The Startup Race Launches Audacious Accelerator Program and MVP Hackathon to Kick-Off its 2022 £10,000 UK Startup Race

The Six-Month ‘Gamified’ Startup Competition Benchmarks Ambitious Entrepreneurs Focusing on Sales Rather than Pitching Skills

EDINBURGH, UK, Nov. 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Startup Race Accelerator announced today it launched a call for submissions for its hackathon, a new opportunity in advance of its £10,000 Startup Race, which kicks off in early February 2022. Aspiring Entrepreneurs can access its free accelerator programme on Leanstack to prepare for the opportunity to recruit fellow co-founders during The Startup Race’s Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Hackathon and start growth hacking as a team to win a £10,000 cash prize.

“With The Startup Race, we are disrupting the standard model, known as ‘Pitching Parades.’ in order to enable entrepreneurs to prove themselves in both product and market fit, through sales and revenue,” said James Shoemark, co-founder of The Startup Race. “This team-building hackathon will be entirely virtual, but call for anyone working within the UK.”

This meritorious process, first developed by Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Steve Blank in 2013, is very attractive to Angel Investors. Through the process, there will be an opportunity for a number of high net-worth Individuals to observe how the teams perform over the course of the race and be introduced to those that they may wish to support at the end.

Between now and the Hackathon, up to 1,000 aspiring and experienced UK entrepreneurs are able to benefit from its free accelerator program on Leanstack because of a partnership with Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean and Scaling Lean.

Upon entry to the Accelerator, participants will gain access to the world’s best leanstart startup resources in order to validate their thinking, develop their business model and personal profile in order to attract co-founders. Other free resources on Leanstack will include the Foundations and Business Model Design Playbooks and Lean Canvas & Traction Roadmap tools. The Startup Race team will also help entrepreneurs incorporate their UK company and open a UK business bank account to enable them to start generating sales as soon as the competition starts. 

The team building Hackathon will run February 4 through 6, 2022, and is designed to establish the creation of more than 50 startup teams by giving entrepreneurs an opportunity to demo their business model to the other Hackathon participants and either recruit them to join their team or forgo their idea and join somebody else’s team. There will be 1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes for the best MVP Demo. The Startup Teams will then have two weeks until March 1st to create a Minimum Revenue Product (MRP) for the commencement of the £10,000 Startup Race. The competitors will also be given free access to LivePlan - the world's fastest and easiest way to write a business plan, created by Palo Alto Entrepreneur, Tim Berry. Racers will be benchmarked based on a ¨Prime Metric¨ that ranks the top performers. Only the Premier League will be made public but all Racers will be able to access a private dashboard that reveals their current position and suggestions on how they could improve their ranking. 

“The £10,000 Startup Race measures what Entrepreneurs do over a period of time,” said Michael Clouser, co-founder of The Startup Race. “It is a highly competitive ‘pedal-to-the-metal’ approach that will see great value for both Entrepreneurs and Business Angel Investors over a short period of time.” 

The Startup Race idea began in 2014 when a young entrepreneur asked Mr. Shoemark, who was hosting a League of Entrepreneurs Meetup at the time, if and how the startup process could be gamified. Mr. Shoemark decided that a business competition using the Pirate Metrics (AARRR as popularised by Dave McLure) could be the answer. He soon teamed up with Michael Clouser, a former Silicon Valley VC and other Edinburgh based Entrepreneurs and Investors to partner with him on this new venture in order to support Fast Growth startups in the UK and around the world. 

Winners of The Startup Race will be announced during a ceremony in the Fall of 2022.  The 10,000 prize is non-dilutive and will be provided in the form of a grant from the Startup Race limited company to a limited company. 

For more information on The Startup Race, please visit:  WWW.TheStartupRace.com.

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ABOUT THE STARTUP RACE

The Startup Race, based in the UK, is a hackathon and accelerator dedicated to proving that sales and revenue are the true benchmark of a successful startup, rather than the initial pitch. The event and company itself is the product of a young entrepreneur asking Mr. James Shoemark in 2014, how the startup process could be gamified. Mr. Shoemark decided that a business competition using the Pirate Metrics (AARRR as popularised by Dave McLure) of Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral and Revenue as a benchmark for ambition, competition and growth could be the answer. He soon teamed up with Michael Clouser, a former Silicon Valley VC and other Edinburgh based Entrepreneurs and Investors to partner with him on this new venture in order to support Fast Growth startups in the UK and around the world. The first £10,000 Startup Race will continue through the Autumn 2022, where a winner will be announced and awarded the £10,000 Cash Prize. After this Startup Race has completed, they will be partnering with Scottish Investors to run a £300,000 Startup Race and then a £1,000,000 International Startup Race. 

For more information on The Startup Race, please visit:  WWW.TheStartupRace.com.

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Attachments

• How To Win The £10,000 Startup Race
• James Shoemark and Michael Clouser, founders of The Startup Race Accelerator, which kicks off today.

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