This summer, Lake Nona will welcome entrepreneurs in sports and health tech to a first-of-its-kind accelerator program in partnership with leAD Sports, a Berlin-based sports venture company inspired by the founder of Adidas, Adi Dassler.
Just last year, leAD Sport’s Berlin accelerator helped seven start-ups take their companies from idea to market. In Lake Nona, the accelerator will join a community of resources for entrepreneurs, including GuideWell Innovation Center’s Garage, where budding businesses have access to advanced technologies like 3D printing and digital prototyping software.
Early on, leAD Sports knew it wanted to expand to the U.S. and started looking for the right location and partner that could provide a supportive ecosystem for the start-ups to thrive. In Lake Nona, the leAD team found a community built on innovation, where entrepreneurs could dream big and test their solutions in a real-life environment while also leveraging our community’s exclusive Verizon 5G broadband capacity.
The six-month accelerator program, known as the leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator, will be located in the new Pixon MS2 innovation space. Located on the ground floor of Pixon Apartments, the 16,000-square-foot Pixon MS2 will provide a variety of different programs and resources to support tech start-ups, in addition to being home of the leAD Lake Nona accelerator.
The program will focus on bringing in start-ups working on “future of living” solutions covering three areas: sports and health tech, smart cities, and the future of nutrition. From an onsite network of experts and mentors to strategic partnerships and investment opportunities, the accelerator is designed to help entrepreneurs bring their businesses to market. Following the accelerator, companies can stay local to take advantage of Lake Nona’s living lab and all of Central Florida’s entrepreneurial resources, designed to support their growing businesses.
In this Q&A, the leAD team shares their vision for the accelerator in Lake Nona.
Lake Nona: How is this accelerator program in Lake Nona different from the program in Berlin?
Program and Marketing Director Nathalie Sonne: “Entrepreneurs in the U.S. are very advanced in terms of tech. They are very fast and think big with less fear of failing. In Germany, there is a sense that everything has to be perfect and well-tested before you launch it, which is the opposite of the start-up culture. In the U.S., there is no stigma if you fail because it’s what you do when you’re an entrepreneur – you learn and do better next time.
“In Lake Nona, we’re looking for slightly more advanced start-ups than our Berlin program. We expect to see prototypes or functioning products in place, even if they are not on the market yet.”
LN: What does being in Lake Nona bring to the accelerator?
Investment Manager Aaron Naisar: “Lake Nona offers start-ups a unique testing ground where they can experiment with their products in a real-life environment and get feedback from the community.
“The focus of the whole program is on the start-ups because we want to provide them with the right ecosystem to thrive, build their product, and test it. Part of that ecosystem includes local partnerships and mentors. We want to give our U.S. partners an opportunity to expand their networks and investment strategies through the work they do with the start-ups.”
LN: What does a partnership look like in the accelerator?
Partnerships Manager Ben Kerry: “The accelerator is all about the start-ups and finding the right partnerships that are going to help them rocket. Partnerships could take many different forms in the accelerator. For example, a smart stadium start-up or an on-field analytics start-up may want to partner with training facilities where they have access to the right environment to test their product.
“Partnerships could also be more like a mentorship where the start-up taps into the expertise and experience of the individuals within a business. For other partners, it could be about finding value in a start-up that is doing something innovative that they can invest in and have early access to. It’s a really unique opportunity.”
Interested in joining the accelerator? Visit www.leadsports.com/lake-nona-accelerator to learn more about the program. Applications are being accepted now through April 30, and the program is scheduled to begin this summer.
