hiring new employees today. Who are they? What is it about them that makes them less or last affected by the recession? There are clues everywhere. Are you looking carefully enough and are you flexible enough to take advantage of this quickly?

4. Work harder… There is no replacement for this. During tough times, you just have to work harder than the rest. You must be more diligent and follow-up more closely in order to get the optimal value out of every customer lead you get. Keep your optimism (as in point 1), work harder and you will be surprised that even during tough economic times you will survive and even thrive.

Remember that during the biggest crises, come the biggest opportunities.

Team up with others who can help you! Want to discuss this and other issues affecting startup companies with other experienced entrepreneurs? Attend one of our free monthly webinars. See www.xelerator.com for dates and times.