ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR EQUALITY PROGRAMME
Design and delivery of an acceleration programme to promote and support business projects that advance equal opportunities.
Title: Entrepreneurship for Equality Programme
Client: Directorate-General for Equality – Regional Ministry for Family, Youth and Social Policy, Community of Madrid
Project duration: 2023-2024
Web: https://www.programaemprendimientoenigualdad-cam.com/
DESCRIPTION
The Community of Madrid, through its Directorate-General for Equality, launched an acceleration programme to promote equal opportunities between women and men in the field of entrepreneurship. To this end, it entrusted Cink Venturing with the design, development and delivery of the first edition of the Entrepreneurship for Equality Programme.
This initiative provided specific resources and tools to support participating entrepreneurs, helping them drive the growth and consolidation of their projects.
Cink Venturing designed a comprehensive plan covering the entire journey: from outreach and analysis of applications to the organisation of training activities, personalised mentoring and dissemination through events and digital channels.
OPPORTUNITY
The main challenge was to establish a benchmark programme on entrepreneurship with a strong equality focus, while meeting all the requirements defined to ensure proper delivery and measurable results.
To achieve this, an initial eight-week project recruitment phase was planned, followed by several months of specialised training and a final event where the accelerated projects were presented publicly.
The specific objectives of the programme were to:
Identify and select candidate projects that met the established criteria, with a total of six finalist initiatives to take part in the programme.
Develop a structured training pathway comprising training sessions, one-to-one mentoring, in-person events and strategic advisory support.
Improve the competitiveness and viability of the selected projects.
Position the Community of Madrid as a reference in policies that promote entrepreneurship with a gender equality perspective.
METHODOLOGY
1. Outreach phase
Given the specific nature of the call, an active eight-week outreach campaign was designed to identify viable projects that met the programme’s requirements.
Key actions included:
Creation of a dedicated informative microsite for programme dissemination and application submissions.
Dissemination of content via Cink Venturing’s corporate channels.
Presence in specialised media and digital platforms to reach potential entrepreneurs.
2. Participant selection and launch
During the application period, 17 proposals were received. After analysis, 15 projects that met the criteria were pre-selected, and finally 6 projects were chosen to take part in the acceleration programme.
The launch of the programme was officially announced at a press conference, attended by institutional representatives, media outlets and key stakeholders from the Madrid entrepreneurship ecosystem.
3. Programme delivery
The six selected projects went through an intensive acceleration phase that included:
Specialised training.
Personalised mentoring, adapted to the needs of each project.
Networking and community-building sessions.
Throughout this period, workshops, meetings with experts, analysis of success stories, visibility sessions for the initiatives and advisory support on funding were organised. The process concluded with the participation of the projects in a Demo Day as the official closing of the programme.
4. Presentation of results
The Demo Day served as the programme’s final event, where participating projects presented their proposals and progress in front of various stakeholders from the innovation ecosystem of the Community of Madrid.
The event was covered by the media and shared on social networks, reinforcing the visibility of the programme and its impact.
After completion, Cink Venturing produced a results report confirming the positive evolution of the participants, as well as the client’s high level of satisfaction with the outcomes achieved.
IMPACT
The indicators from this first edition reflect active participation and a very positive assessment of the initiatives supported. Key figures include:
17 projects submitted, with 6 selected for the acceleration phase.
24 hours of specialised online mentoring and 20 hours of in-person training.
Organisation of networking and community-building sessions for entrepreneurs.
Project presentation events and a final Demo Day.
Wide visibility for the initiatives in the media and on social networks.
