From Minimum Viable Product to market fit.
Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a continuous cycle of testing, learning and rebuilding. As objectives and challenges are always moving targets, success rarely unfolds as initially drawn up. Hitting that first major goal is just the starting line.
The essential question quickly becomes: where do we go from here?
Why join Shape?
The Shape Accelerator Programme is here to help you define and plan that next move; refining your concept, improving operations and preparing to scale. We support creative and cultural entrepreneurs in navigating growth, preparing for investment and building the resilience to evolve with product development, market research, business model strategy and pitch training. Participants also have the opportunity to win prizes of up to €30,000 to expand their impact and business across Europe.
We’re calling on founders who are ready to level up. If you’ve validated your idea and built a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Shape gives you the tools to accelerate development, refine your business model and find your market fit.
What you’ll gain
Shape is built for momentum. Across several weeks, participant teams go through stages of product refinement, market validation, scaling strategy, and growth experimentation. By the close of the programme, each team is expected to have benefited from:
- Kick-off and showcase bootcamps: Two in-person, all-expenses-paid bootcamps in Europe - one to start your journey and one at Demo Day to showcase your work.
- Expert guidance: Weekly online sessions to sharpen entrepreneurial skills, personalised mentorship and strategic coaching.
- Networking and community: Access to valuable industry networks, a free EIT Culture & Creativity community membership throughout the programme, and a lifelong community of fellow entrepreneurs, leading culture and knowledge institutions, organisations and investors to support your journey.
- Business development: Guidance to validate your business idea, build your MVP, test market potential, finalise your go-to-market plan, build investor pitch materials and establish a clear roadmap for the next stage.
- Funding opportunity: The chance to compete for prizes up to €30,000.
Three cohorts, countless adventures
In 2024, Shape Accelerator ran one programme, followed by two parallel programmes in 2025, enabling creative start-ups from across Europe to take an important new step forward.
The first cohort kicked off in Amsterdam and wrapped up with its Demo Day in Vienna during the CultTech Summit 2025, bringing together investors, partners, and leading voices in the creative economy. The second cohort launched in Bologna and concluded during its Demo Day at the We are French Touch Conference in Paris, promoting regional innovation and cross-border collaboration.
Together, these two programmes supported 48 creative and cultural startups from 20+ European countries, representing fields from fashion tech to cultural heritage, architecture, gaming and audiovisual media. Over the course of the programme, participants received investment-readiness training, expert mentorship and tailored business support, resulting in stronger value propositions, clearer growth strategies and dozens of new partnerships emerging across Europe’s creative ecosystem.
Several of these startups are already demonstrating significant impact, having secured investments, pilot collaborations and industry recognition.