Starters Valley

Since 2009 Maastricht has experienced a remarkable growth in the number of start-up businesses. In a period of 3 years, Maastricht jumped from # 40 to # 6 on the most developed places in the Netherlands. Moreover, Maastricht accounts for more than 800 start-ups per year, making it the city with the 2nd place most start-ups in the Netherlands. It is clear that this is a haven and breeding ground for all kinds of initiatives. However, there is still a high demand for help for start-ups in this region, as there is currently no incubator and accelerator in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Smile to the Future has been working for over 3 years in the field of social entrepreneurship, both locally and internationally. It is our mission through sustainable projects to increase self-sufficiency. With Starters Valley, we mainly focus on foundations, start-ups and existing organizations that want to contribute in a sustainable way to develop themselves and society.

Starters Valley provides an all-inclusive co working, training and events platform for various ages, social and professional groups in the Maastricht region. This should allow startups to develop not only themselves, but also to realize their entrepreneurial ideas, existing companies or voluntary organizations to their full potential. The project includes benefits such as: creating an open community in which collaboration, cooperation and socio-cultural projects are central; providing a platform for individuals to become self-employed and thus make room for other individuals to involve themselves in it and make contribution; allowing the involvement of different groups such as artists, single parents, young people and older people through co-working; offering mentoring, training, and various events throughout the year to increase the well-being and self-development of start-ups and their organizations.

One of the success factors of Starters Valley is its unique concept. At the intersection of a simple co-working space and an incubator, the Starters Valley concept is to create a co-working space with incubation services and support for entrepreneurs. It will also provide a reliable address, shared facilities, personal coaching, business trainings and skills development for people who want to start or who already have a social business. Bearing in mind that the first months following the launch of a business can be difficult in terms of sustainability, the opportunity to discuss personal experiences with other entrepreneurs and to have access to the expertise offered by Starters Valley will be very constructive and helpful for starters.