We wrapped up the second edition of the Pre-Explore program with our partner, Teknoloji Yatirim last Fall, and we couldn’t have been more pleased.

The Pre-Explore Program, launched in 2019 by ERA Global in New York and Teknoloji Yatirim in Ankara, was primarily intended to provide valuable insights to Turkish startups and scaleups, interested in unlocking and expanding into the U.S. market. Companies attended the program at our New York offices. Fast forward to 2020: COVID-19 became our new normal, and we moved Pre-Explore online. We created a fully immersive six-week program. It was an intensive, high-impact, hands-on educational initiative combining live video advisory discussions with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, weekly workshops, one-on-one office hours, mentoring hours, and follow-up assignments.

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The five participants were: 

• ARt Labs, a 'no-coding' 3D&AR platform for eCommerce 
• CaptureFast, a SaaS-based data capture & extraction platform for the financial, legal and insurance industries
• Masraff, a SaaS-based expense management software powered by AI)
• Optiyol, a route optimisation for the freight and logistics industry
• Robomotion, a web-based Robotic Process Automation platform to help companies automate manual tasks).

In six weeks, the companies attended 12 workshops covering a variety of major topics: Business, Fundraising and Administrative/Logistics. Workshops included topics such as “Overview of the B2B / Enterprise Sales process in the US”, “Navigating the fundraising landscape with US investors” or “Setting up a US market strategy: hiring, accounting/operations tools and incorporation”.

Each week, the startups participated in a pitch practice, where they honed their content and delivery skills with the Global team and investor/expert guests. Industry pros from Fortune 500 companies and investors from New York and around the globe also dropped in with valuable feedback.

When joining the program, each company was assigned a lead mentor, acting as a primary advisor and support. Companies also worked with a group of experts carefully curated from the ERA pool of 500+ mentors to track KPIs and hit their milestones. The program closed with a virtual pitch event, where the founders shared their company presentations with an audience of American and global investors, corporates and industry experts.

Through the program, the companies made tangible progress on different areas: some pivoted their existing business model for the US market by developing specific aspects of their products, by targeting different industries/verticals and discovering new ideal customer profiles. Today, the companies are all looking to raise money in the US. With the support of ERA Global, they will gain access to a larger pool of strategic partners & investors crucial to close the next round of financing in the upcoming months.

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If you are interested in learning more about and/or working with ERA Global, please reach out: partners@eranycglobal.com