We are excited to announce that Startup Grind, the world’s largest community of startups, founders, innovators, will join BOOST, a UNDP-led initiative that uses social innovation to tackle Covid-19 challenges in the Europe and Central Asia region and beyond.
The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge. While we do not yet know its full impact, it is set to change the future of work, economy, governance and health and has severely affected all areas of development. BOOST brings together change-makers and innovators to address the effects of Covid-19 by supporting solutions in three key areas: digitalization, low-touch economy and wellbeing.
Startup Grind will support BOOST, our regional acceleration program, and its first cohort with access to its global community of startups, founders, innovators, and creators to tap into the experience and expertise in navigating and tackling the Covid-19 challenges faced by startups.
During our first BOOST Talks session, we will be joined by our partners at the Slovak Ministry of Finance, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Koç Holding and Startup Grind. Our keynote speaker, Derek Andersen, Founder and CEO of Startup Grind and Bevy, will share their unique perspective on the current challenges we face as a result of the pandemic and the possible opportunities that lay ahead.
The virtual event will take place on January 18 at 17:30 CET (duration 1 hour) and will be open to the public. Pre-registration is mandatory.
Join us in exploring how to redefine innovation to reimagine and transform our future beyond Covid-19.
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BOOST is a joint initiative by UNDP Europe and Central Asia, the Slovak Ministry of Finance, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Koç Holding. UNDP and partners will further support the scalability of effective and sustainable solutions across the Europe and Central Asia region. Over 150 applications were received out of which 20 were selected to take part in the Civil Society Technology Challenge, 15 for the Innovation Challenge Fund and 5 for the Polish Challenge Fund. They will be supported in developing solutions tackling Covid-19 challenges in three key areas: digitalization, low-touch economy and wellbeing.
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Speaker biographies:
Derek Andersen, CEO & Co-founder Startup Grind / Bevy
Derek has spent the past 10 years building communities. He is the co-founder/CEO of Bevy, a SaaS product that helps companies like Salesforce, Atlassian, Asana, and Duolingo build virtual and in-person communities. Derek co-founded Startup Grind, a community of 600 Chapters in 125 countries designed to educate, inspire, and connect startup people. Since 2012 Startup Grind has hosted 10,000 events for more than 250,000 people. In 2010 he co-founded Commonred which was acquired by Income.com. Derek also previously worked at Electronic Arts on games like Burnout and The Sims 3.
