Market & Funding readiness program in Leiden
Venture Academy is a free program for motivated, aspiring entrepreneurs with a scalable startup idea based on a technological or scientific innovation. The program focuses on soft skills and team development, as well as hard skills such as sales and fundraising.
Over the course of three months, you will attend weekly training sessions and build a community with the other participants. Join us and launch your startup with the guidance of Christian and other specialized trainers!
Launch your startup!
With the help of experts, mentors and fellow entrepreneurs, you will:
- Become investor-ready
- improve and execute your go-to-market plan
- Build a winning team
At the end of the program you will have:
- A validated, scalable value proposition & business model
- A realistic go-to-market & funding plan
- An improved pitch & pitch deck
Program timeline
Want to validate your startup idea? And can you check off all three criteria? Then join one of the three Startup Play cohorts!
Deadline
March 6, 2026
before 18:00 including pitch deck
Selection and pitch days
- March 16
- March 18
- March 20
Weekly sessions
- 9 April
- 16 April
- 23 April
- 7 May
- May 14
- May 21
- May 28
- June 4
- June 11
- June 18
Demo Day
25 June
Special Track for Life Sciences and Health startups
Research and deep-tech startups, such as academic spinouts, face different challenges than, say, direct-to-consumer tech propositions. That’s why we offer specialized coaching and networking opportunities for research-based startups.
Through the unlock_ incubation program, we have specialized knowledge and a broad network in the Life Sciences & Health sector. In the past, we have helped startups in the biotech, e-health, medtech, pharmaceutical and diagnostic sectors make significant strides in their development.
Admission criteria
- You have a scalable* business idea based on a scientific or technological innovation**
- You determined who exactly your potential customers and users are and what problem they are struggling with
- You have validated that customers are willing to pay for your solution, through structured interviews and by creating some traction if possible (test users, newsletter signups, first sales, etc.)
- For deep tech concepts: you have proven technical feasibility. For non-deep tech concepts: you have created an MVP/prototype and tested it with users.
- You have determined how you will make money
- You have a founder team that can continue testing and improving the product without reliance on external technical development parties (single founders also welcome)
- You have a pitch deck describing your business case (we’ll help you with this)
*Potential for rapid revenue growth with no equal increase in costs – so no consulting-like services
**Solves a problem in a new and unique way
If you’re not sure if you meet these criteria, fill out the intake form and we’ll help you figure it out.
