Twelve startups from the SUSTAIN phase of the EPICENTRE Program (CALL 1) have completed their journey through the Academy and Acceleration tracks. Here's what we learned from their in-depth satisfaction survey:

✅ Strong Satisfaction and Valuable Support

Startups reported high satisfaction levels with the overall support, expert mentoring, and resources provided by EPICENTRE. Teams praised the responsiveness and professionalism of the EPICENTRE staff, noting that guidance was both strategic and actionable.

"A well-structured program that pushed us to the next level."
"You get out what you put in — but the tools are top-tier."

🎯 Tangible Progress on Key Objectives

Participants joined the program with clear goals: boosting revenue, expanding markets, launching new products, and improving efficiency. EPICENTRE helped most projects significantly or even extremely in advancing toward these targets. Highlights include:

• Development of new technologies and MVPs
• Business model validation
• Accelerated movement across Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) — with some reaching TRL8-9

🤝 Corporate Connections & Collaboration

One of EPICENTRE’s standout achievements: facilitating real corporate engagement.
Several startups reported active collaborations, PoCs, and in some cases, commercial deals with corporate partners from the program.

"We're currently co-developing with a corporate client and preparing for market entry."

Networking among startups was also positively rated, although some participants suggested increasing informal interaction opportunities to foster deeper peer connections.

🌱 Real Impact on Growth

The program made a high to very high impact on company growth for most participants. Startups expressed strong confidence in their long-term success — many credited EPICENTRE with helping them refine their value propositions, focus their strategies, and gain momentum.

💡 Key Takeaways

• 100% would recommend EPICENTRE to other startups
• All would consider joining similar programs in the future
• Top strengths: mentoring, structure, business focus, access to corporates
• Suggested improvements: shorter workshops, even more corporate matchmaking

“Surprisingly valuable. Empowering. Inspiring.”