Incubation Objectives

The incubation aims at reducing the rate of startups failure in Rwanda and Africa by applying Leapr Startup 4Ds approach to product & business development.Leapr Startup 4Ds is an approach for rapidly and efficiently developing desirable and feasible products/services as well as viable business models. It is achieved by applying a combination of iterative 4Ds “Define, Design, Develop & Deploy” and bringing into play design thinking on each step.

  • Define: To answer a need for a well-defined and large enough set of users
    • Design: A detailed design to address unmet or latent needs that the competition does not and shape the product’s/service’s desirability and feasibility. 
      • Develop: To make a product/service that serves well the need and considering product development economics to ensure viability and sustainability of the business as well as developing innovative go to market strategies.
        • Deploy: To test the product/service with early customers and do validation. 

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          Enrollment Process

          There is no fixed time for enrollment, each startup enrolls at a different time and they access incubation depending on their product/service stage. Below ae steps to enroll in our startups incubation campus. 

          1. We connect with startups through Fellowships or R&D Programs, Social Media, Partners, Website, and/or Friends
          2. A Startup to pitch in front of Leapr Labs’ incubation specialists. 
          3. We provide a space for a probationary period of three months to get to know the team’s commitment as well as technical and entrepreneurial skills. 
          4. Enroll the Startup in the Leapr’s Startups Incubation Campus. 
          5. Signing engagement agreement.
          Incubation General Criteria
          1. A startup with Technology based/enabled product/service
          2. A competitive team technically and business wise 
          3. Available 24/7 unless there’s an emergency
          4. Good Communication & High aptitude skills
          5. Entrepreneurship and tech enthusiast. 

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          Key Activities

          1. Market Research, Benchmarking, Brainstorming, etc…
          2. Individual & Collaborative Research (Discovering the latent or unknown needs)
          3. Meet-ups with Instructors & Mentors.
          4. Idea-refining, Prototyping, Product/Service development, Product/service Updation… (4Ds and Design Thinking as the main approach for problem solving).
          5. Scrum meetings, Presentations, Demonights, etc…
          6. Industry & Startups (Learning from other’s experience). 
          7. Testing with customer to validate the product/service

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          Investor Partners

          We encourage investors (Venture capitalists, Angel Investors, etc..) to meet the startups during the incubation phase so that they can know the teams’ performance which is more important than having a good idea. 

          SHORA Venture Partners
          SHORA is an investment and business consulting company based in Rwanda. SHORA Believes that although investments in business are mainly monetary, most startups & innovators need other forms of investment that are non-monetary to create value during their earlier startup days. Shora provides support on the following areas to Accelerate the startups:
          • Industry/Sector Domain Expertise 
          • Financial Investments (Variety of financial instruments)  
          • Infrastructure (Physical & Digital) 
          • Customers /Markets Access
          • Technical & Business Expertise (Mentorship & Coaching) 
          For more information about SHORA Venture Partners Visit: www.shora.rw

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          Other Partners

          The industry shares experience by speaking out the failure & success they had throughout the process of their business development. 

          Government institutions 
          Government institutions support the startups through providing access to information and seed capital as well as being open to collaborate during the startup’s deployment phase by enabling them having; Access to Market, Visibility and Networking through events, 
          Incubator Partners
          Leapr Labs collaborate with other incubation hubs to share experience and develop the ecosystem together. It is through that partnership that Leapr Labs provides Product & Business Development Mentorship for the 250Startups Incubation Program from 2019 till now. 

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