New course for incubator coaches and startups - December 2025
The first FDS course starts 1–2 December 2025 in the Gothenburg area.
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Max 15 participants per course.
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Once full, you may join the waiting list.
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Incubator coaches are prioritized if demand exceeds availability.
More course dates and locations will follow in 2026, depending on demand. Registration closes when the first 15 participants are registered. If you did not get into a course, there is a waiting list, which we contact when new FDS courses are scheduled.
Format: Two-Day Intensive
Most startup professionals can only step away from their work for two days.
That’s why FDS is designed as a two-day intensive course – each day upwards of 8 hours.
The FDS course was tested by GU Ventures and affiliated incubators during a six-month trial. The content was selected on the basis of: what are the most important things to know about startup financing, that we can cram into two days. 70% of the original content did not fit within these days, and was saved for later. If FDS had been offered as a university course, it would have been run over a semester rather than two days.
New course for incubator coaches and startups – December 2025
Courses
Day 1: Startup Journey & Venture Design
Most startups fail in doing their homework and developing a plan for success. Without a solid foundation you limit your options in financial design, since you just don’t know enough and do not understand your options. In this work, we will use the Venture Docs methodology, developed over a decade at the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship and tested to work well for dozens of startups starting with only an idea. Topics: - Phases of a startup’s journey. - Challenges in each phase. - Swedish ecosystem's unique conditions. - Proven best practices in formulating and validating startups' Value Proposition, Business Model Canvas, Minimum Viable Product, Go-to-Market, Impact Assessment, Talent Development and Finance Plan. - Tips and tricks for robust and winning Pitch Decks. - Reasons most startups fail, and what can be done to avoid these traps. - Final test - are you ready to do a financing round? .
Day 2: Financing & Negotiation
Exits are covered in-depth in providing an understanding of the exit process, preparing for exit and prospering post-exit. We go over the most common reasons that startups fail, and how to avoid these mistakes, and how to formulate an Owner’s Agenda that aligns the founding team. Finally, we go over negotiation theory, how to employ this in practice and tips for developing negotiation skills. To round things off, we do a Q&A to go over the covered content and see if anything needs further explaining. If any time is left, we talk about whatever participants want to ask about in the Q&A. Topics: - Funding players and sources. - Strategies from early stage to exit. - Investor strategies (and counters). - Exit process: prepare, execute, prosper. - Owner’s Agenda & team alignment. - Negotiation theory & skills. - Final Q&A with open discussion.