My name is Kaspar Hansen and I am the founder and CEO at Excelerate.

I am looking for a co-founder/partner to take on the responsibility of all things commercial, with the primary focus on Sales and Revenue, as well as being a part of the general management team and building out the sales team.  

Highlights so far

• Softfunding in 2020: 500k

• We made our first sale here in December 2021; 250k in the books.

• +700 students on the platform, as of May 2022

• +35 companies (Novozymes and Chr Hansen are among the big ones), as of May 2022

• Agreement with ITU Computer Science department on thesis collaboration support for 200 students in September 2022.

  
  

The near future

Very soon, in Q1 2023, we will start our pre-seed funding round - we are aiming for 2.5-4m DKK and as a result of that pre-seed round, we will be able to scale up on multiple parameters.

What we do

Excelerate has developed a pre-recruiting platform where companies can pick out university students for a thesis collaboration and subsequently hire the best ones.

A bit more detailed

Before founding Excelerate I did some research; I asked +100 students a series of questions and of those questions gave the answer that 95% of all the students would love to write their thesis with a company. In reality, just 20% of students write their thesis with a company. So the desire or demand is there.

I have since then talked to more than +100 companies, and most of them actually do take on thesis students. But they lack the proper structure to use 'thesis collaborations' as an HR / Recruitment channel. I am truly convinced that we can do it and be the solution to that issue and if we nail that, then we are in a great spot to be the first of a kind platform to provide this recruitment channel.

Let's dream big for a second

There are 42.000 students who graduate in Denmark yearly - 160.000 in Scandinavia. We are not relevant for all, but I would estimate about 80%. That's 128.000 yearly. Imagine if we succeed and actually make a difference for these people. A thesis collaboration with the right company could mean:

Increase employability which is great on so many levels both personally and for companies and the society as a whole.

So what do we sell? 

We have built a platform where students can list their thesis topic and companies can find the right student group for the perfect thesis collaboration. We charge companies a subscription fee which allows them to contact and offer the students a thesis collaboration.

On the supply side we have the students and the two main USPs are;

• Students want to finish strong.

• The pain relief we offer to students is the pill called 'anti-unemployment'. By using Excelerate as a student you increase the chance that you get a thesis collaboration with a relevant company within your field of interest. Writing your thesis with a company is regarded, together with a study job, as the most significant factor in landing a relevant job after graduation. 

On the demand side are the companies and the main USPs are;

• Talent Lead Generation

  • All companies are looking for talent. Everybody would like to attract the best and the brightest, but it is time consuming and it takes a lot of effort to be top-of-mind and ever present on the universities. Excelerate is the shortcut to skip the recruiting competition after they graduate.  

• De-risking the chance of a bad hire

  • After the 3-4 month collaboration, the company should have a solid understanding of who to hire and who not to hire. Ultimately we make the hiring manager look good towards their managers. By increasing the number of good hires they make.

• Innovation

  • Students bring innovation, new thoughts etc. But what is special about Excelerate is that it is the students who create owns the thesis topic and not the company who creates an ‘assignment’. 

We are currently focusing on the following areas; Software development, Data Science, Design UI/UX, Marketing, Communication, Law, HR, Accounting and Finance. We expect to have about 1000 students signup on the platform from IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), Copenhagen University (KU) and Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in 2022. 

The team

We are a small team - currently, 5people; 1 founder, 2 developers (external) and 2 students. Working at a co-working space located in Copenhagen. 

I am looking to build the ideal founder team to make Excelerate take off. In my world that consists of 3 pieces:

• A growth person who is great at marketing for very few $, he will be responsible for the 'student' side of the platform. I have already found this guy. He is currently working in another company, but once the founder team is complete he will make the transition.

• A commercial, sales, revenue person - you ? who will be responsible for the 'company' side of the platform. Below is a more detailed description.

• Myself, I am the product / idea / visionary guy who can make it happen.

The commercial profile

The next natural step for Excelerate is to scale up in a few areas but the most important part is commercial.

Danish or International speaking - of course mastering the danish language is helpful, but I do not believe it will a hindrance for this type of job.

We need a dedicated person who is ready to take charge of sales and revenue - that profile can have many backgrounds, but there are some common trades I would like to see: 

• A true networker

• Type of person who other people just like straight away

• Not afraid to 'take the stage'

• A fountain of positive energy

• Highly self-driven

• 100% dedication

You will be the only one in the sales department for a while, which means you will need to go out and get dirty. The aspiration however is that we will, with time, built a sales team around you.

I HIGHLY believe in personality over experience, but experience within the following is a great advantage:

• HR

• Sales

• Account Management

• Startup-life

The ideal person would probably have some experience in the above-mentioned areas, but if you do not - but believe you are the right person, please don't hesitate to write - show me why I should choose you over the others.

Yes, I am not going to write 'only people with 25 years of experience should apply as I personally do not believe that the 'best candidate' can be defined that way. Energy and Personality goes a long way.

There are two requirements

• We work out of the office in Copenhagen, not remote (yes we have remote days where we work from home, but in general we work from the office - when you are not on the road)

• Capital to buy your equity in the company, more on that later.

  
  

What we need you to own

We are a small team and therefore you will need to be both the thinker and the doer.

Cold calling, Lead building, Network utilizing, Setup processes, Building a sales funnel, building the sales team, Event attending and networking networking networking :) Whatever it takes to get the startup off the ground right?

You will be responsible for setting up the sales department from the ground up, you will be leading it as it grows and ultimately you will be responsible for the revenue generated.

As a partner / co-founder, you will be a part of the management team setting the direction for the company.

Our offering

Let’s get down to business. We are not in a position to splash a whole lot of cash right now -  unfortunately, so if you are chasing that fat paycheck right now, this is not the place. If, however, building a company almost from the start and owning a piece of that company, while getting a salary big enough to survive, until we at a late time can allow for a better salary - and eventually, sell the company and hit that big pay-day sounds more appealing then please read on :) What we can offer is:

• Salary enough to survive - Ideally, you have enough money to survive until our next founding round in Q1 2023 (If not, do not let it be a blocker, maybe we can find a way - we do have cash, I would just rather spend it on acquisition)

• Equity, the size I will sell is depending on what you bring to the table, your commitment and profile etc. All sorts of deals can be made when purchasing equity. My general approach is that I would rather own a small piece of something big than a large piece of something small.

• Tons of fun :)

  
  

The Timeline

In the ideal world, you would be able to join.. now, but in the real world, this stuff takes time.

Thanks for reading this far :)

Other info

Website : www.excelerate.careers

My Linkedin profile : https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasparhansen/