The main project result - a new service to facilitate investment readiness utilizing a new webtool for checking the SME’s and start-up’s readiness to pitch and proposing an action plan for improvements was fully implemented. A new, user-friendly web tool was created for SMEs and start-ups. Together with this tool, in order to make it more useful consultancy services were developed, to help the SMEs, start-ups and other interested parties to use InReady tool. The consultants’ role was developed to assist the start-ups and SMEs with all the activities connected with the InReady tool: to answer all the questions on using the InReady tool, to explain the results of InReady tool session, to advice on further steps to improve the results, to prepare for the pitch better. Comparing with similar solutions, the added value of InReady tool is consultancy services that were developed to help the SMEs, start-ups and other interested parties to use InReady tool. The analogues in the market don’t have the integrated support of the consultancy services, are focused more for individual improving. Without professional help young companies often interpret the information not completely correctly.
The developed investment readiness tool and the results from the randomized control trials were communicated to important multipliers and stakeholders (Innovation agencies from project partners countries; Enterprise Europe Network; other relevant National and European stakeholders such as business incubators and accelerators; Competent national and regional agencies) interested in new support services for SMEs and start-ups. The dissemination and communication activities of project results helped project partners to encourage others organizations to join the innovation ecosystem. The innovation agencies that started to use the new developed tool with the SMEs and start-ups they support, will have the possibility to provide better services helping companies to achieve better results in pitching.
During the project implementation project partners identified the additional features that should be included scaling-up the prototype of InReady tool to answer to the various companies’ needs. Now the tool is more useful for the start-ups that have no previous experience with preparing a pitch of their product/services and less useful for companies that have already previous experience with pitches. In order to have a platform that is considered useful for all companies, the tool should include such additional features as, e.g: automatic evaluation of project data using artificial intelligence technologies, benchmarking, the better functionality of the automatic files generator, multi – language. The scaling-up of the InReady tool with additional features will more answer to the various companies’ needs and help start-ups achieve better results in pitching, save their time and cost.
