Iceland review - 2016, Page 87

ICELAND REVIEW 85
He explains that mentors come in, meet with the teams and
give valuable feedback on their ideas and plans. The second and
third phases involve taking the idea out into the world—pre-
paring customer development, sales and pitching to investors.
“It’s all about preparation, execution and exposure,” emphasizes
Haraldur.
The program boasts a 40-70 percent success rate of compa-
nies still up and running after completing it, depending on the
year. Haraldur explains that they are happy with this statistic
as it is higher than average for startup accelerator programs
worldwide. Haraldur states that the efficacy of the program
must be attributed to the mentorship it offers burgeoning ven-
tures. Experts in their fields, such as Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of
international gaming company CCP, or Magnús Scheving, the
creator of LazyTown, an Icelandic educational music TV pro-
gram for children, will spend time with the participants, offer-
ing their background and insights. “We have a really valuable
set of mentors,” says Haraldur. “And the fact that experienced
entrepreneurs in Iceland are willing to give back by giving their
time and effort to help us help the startups—that’s the most
important fact. They are giving back to the community. It’s a
pay-it-forward kind of thing.” *
BUSINESS
“It’s
all about
preparation,
execution
and
exposure.”
Haraldur Hugosson
Startup Reykjavík received the 2015 Nordic Startup Award.