The grandsons of Adi Dassler, founder of German-based sports brand adidas, are celebrating their grandfather’s legacy through a new program called the leAD Sports Accelerator, which was founded earlier this year.
“How would (Adi) innovate today? Well, he would probably be supporting startups across innovation,” Nathalie Sonne, Head of Program at leAD Sports Accelerator said regarding the grandsons’ decision to launch the accelerator.
Currently, Sonne and her colleagues are fielding applications from early-stage startups for the first three-month cohort that begins later this September in Berlin. She explained that leAD’s initial thinking was that the first group of 15 companies would hail mostly from the Middle East, Europe and Asia without much communication efforts on their end being toward the United States. Put simply, they thought most U.S.-based companies would flock to Silicon Valley instead.
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“To our surprise, the U.S. has had the second most applications as of now,” Sonne said, adding that leAD has received more than 230 applications, with over half of that number being submitted in the past three weeks from applicants all over the world.
Sonne explained that what differentiates leAD from other accelerator and incubation programs is that once 15 companies are eventually selected to join the program Sept. 12, after a month of participation, a semifinals pitch competition will occur at a nearby startup conference in Cologne, Germany. All of the companies will re-pitch themselves to leAD, its mentors and investor groups as they weigh not only the pitch but also the first four weeks of on-site work and collaboration.
“Our experience from seeing other accelerators is that no matter how many Skype interviews you do beforehand, once you have a team sitting in your space, you can actually tell who’s going to make it and who’s not going to make it. You see how serious they are. You see the teams working together, so that’s why we implemented these semifinals,” she said.
Companies that reach the final 10 will exchange eight percent of their company for a €25k investment along with mentorship from seasoned executives and entrepreneurs. Additionally, Sonne said that leAD is not looking for any specific types of companies at the intersection of sports and technology, saying that leAD is focused on companies across the broader sports community, too. Even startups that aren’t sports-specific but have a product or idea that can translate to the sports industry are potential candidates to participate in the inaugural cohort.
“We are really looking for strong teams. … We’re all interested in long-term growth companies, not really quick, scalable, fast exist startups,” she said.
While housing and food expenses won’t be provided, Sonne said leAD will encourage all 15 companies to move to Berlin for the cohort.