As Innovative as Our Network: The New Catapult Program
Published September 5, 2023 by pgalums in
The new Catapult program strives to benefit three key stakeholder groups: PGAN-led startups, PGAN-investors, and PGAN-experts. The program leverages complementarities between these three groups to maximize the net value that is collectively generated.
In today’s article, we will focus on the value created for PGAN-led startups.
Procter & Gamble is renowned for hiring high-caliber talent. So, it is not surprising that a subset of P&G alumni go on to create exciting new startups.
However, building a winning startup is hard and more than half of startups fail. What are the primary causes of these failures? Two recurring reasons are access to funding and the lack of industry and/or operational experience. The new Catapult program aims to address both challenges.
Through the new program, an annual cohort of twenty-five alumni-led startups will be selected for participation in pre-funding clinics geared towards mastering the prerequisites for fundraising success. At the end of the clinic, each startup will have an in-depth understanding of what is required to attract and engage potential investors.
Moreover, the top three startups in the yearly cohort will receive additional hands-on support with pitch deck preparation, business plan assessment, financial modeling, risk evaluation, and other topics that potential investors focus on. At the end of the process, the startups will launch their first fundraising campaign.
However, successfully raising capital is by no means the end of the startup’s journey. In our next two articles, we will reveal how the PGAN experts and PGAN investors fit into this shared value-creation journey.
Stay tuned.