Startup Academy
A collection of experience and expertise gathered from some of Sweden's leading entrepreneurs in a digital crash course intended to equip aspiring entrepreneurs.
Take the first step towards becoming an entrepreneur
Startup Academy and Startup Academy Science to Business are the first steps on your entrepreneurial journey. Both of the Academy's program teachings provide a solid foundation, offering tools, techniques, and expertise you’ll need to bring your concept to reality. It’s the perfect setup if you’re interested in applying to any of our startup programs.
What you'll learn:
- Gain a solid foundation in entrepreneurship or Deeptech focus through 7 or 6 core modules
- Learn how to build a winning team
- Access the expertise used by successful entrepreneurs
- Understand the timeline for starting and growing a startup
- Test and validate your business idea
- Learn best practices for sales and financing
Hard facts
Length
Entrepreneur focus- 7 core modules, each with five masterclasses. Approx 4-5 hours to complete the course.
DeepTech focus- 6 core modules, and approx 3-4 hours to complete.
Cost
Both Sting Startup Academy is 100% free and open to anyone.
When?
You can join the course whenever you want.
Startup Academy Courses
Startup Academy
The Sting Startup Academy is a free, online platform designed to guide early-stage entrepreneurs through the essentials of building a successful startup. With bite-sized, interactive lessons covering everything from product development to pitching investors, the academy equips founders with the tools and insights they need to navigate their startup journey. Perfect for those eager to learn at their own pace
Science to Business
The Sting Startup Academy, with a Deeptech focus, is a free online platform tailored for researchers ready to turn their groundbreaking work into impactful startups. Are you addressing significant real-world problems? Our “Science to Business” initiative provides the support you need to transform your research into a successful growth company.
Academy course modules includes
1. How to begin your startup journey
- What to expect from this course
- Who your teachers are
- What to keep in mind when getting started
2. How to test your business idea
- How to find a problem worth solving
- The importance of a ‘mindset of experimentation’
- What needs to be validated
- Tools to test your idea
- How to create an MVP
3. How to get your first customer
- How to get your first customer
- How to create a customer profile
- Market segmentation
- How to set your pricing
4. How to form a winning team
- The importance of finding the right co-founder
- How to form a successful team
- Building a company culture to attract global talent
- Recruitment tools and strategies
- Ownership structure, Shareholders agreement and cap-table
5. How long will it take?
- The different phases of building a startup
- How to sign big partnership agreements
- How to expand internationally
- How to keep going when you don’t know how long the process will take
6. How to succeed with the sales
- Running your sales cycles efficiently
- Succeed with cold calls
- How to generate sales in a meeting and the importance of listening
- How to handle objections
7. How to finance your start-up
- Why finance your startup
- Financing options for early-stage startups
- Understanding risk and traction
- Finding investors and prepare for the meeting
- What investors are looking for in early-stage startups
Some of the speakers
Jessica is a Partner at Northzone, where her main focus is consumer internet. Her portfolio includes Red Points, Na-Kd, Einride, Matsmart, Klarna, Outfittery, Flink and Fyndiq. Prior to joining Northzone, Jessica co-founded and was CMO of market-leading meal-kit service HelloFresh.
Lars has been an angel investor since 1984. He has invested in over 80 startups and has taken companies public in Sweden, France, and the US. Founder of SVCA, the Swedish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Lars is pioneer within the Swedish venture capital industry. Yepstr, Health Integrator, Exeger, Learnster, Airnium, Karma, Treyd are some of the recent startups under his portfolio. With his passion and energy, Lars continues to support, inspire and invest in the next generation of founders.
Maja Magnusson is the Co-Founder of Care to Translate (Sting alumni). Maja has also previously worked as the COO of ThinkTankX and WRLDS Creations AB. Maja has a wealth of experience in commercial due diligence, market and customer analysis, enterprise architecture design, strategic business requirements and visual communication. Under her leadership, the company has rapidly grown to become one of the leading digital translation services providers in the healthcare sector globally.
Magnus Nilsson is a serial entrepreneur, corporate leader, and investor. He was the founding COO of the Swedish fintech unicorn iZettle. He has also been a successful corporate leader, leading companies like EF Education, USA and Wayfinder, before iZettle. Kry and Airmee are some of his recent investments.
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Sorosh previously founded, ran and eventually sold a software company, Videoplaza, (Sting alumni) with close to 100 employees across 8 offices. Before starting Stockeld Dreamery, Sorosh spent two years exploring new business ideas where reducing climate impact could be built into the business model. He deep dived into the world of alternative proteins, micro algae and duckweed, before deciding to go all in on creating the world’s most ambitious cheese together with Anja.
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Sara founded a HealthTech company on a mission to make brain health for everyone. Mindmore (Sting alumni) is making testing brain functioning as simple as getting a blood test to detect changes in cognitive functions early and improve treatment outcomes.
Dr Saeid Esmaeilzadeh is an award-winning researcher, serial entrepreneur and investor. Dr Saeid wants to help motivated individuals find the right tools and environment to build entrepreneurial companies that make the world a little better. With over 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur, Saeid has built different structures and institutions in the Swedish tech ecosystem to enable innovation and company building.
“More than 90% of all startups fail. Why? Not because their idea wasn’t good enough. But rather because tools for success were not easily accessed.
Sting has been trusted to accelerate startups for over 20 years. With our knowledge, our network, and our expertise you can dodge some classic mistakes and leap closer to success.”
Pär Hedberg
Sting Founder och Coaches DeepTech
Meet your Sting coaches
Have any questions?
Browse through the FAQs to gain insights and clarity on various topics related to our organization.
Propel Capital invests via a convertible note that converts to ownership only when the company has raised at least SEK 1 million or more from external investors. This way, we avoid setting a valuation of the company too early.
The purpose of Propel Capital is to connect Sweden’s best angel investors with our startups. Via the investment, we activate our angel investors to make direct investments into the company – adding both capital and experience.
Sting doesn’t charge upfront fees. Instead, we use a success-fee model in the form of stock warrants. If your company succeeds, Sting may convert those warrants into a small shareholding — helping us reinvest in the next generation of startups.
Sting delivers unmatched hands-on support tailored to your startup’s unique needs, combined with direct access to one of Europe’s largest and most active networks of founders, investors, and experts. Over 90% of our startups recommend Sting to their peers — and many return for follow-on programs.
Absolutely! Having secured funding before joining Sting is common and doesn’t prevent you from participating in our program. Many startups enter with angel investors already on board, and we’re here to help you build on that momentum with tailored support, strategic guidance, and access to our extensive network.
To maintain trust and a healthy community, we do not accept startups that directly compete with each other at the same time in our program. However, once a startup has graduated and been an alumni for at least six months, we may consider working with another company with a similar business idea.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Programs
With decades of experience scaling startups, we're here to help you unlock your true potential and grow your business faster.
Focus Areas
We are looking for big ideas with potential to solve real problems. In return, you’ll get access to a lifelong community that delivers more value and opens more doors than any other.
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Companies
Sting companies, radically changing the world as we speak.
