Startup Academy
The Startup Academy is a 10-week programme designed to help early-stage businesses in Guernsey go from idea to market.
The programme is led by Blenheim Chalcot’s Red Team, who will share their knowledge and expertise with you such as, discovering customer insights, navigating unit economics and innovative business models. It is specifically designed to immerse entrepreneurs in developing their ventures, through a range of structured sessions and workshops.
Gain insider know-how, tips, tricks and essential elements to go from idea to market, and build connections with fellow cohort members for a lasting business network to drive you and your business forward!
The Startup Academy was made possible by the SMART Guernsey partnership, powered by Agilisys.
Session Topic |
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Startup Academy 2025 kick-off event |
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Session 1: What Is a Great Business? |
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Session 2: Discovering Customer Pains |
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Session 3: Nail it then Scale it Part 1 |
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Session 4: Nail it then Scale it Part 2 |
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Session 5: Nail it then Scale it Part 3 |
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Session 6: Early Unit Economics |
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Session 7: Business Model Innovation Part 1 |
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Session 8: Business Model Innovation Part 2 |
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Session 9: How to Present a Business Case |
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Presentation Evening |
Please register your interest for the next Startup Academy below.
What to expect from the 10 weeks
The Statup Academy consists of a series of workshops and sessions covering the following topics:
What Is a Great Business?
Participants will look into good examples of what could be considered great businesses using case studies from Blenheim Chalcot and the metrics by which great businesses are judged and how they have changed over the last year or so. This session provides a great opportunity to take an updated look at the business landscape.
Discovering Customer Pains
The focus of this session is how to effectively extract valuable information from customers about their pains when interacting with your business. Participants will learn that success might depend on not listening to what customers say they need, how to understand what’s important in user interviews (the five whys) and how to map qualitative data to identify opportunities for innovation.
Nail It then Scale It
This topic spans three sessions and looks at how to identify a valuable problem to solve, recognise product market fit, and develop and test a "Big Idea Hypothesis." Participants will learn how to make informed decisions and avoid wasting resources in their pursuit of success. We’ll also dive into prototype and solution testing before looking deeply at go-to-market strategy.
Early Unit Economics
This training will provide a deep dive into Unit Economics. We’ll focus on why Unit Economics matters and become familiar with the terms and metrics within this topic. We’ll look at how Unit Economics relates to both B2C SaaS (LTV / CAC, CAC Payback and Contribution Margins) and smaller B2B businesses, while also considering key growth metrics.
Business Model Innovation
In these sessions, participants will understand the key elements of a business model and how they relate to one another. Using the business model canvas, participants will begin to deeply analyse how their current business models work while maintaining optionality, together with learning how and why business models can be a powerful source of disruption.
They will consider whether technical innovation can be more powerful than business model innovation, before looking at some examples of how Blenheim Chalcot businesses have innovated their business models and the kind of outputs of a business model that would appeal to a growth investor and the tools necessary for business model innovation.
How to Present a Business Case
This final session focuses on learning the fundamentals of building a business case, including types, scales and considerations from both CEO and senior manager perspectives. Participants will gain knowledge of the importance of reporting and tracking mechanisms for successful operational plans.
Who's it for?
This kick-start programme is specifically designed for early-stage, high-growth businesses in Guernsey with scale ambition! If you are starting or have recently started your venture and are looking to scale, this programme is for you.
The information below specifies the application criteria for the academy:
- Applicants must be residents of Guernsey
- The applicant’s business must be looking to scale with growth ambitions for 2025.
- Applications can be from any sector or business type.
- Each application is allocated two participant spaces on the programme. If you have a business partner or team member who would like to take part in the Startup Academy programme with you, you must fill in their details when applying.
If you are unsure if your business qualifies for this programme or if this is the right level for the current stage of development, please email info@digitalgreenhouse.gg or call 01481 701010 for further advice.