At the beginning of December, the closing event of our first Europe-wide startup acceleration program LightSpeed took place in Milan. The six finalists (Brickken (Spain), myCo (France), COP (Italy), Nalantis (Belgium), Skopos (Netherlands) and Droits Quotidiens (Belgium) had the opportunity to demonstrate their development, degree of growth and maturity achieved during the six months of the program at a ceremony held in Milan.
The startups were selected last March for their vision and alignment with Lefebvre Sarrut's strategy, the characteristics of their team, the market in which they operate and the innovation of the product they offer.
Olivier Campenon, CEO of Lefebvre Sarrut, the mother company of Sdu, kicked off with the following words: “The purpose of our company is to activate knowledge by helping, innovating and taking advantage of unique resources for a just and sustainable society."
We spoke with Han Veldwijk, CEO of Skopos.AI, the winning startup from the Netherlands. This year, Sdu has been working closely with Skopos in the six-month duration of the program. “Thanks to the contribution from Lightspeed and Sdu team, we gained amazing traction. In the first week of the program, Sdu and Lefebvre Sarrut successfully deployed the Skopos solution across the organization. In Milan we had the opportunity to present to the executive board and 2700 colleagues of Lefebvre Sarrut”.
At Skopos there are three things that the team took away from the Lightspeed accelerator:
- Focus on one segment. Veldwijk: “Before the program, we focused on multiple segments to learn about traction. Early on we had a session at Sdu in The Hague with experts from the different industries that they service. We long-listed the segments and drilled down to a key segment. In our case, accountants. This really helped to answer a lot of questions around the problem you solve for a user and how to formulate the proposition. This is common ground for most organizations: focus and simplicity can move mountains.”
- Define your segment. Veldwijk: “Who are we communicating to, what do they care about and why? Once we formulated the segment, we could create hypotheses on the users in that segment. Existing research and interviews with accountancy firms really helped us understand their world and challenges. It was also key in rethinking our assumptions. In Utrecht, the Netherlands, at the ‘Integrated Experience’, the Skopos team had the opportunity to connect with Sdu clients and learn how they deal with digital transformation and information security.“
- Communication is a two-way street:“The beauty of one single segment is that you (start to) understand them well. This helps tremendously in communication”, according to Veldwijk. “Communication is a two-way street, where we have to listen as much as we speak. For example, we used to think that users cared about GDPR. But that’s not true. If you listen, users or businesses care about their reputation and business disruption. Skopos is a tech company, that’s our DNA. But guess what? Most people don’t like tech talk. You have to speak the language of your audience . For example, we communicate via a dashboard. But our users don’t have time to log onto the dashboard. They want their information delivered to them in an easy way. That’s why we created a monthly email service for management teams, providing all important data in one overview. We learned how to listen to their needs.”
LightSpeed has been a learning curve for Skopos and has contributed to the acceleration of growth and maturity of the startup. The accelerator program ended with a fun DJ and champagne on the afterparty. The LightSpeed program is ready for the next generation of startups.
Do you want to know how Skopos and Sdu help accountants and their clients with ransomware and compliancy questions? Visit their website at www.skopos.ai
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