Introduction: VALEU-X Incubator

Hello future entrepreneurs and founders! This summer is your chance to become a successful entrepreneur. You have probably heard about the competition Albania's next Unicorn? In this contest, you as a young team of international founders, will present your business idea on the 15th of June 2022. The best Startups will be supported with 50.000€ equity-free money.

Within the framework of the VALEU-X project you and your team have been chosen to participate at the VALEU-X incubator. The incubator is a 6-week program that helps you to develop your business idea into a successful founding of your Startup. Another goal of the Value-X incubator is to prepare you for the Albania's next Unicorn pitch contest that will take place on the 15th of June 2022.

Eight experts from universities located in Albania, Slovenia and Germany are leading the Value-X incubator. They provide you with a wide range of methods for finding your business idea or to choose the right funding for your Startup. During these six weeks of the Value-X incubator you will get different tasks to hand in to the experts. This will prepare you sufficiently for your final pitch, to become Albania's next Unicorn.

Your team is assigned to an e-Tutor. You can contact your e-Tutor for further questions via MS Teams.

When you start working with a new team, it may take some time to find a common working ground. For this purpose, we have prepared a little exercise for your group. Your teams' task for this week is to create a group agreement. A group agreement is a document, which describes the premises for the group work as agreed upon by the team. It gives a great foundation for further work, as it clearly states how the team is going to collaborate. To create a group agreement, each team member must reflect on the following questions:

• What do you want to achieve in this course? (A good grade? Perfect results? Learning experience? Fun online? Socializing?, […])
• How much time are you willing to invest? (Daily, Weekly)
• When will you be available for your teammates? (Are there dates when you will be away? Are there days/times when you are most likely to be online?)
• What communication tools do you know? (Are there tools you prefer? Special skills in using tools that are useful for the project? Tools you do not want to or cannot use?)
• How do you prefer to collaborate? (Strong task division? Intensive collaboration? Consensus agreements? Majority votes?)
• Are there rules of communication and culture that are important to you? (How to deal with problems? How would you like to be called?[…]?
• How to achievea common understanding of the group processes?
• Which team member fills in which individual role?

Workload: 2 pages maximum (concentrate on crucial points). Submit your group agreement by the deadline in your group's “files” section and inform the e-Tutor about your submission.To support you the first deadline will be Tuesday, May 10th at 20:00. Make sure to inform your E-Tutor about the submission.

Format:PDF file

Make sure to get to know the other group members and start communicating with them.The MS Teams Channel is the virtual workplace of your team for the coming few weeks, so get as comfortable as you canandexplore each corner of the virtual space.Be open for questions and requests from other group members and do not hesitate to ask them about issues that could strengthen your team connection. Have a look at the additionally provided material and links to improve your skills in MS Teams to ensure a competent handling of the platform.

Workload: Individual, use the time to get familiar with your team and the platform

Tutorials for the work with MS Teams:

First steps in Microsoft Teams:Video Tutorials

Additional Information: Tutorial walkthrough

Contact your e-Tutor(s) and arrange the first meeting to introduce yourself and your group. Schedule approximately10 -15 minutes for the meeting. Agree in the group on 2 or 3 possible dates and suggest them to your e-Tutor(s) to find a common date. Use the tools on the platform to get in touch with your e-Tutor. Use the first meeting to clarify the following and other questions:

• Take the opportunity to match your expectations with the e-Tutor regarding feedback and support
• Conduct a short round of introductions
• Do you have any further questions for your E-tutor?