LATVIAN STARTUP AWARDS 2024 METHODOLOGY

1. PROJECT OVERVIEW

Latvian Startup Awards is a public competition with objectives to showcase the best Latvian startups and their innovations, celebrate the achievements of local entrepreneurs, motivate the next generation of innovators, elevate the image of Latvian and its startups on the world stage, attract investment, and promote collaboration among all stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. Latvian Startup Awards celebrate most accomplished startups in eight (8) categories: Breakthrough, Newcomer, Scaleup, Impact, Digital, Hardware, Founder-Hero, Community Choice.

2. PURPOSE OF METHODOLOGY

3. KEY TERMS

- Organizers – Latvian Startup Association Startin.LV
- Startup – a capital company with a high growth potential the basic activity of which is related to the development, production or improvement of scalable business models and innovative products
- Nominee – a candidate for a specific award category who has submitted a valid application or provided information that fully covers evaluation criteria through direct communication with Organizers.
- Application – electronic form submitted for the award competition
- Jury – an expert group composed of startup ecosystem stakeholders, operating voluntarily.
- Criteria – characteristics by which the competition nominees are evaluated, a set of evaluation rules
- Shorlist/Finalsists – top-3 or top-5 startups of a category, chosen by the Jury.
- Winner – a nominee to whom the jury decides to award the Latvian Startup Award
- Award – a token of appreciation awarded to the winners

4. NOMINATION AND APPLICATION PHASE

4.1. From the moment the NOMINATION / APPLICATION phase is opened, Startups and other innovation ecosystem members will have a month to nominate someone or apply themselves. Organizers reserve the right to extend this phase as they see fit.

4.1.1. NOMINATION process is simple – all it requires is naming a Startup or founder for one or more awards and optionally (but recommended) – providing their contact information and a short reason behind the nomination.

4.1.2. APPLICATION process is more involved – each category has certain criteria that the jury will use during the evaluation process (see section 8), and Startups have to provide relevant information and data to the best of their ability.

4.2. Organizers reserve the right to get in touch with the nominants and applicants directly, in order to collect additional information.

4.3. Organizers reserve the right to gather information on the nominants and applicants from publicly available sources.

4.4. Not all categories are evaluated the same way. The FOUNDER-HERO category only needs to have a founder be nominated by someone for them to be a valid candidate (but they are invited to submit additional information through the application for the convenience of the jury). The COMMUNITY CHOICE category is going to open for public voting, and during this phase the preliminary list of popular Startups is populated based on nomination count.

4.5. After a month has passed, the public NOMINATION / APPLICATION ends, but nominated Startups still have a week to provide the information through the application form.

5. JURY EVALUATION PHASE

5.1. Jury – consisting of 5 members – is chosen from the Latvian startup ecosystem, covering as wide of a range of stakeholder types as possible. The composition is publicly announced before the nomination/application phase begins. The jury operates according to these regulations and the specified evaluation criteria for each category. The jury makes the final decision on the competition winners.

5.2. Once all of the information supporting Startup applications has been gathered, the Jury will evaluate the applications in three stages.

5.2.1. Stage 1 is validation – the Jury individually swiftly goes through the applications on a holistic level, voting on whether the companies are Startups compliant with methodology and whether they fit the award category. These votes are tallied and applications that don’t meet the threshold don’t continue further into the process.

5.2.2. Stage 2 is determining the finalists – the Jury examines the data provided by startups (and additional information gathered by Startin.LV) to determine the top 5 or top 3 startups for each category, based on how many valid applications have been submitted.

5.2.3. Stage 3 is determining the winner – the Jury discusses the merits of each finalist and chooses the winner for each category.

5.3. While performing their functions, the Jury must ensure the confidentiality of information related to their activities – not revealing the finalists and winners before they are announced by the Organizers; and not releasing publicly any data that Startups have provided for the evaluation process.

5.4. If a Jury member has a conflict of interest related to a nominee, they are required to inform the rest of the Jury and the Organizers about this fact.

5.5. Startups that made it to the finalists’ shortlist are announced before the ceremony. On September 8, the Latvian Startup Awards 2023 ceremony takes place after the Startup Day panel discussions and fireside chats. The ceremony starts with Special Prizes from Latvian startup ecosystem organizations, followed by the announcements of Startup Award category winners.

6. GENERAL EVALUATION CRITERIA

6.1. The startup has a high growth potential and innovation-driven business development.

6.2. The startup matches the description of the nomination.

6.3. The startup is operating primarily in Latvia.

6.4. The startup has a good reputation and business ethics.

7. OBLIGATIONS OF PARTICIPANTS AND COMPETITION ORGANIZERS

7.1. Participants commit to:
7.1.1. Use the title of “Latvian Startup Awards” nominee/winner, specifying the year in which the award was given; and visibly display the award and its symbol (sculpture) on social media and their office.

7.1.2. Allow Organizers to use the brand name and logo of their startup for any promotion of the “Latvian Startup Awards” competition and event.

7.1.3. When using information about the competition for publicity and advertising purposes, it is mandatory to mention the Organizers, the competition name – “Latvian Startup Awards” – and the year in which the award was given.

7.2. Competition Organizers commit to:
7.2.1. Announcing finalists on the competition page www.startupawrds.lv.

7.2.2. Publish information about finalists and winners on communication channels without prior notice or coordination.

7.2.3. Provide the physical Award to the winner at the award ceremony during Startup Day event.

8. EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR AWARDS CATEGORIES

8.1. BREAKTHROUGH
Description: Be it an exit, an investment, or whatever else that takes our breath away, this startup has recently experienced something truly BIG. Extraordinary even. And we want to celebrate this quantum leap with them.

Evaluation criteria:

1. Major investment, exit or similar kind of magic in 2022/2023
2. Magnitude of potential impact of this news on the startup further development
3. Presence of this news in the local and foreign media

8.2. NEWCOMER
Description: New ideas are born every year, quiet and out of sight at first. And then one sunny day, they appeared out of thin air, took our ecosystem by storm and left us in awe with their startup ambition, vision and early-stage traction.
Evaluation criteria:

1. Registration year 2022/2023
2. Early traction measured by user and or turnover growth or/and investment
3. Ambition (e.g. impressive deals, unorthodox development path)

8.3. SCALEUP
Description: A startup with a solid product and excellent traction and growth metrics. Someone we
admire for being a great team with razor-sharp focus and undeniable ability to achieve set targets. We believe in them. A true unicorn material.
Evaluation criteria:

1. Turnover over 5 million EUR in 2022 in Latvia
2. Turnover growth % over 2020-2022
3. Global markets and expansion

8.4. IMPACT
Description: Whether saving humans or saving the planet (even if from humans), this startup is going big in making this world better, greener and healthier. We praise them for their purpose-driven approach and ability to make a difference.
Evaluation criteria:

1. Solving one of the SDGs
2. Estimated scale of potential impact
3. Progress in reaching objectives in 2022

8.5. HARDWARE
Description: A startup whose patience and commitment to the world of tangible matter has paid off. They went through nine circles of physical prototyping and delivered a viable product which makes their clients fall head over heels.
Evaluation criteria:

1. Significant hardware component
2. Turnover growth % over 2020-2022
3. Current status of IP

8.6. DIGITAL
Description: A startup with an excellent digital product which is out there conquering hearts and wallets. Not only does it solve an important problem which is still poorly addressed in the market, but it also makes the competitors sweat. Think of market disruptors.
Evaluation criteria:
● Turnover growth % over 2020-2022
● Superiority versus competitors
● Originality of solution

8.7. FOUNDER-HERO
Description: This person rocks. Not only do they lift their own startup to great heights, but they also empower our whole startup community by being available, sharing their wisdom and experiences, and nurturing the give-back mentality. They command respect.
Evaluation criteria:

1. Personal impact on the ecosystem (e.g. in terms of time, initiative, money)
2. Team culture and people management in their own startup

8.8. COMMUNITY CHOICE
Description: A startup which – whatever the reason – inspires you. Perhaps, it’s their work ethics and team culture that resonates with you? Or maybe it’s the can-do mentality and bravery to go where no one else is headed to? This category is a carte blanche – so use this opportunity to voice your choice!
Evaluation criteria:

1. Number of public votes on the www.startupawards.lv website, confirmed through a process of
  email verification.