Keywords: networking

Main users: Wider community

Level 11 connects progressive Estonian corporations with Estonian startups to encourage joint innovation initiatives. 80 corporations and 70 start-ups were engaged in resulting in innovation events, 1:1-matchmaking, innovation audits, company visits and an Innovation Leaders' Club.

The purpose of Level 11 was to bring the two perceivably opposing sides closer to each other, to help them understand their counterpart better, see collaboration opportunities instead of obstacles, find ways to work for win-win solutions, help translate their needs and solutions to each other and end up in joint development projects.

In Estonia, Level 11 was the only programme of its kind to target startup-corporate cooperation, which had previously been characterised more by confrontation between the traditional companies and startups. Its uniqueness was in providing successful mediation, with Level 11 acting as interpreter to explain the opposing expectations to the other party and find solutions, mixing knowledge sharing and raising awareness, networking, hands-on practical events (workshops, seminars) and mentored acceleration for product testing and development.

Level 11 brought together Estonian startups with large corporations (minimum size of 50 employees and 10m Euros), with 500+ attendees from 300+ organisations participating in 25 events over two years. On top of that, 47 facilitated one-on-one matchmaking meetings took place and 8 joint R&D projects were developed and accelerated. Level11 supported companies during the negotiation phase and also helped to put together collaborative frameworks. The Level 11 site provided interesting articles during the project and also launched a marketplace where both large companies and startups were able to upload their offers. The programme has created a unique community in Estonia, bringing together the innovation leaders of large enterprises, for whom the park organises exciting seminars and opportunities to peek behind the scenes of innovative Estonian enterprises. As some of the programme activities were open to public, innovation enthusiasts in the wider community could benefit too. A unique Innovation Leaders"" Club was also established in Estonia to provide an opportunity for those responsible for innovation and development in organizations to exchange experiences, develop new knowledge and develop a culture of cooperation with start-ups. It helped large companies to examine their processes and rules, and make them more flexible to involve partners as well as think about how to find, validate, and speed up decision-making processes. Startups also learned a lot about the processes and pains of a big company in order to target those problems with their product or technology.