The first-ever accelerator for entrepreneurs older than 45 has been announced in Israel. Backed by new investment entity FUTURE, which was founded by Ronny Faivelovitz, a leading figure in impact investments, with a group of private investors, the accelerator will invest in entrepreneurs with 20 or more years of experience and professional expertise.
Developed in collaboration with Facebook Israel, the program seeks to help entrepreneurs with an innovative business or product to deal with the challenges associated with business development and marketing. A group of marketing, product development and advertising professionals from leading companies such as Playbuzz, Fiverr, Mench and more have got together to provide the entrepreneurs with knowhow, mentoring and support in designing a practical marketing strategy.
At the end of the program, the ventures will be presented to FUTURE's investors. The selected entrepreneurs will receive a NIS 100,000 investment to help develop their venture.
"Entrepreneurs and startups have become synonymous with young people in their 20's and 30's. We seek to transform this perception," Faivelovitz said. "There are hundreds of people over 45 years of age with extensive business and technology experience who are venturing into new challenges and independent businesses. The program and the dedicated fund we established will accelerate and open up the circle of older entrepreneur and provide them with the tools to succeed."
The program is part of FUTURE's ongoing work to promote experienced entrepreneurship and is executed in collaboration with Yigal Arnon Law Firm and the Pratt Foundation. The program consists of 12-session workshops, where the entrepreneurs will be given practical tools to grapple with the challenges associated with business development and marketing. In these workshops, the entrepreneurs will be able to design a professional plan to realize their business potential. The workshops will be facilitated by the social media companies in order to expose the participants to the best practices, methodologies and strategies for bringing their product to the market. The workshops will be complemented by personal meetings between the entrepreneurs and "FUTURE Boosters", the individual mentors matched to each entrepreneur in line with the type of product being developed.
Among the mentors and speakers of the program are Tom Laster from Facebook Israel, Eli Bogdan from Fiverr Israel, Adam Friedler from Good Pharm, Yael Shafrir from Playbuzz, Yonny Friedman, VP of Digital in Mench and other marketing, brand managers, advertising and development professionals.
Eli Bogdan, head of content promotion and control at Fiverr, said, "Access to the digital world holds numerous possibilities for promoting one's business. Becoming savvy in this world helps entrepreneurs, younger and older alike, to found a business and advance it anywhere and anytime. I look forward to helping experienced entrepreneurs build their successful business."
The first 20-participant class of the program will open this April and will run till August 2017. Participation costs NIS 2,000 per entrepreneur.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 30, 2017
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