ACIE Global Accelerator is a Lebanese online accelerator program initiated at USEK with American affiliations. It supports student and faculty entrepreneurs from various universities and provides them with hope and opportunities during these dire and challenging times. The program is built around:
- 8-week online intensive trainings, workshops and mentoring sessions
- Fast-tracking the development and growth of early-stage ideas to market
- Global strong affiliations mostly with the USA through connections with high-level experts, corporates, academic institutions and entrepreneurial ecosystems in various cities
This intercollegiate program is sector agnostic and limited to 10 of the brightest teams.
USEK will receive a 2% success fee* from the accepted startups in exchange for the services offered during and after the accelerator program.
*Terms and conditions apply
Deadline: June 27
What We Offer
By joining the ACIE Global Accelerator, you get access to the following:
Workshops
Attend more than 15 training sessions and workshops
Talks
Engage with industry leaders on latest market trends and technologies
Mentoring
Interact with a lead mentor during the course of the program in addition to various mentors in different fields and industries
USEK Labs
Progress with your product development by accessing the USEK labs and resources
Experts
Connect with industry experts to deepen your knowledge in various areas and topics
Investment
Pitch your startup in front of the investment and advisory board for startups chaired by Mr. Carlos Ghosn
Who is this Program for?
ACIE Global Accelerator welcomes undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students and faculty members looking to accelerate the development of their ventures. Applicants should be multidisciplinary teams working on the validation of their ideas, the development of their prototypes/MVPs or having a product and are striving to enter the market.
Program Schedule
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Application Deadline | June 27, 2021 |
| Accelerator Start | July 8, 2021 |
| Introduction | Week 1 |
| Marketing Fundamentals | Week 2 |
| Organic Marketing | Week 3 |
| Sales & Biz dev | Week 4 |
| Product development | Week 5 |
| Finances, Legal & Team management | Week 6 |
| Monetization & fundraising | Week 7 |
| Pitch preparation | Week 8 |
| End of Program/Pitch Day | August 30, 2021 |
Meet our Team
Trainers
Anthony J. Asher began his career working at a title agency while Read More
Raja Abdallah is a mechanical engineering, computer scienceRead More
Hanadi is a strategic leader with a track record of delivering Read More
Technology Innovation Entrepreneur and Technologist with over 23 years’Read More
As a Product Manager at Google, Sami Torbey is building a Read More
Marc is passionate about helping clients in delivering shareholder value through deals, including realizing new revenue generation and cost savings, while protecting core value. He has advised corporate and private equity clients on over 50 deals in M&A diligences, integrations and divestitures.
Prior to PwC, Marc was a member of McKinsey’s Technology Accelerator practice. He has built businesses from the ground up and has co-founded and sold two internet ventures. He frequently publishes papers on M&A in the Technology sector, is a regular speaker at conferences, and organizes round table events for Corporate Development Integration leaders.
Marc is an advocate of community services and regularly volunteers for youth education. He sits on the Board of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and leads its Innovation Committee. He has worked in Venture Philanthropy launching education and health focused initiatives and is now publishing a paper on the benefits of technology in education.
He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Management in Accounting and Finance from McGill University.
Founder Entreprenergy, the largest community of EntrepreneursRead More
Since 2008, visited 20 countries as a Motivational Speaker and Trainer empowering aspiring entrepreneurs, to start their business using the Lean Methodology and bootstrapping strategies. (More than a thousand entrepreneur joined The Entrepreneurial Growth Series on www.100Days.email)
Founder and CEO of Digital Smarter, a company specialized in Customer Acquisition using Digital Marketing strategies, operating in Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Canada. We help coaches, consultants and service providers to increase their sales by 20% in the first 3 months with a double bulletproof guarantee.
Trainer and consultant in Business Growth and Scaling Strategies.
Mourad Aoun is the Chairman and CEO of The Net Group. Under his leadership, Read More
Besides, Mourad has been the president of the Air Express Association in Lebanon (AXAL) since 2002. He is also a member of the board of the Lebanese Businessmen Association (RDCL) and SkyNet Worldwide Express Global Board of Directors since 2007.
www.thenet.group
Dr. Azad teaches in OSB’s Executive MBA, Executive Education and MBA programs. Bijan pioneered the popular experiential Startup Acceleration Practicum graduate course at AUB (modeled after Steve Blank’s Lean LaunchPad). In 2016 he designed AUB’s Scale-Up Readiness Program that focuses on overcoming scale-up challenges of companies wanting to exceed $5 million revenue—supported in part by USAID. Bijan is also very active in the startup ecosystem serving as bootcamp mentor/instructor at Flat6Labs and SPEED accelerator, also as a mentor at the IM-Capital MIT Venture Mentoring Service. Bijan, in 1988 was co-founder of a successful map technology startup in Cambridge, Massachusetts, GIS/Trans, was acquired later by Google Maps. In 2001 he co-founded another successful map technology startup International Land Information Systems bv (acquired by ARCADIS bv 2003), in Arnhem, Netherlands.
Richard spent more than 24 years in helping local,Read More
commercial sides to navigate complexity with curiosity, rigor, and creativity.
His starting point revolves around uncovering insights, trends, business challenges and opportunities, thinking through
strategies, developing and deploying optimal omnichannel 360 solutions that deliver on measurable business goals. He is
here to generate ideas to create behavior changing engagements that inspire people to bond with clients’ brands and drive
brand and category growth by understanding and accelerating the Purchase Decision Journey. His task is to bring growth and
healthy business outcomes for clients and help them evolve their business to reap the fruits in our digitally transforming world
Working daily with leaders in multinationalRead More
A proven and tested approach from over 45 years of rigorous research and analysis.
Licensed tutor in delivering negotiation skills training and consultancy.
Mentors
Co-Founder of CITIES FORUM and Jardins D’EDENRead More
Veteran in the world of hedge fund risk management.Read More
Victor is a Business Mentor with a wide Network of Read More
MIT graduate with more than 25 years in innovationRead More
Gérard Bridi is an executive with over 38 years of experienceRead More
At his last venture, Gérard created a digital nutritional platform where an ecosystem of stakeholders from different industries ( payers, employers, consumer goods, growers, associations, not for profits…) came together to help consumers become more aware of food purchases quality and their impact on health outcomes.
Gérard has served on board of directors of various groups including Group purchase organizations, Trade associations and is currently an adviser to start ups.
Gérard holds a Master of Science from the University of Montpellier (France)
Gérard lives in Newton MA with his family.
Arthur Bizdikian, an AUB alumnus, is the CEO Read More
Sabah Corm is a proactive strategist and entrepreneur Read More
With over 20 years of marketing and business strategy experience with large multinational hi-tech and IT companies in the MEA region, Sabah is also a founding member of the WIT (Women in IT) organization in Lebanon for the emancipation of women in the IT field and to support women in their field through the use of technology and a founding member of ISOC (Internet Society), Lebanon Chapter.
Sabah switched to entrepreneurship in 2018 and is the founder of RiginO, a CLOUD solution (SaaS) for agro-food traceability in order to provide transparency and trust into the food we consume every day. She herself went through the Agrytech Acceleration Program to bring her idea to life. And today she brings her personal experience to startups and SMEs that she enjoys coaching, mentoring and advising helping them take their idea / business and mindset to the next-level.
When Sabah is not working, she is just busy with her family. Her role of a mother is her main success in life and the source of her content. Now that her children are older, she measures her success by the bright in their eyes when they say “Proud of you mom”.
FAQ:
The presentation is not mandatory to consider the application for selection. However, teams with solid presentation or explanatory videos have better chances to communicate their project.
Teams are requested to commit their attendance during all trainings and workshops to optimize their learning for the best interest of their ventures.
ACIE Accelerate will make available all its resources such as trainers, mentors, experts and lab access upon request to ensure the teams are meeting their growth milestone.
There is no legal liability if a team withdraw from the program at any moment. However, the resources and program networks will no longer be provided to the team leaving the program.
Being a solo applicant is not a disqualifying criterion. However, multidisciplinary ventures have better chances to accelerate the development of their projects and get funded.
Multiple ideas are always welcome in separate applications. Yes, we encourage you to fill your different ideas in different applications.
Applications are reviewed by industry and business experts and seasoned entrepreneurs from the ACIE network.
The potential of the venture is in the potential of its founders who can transform their brilliant ideas into successful businesses.
Business Community Partner
Have a Question
Contact us at acie@usek.edu.lb or call us on +961 9 600 827