Case: Rockstart
team scans and coaching at dozens of startups
Rockstart’s purpose and remarkable timeline
Rockstart launched in 2011 in Amsterdam as one of Europe’s first startup accelerators. Since its inception, Rockstart has invested in more than 150 startups from all over the world. They supported them to raise more than €87 million and hire more than 700 people.
- Supports startups by providing access to capital, community, and expertise
- Acceleration programs in Energy, Health, Agrifood, and Tech
- Responsible for programs at Maersk, Shell and many others.
How did we help Rockstart to accelerate team performance at dozens of startups?“
The Challenge
During acceleration programs, startups prepare a product for market entrance and get investment ready. After this pressure cooker, Rockstart stays actively involved until a Series B investment.
To select and guide teams through all stages, the quality of the founding team is priceless. Let alone the ability to grow the team when scaling up to 10-20 employees and further.
We worked with Greenchallenge startup LettUs Grow in Bristol (UK) during their growth from 8 to 24 employees.
Our Solution
With our Team Scan, we dive into psychological characteristics between the personalities in a team.
Step 1 – Identify the possibilities for improvement of collaboration. A good understanding and communication between founders sets the standard for teamwork when the company grows.
Step 2 – We connected company characteristics to their business challenges. This way, we visualized which teams missed a strong vision, lacked strategic thinking or needed focus on execution.
Step 3 – During team challenges and 1-on-1 coaching we used psychological insights to apply them on founder’s daily practice. All teams received coaching on their collaboration and leadership skills.
Results
Where did our Team Scan and training help Rockstart startups most?
- Guide founders to the best division of roles
- Empower mentors to truly understand and coach teams effectively
- Support startups to make crucial first hiring decisions
Fortify’s coaching scored 4.7 / 5 by founders on average, during various programs.
“The team sessions with Fortify were brilliant, really interactive and gave us a lot of new insight”
– Team Aqua Battery, during the Postcode Lottery GreenChallenge
Rockstart x Fortify
– Our experience –
“Fortify’s insights are of immense value to our programs. They do not just make team scans; they are highly specialized in the startup environment.
Fortify enabled us to understand the teams truly and to coach them in a really effective way.
The groups that worked with Fortify benefited genuinely from the insights they gained and described their experiences as clarifying, professional and accurate.
Fortify contributes to the goal of Rockstart; Supporting the growth of startups.”
Kim Geesink
About five years ago, Rockstart gave me the chance to start working with multiple early-stage startups.
The flaws and cracks of a founding team in this stage can have a big influence on a growing team. During my work at Rockstart, I was given the opportunity to learn about founder relations, growing pains and evolving company cultures.
It is still a fascinating adventure to work with all those impactful startups within Rockstart’s ecosystem.
Paul Musters
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