The CASSINI Business Accelerator is a six-month, Europe-wide acceleration programme that aims to boost the commercial growth of space startups & scaleups. The programme offers top-level business and investment coaching, training, events, funding and more, bringing together 20 of the top space startups in Europe.
As part of the programme, the startups need to complete 40 hours of mentoring, and have the freedom to choose different mentors at different times throughout the accelerator, to best suit their current needs. Masters and Experts from our Masters of Scale network have proudly supported the startups of the last two CASSINI programmes, sharing their expertise and helping the ventures accelerate their business development & prepare for fundraising.
Over the two CASSINI programmes, seven of our masters and experts provided a cumulative 300 hours of mentorship. In this article we’re sharing with you not only what the mentees thought of their sessions with Masters of Scale, but also what our Masters and Experts learned themselves from this experience!
Everybody learns
Three of our members share their experience with this mentorship:
Tessa is a founding partner of Masters of Scale and helps startups and scaleups with strategic planning, process improvement, project management, and team development both as an advisor and Fractional COO.
- How was your experience as a mentor of the CASSINI Accelerator?
The great thing about working with companies in the CASSINI Accelerator is that the help requests are specifically tailored to your expertise. The program leads do a great job in matching the mentors. So you are able to add a lot of value to companies in sectors where you may not have any experience, but that you can help in the specific business area you are specialized in.
- How did the mentees experience working with you?
“Our mentor sessions with Tessa de Flines from Masters of Scale, have been nothing short of transformative. Tessa’s masterful approach to customer acquisition unveiled innovative strategies that we had never considered before. Her energy and deep expertise not only opened our minds to fresh, impactful sales techniques but also inspired our team to exceed our goals with newfound confidence and creativity.” – Oskar Fryckowski, Co-Founder / COO, Four Point
“Taking part in the Cassini accelerator was a real opportunity to consolidate Prométhée Earth Intelligence’s business. Through contact with our mentor Tessa and exchanges with experts in the sector, we were able to focus our priorities and be challenged on our value proposition. From a personal point of view, in my young career, this has helped me to grow and understand new ways of looking at business.” – Pierre Pommiès, Sales Manager, Prométhée Earth Intelligence
- What have you learned from this experience?
I have learned that space is a unique business area with many complex stakeholders like governments and where the numbers get large quickly. This means that companies in the space industry often scale more quickly than in other industries. It is also an area that is ripe for disruption but in which it is at the same time also hard to achieve changes
Joris is seasoned commercial & digital leader working with founders and c-level executive teams to define and deliver commercial, marketing growth strategy and product strategy with customer-centric focus to deliver profitable growth in fast paced international environments.
- How was your experience as a mentor of the CASSINI Accelerator?
I really enjoy listening and learning about Murmuration’s achievements, vision as well as their product and service offering in a super interesting market with great potential. I have been honored to support the team in shaping a value proposition, positioning and commercial models that can help them expand into B2B segments and identify commercial opportunities and suitable customer segments in their growth trajectory ahead.
- How did the mentees experience working with you?
“The mentorship sessions were great, merging constructive exchange, insightful guidance with a lot of active listening that allowed us to rephrase and structure our thoughts effectively. As a result of the mentoring, we have built up a clear marketing plan for our services” – Cathy, COO at Murmuration
- What have you learned from this experience?
Learn about spatial data and the level of insight and intelligence it can provide to institutions, and private organizations to make strategic decisions while leveraging such data and insight for concrete ESG benefits. I discover a spectrum of organizations in this industry and its value chain to grasp the opportunities that can be activated for Murmuration. Last but not least, this reinforces my learning as a mentor to be present with active listening to help ask relevant questions and create value for the business.
Mathieu has co-founded US venture-backed tech startups and led commercial departments at several unicorn-valuation scaleups and volunteers on the board of investors for the French space agency’s startup accelerator.
- How was your experience as a mentor of the CASSINI Accelerator?
I enjoyed being able to support the dozen or so companies that I mentored, especially learning about their specific market and business model to help tailor my advice to help them with their growth and commercial challenges. The startups’ motivation and openness to being mentored was exemplary.
- How did the mentees experience working with you?
“Mathieu and the rest of the mentors we had during the Cassini Business Accelerator have been incredible! They have been super available and truly helpful in identifying the areas of improvement DCUBED needed at that stage and finding the best way to bring the company and its processes to the next level.” – Markus Geiss, DCUBED Commercial Director
- What have you learned from this experience?
Diving deep into the various segments of the space industry and discovering their many different value chains, institutional stakeholders and regulatory challenges, and go-to-market strategies was extremely enriching and a fantastic mental floss when coming from the b2b software industry.
At Masters of Scale, we leverage knowledge and real-life experience of 40+ entrepreneurs and experts to support founders in shaping and scaling their companies. Working with accelerators such as CASSINI is the perfect way for our masters and experts to maximize their impact, while providing high-quality mentorship and support to founders.
Interested in collaborating with Masters of Scale? Contact us at hello@mastersofscale.nl