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organising the “to do lists” of our lives, buying online things that we do not find it
in the traditional commerce, or just because we choose to spend exercising and
staying healthy with an app synchronising with another that states our health
condition.

The majority of these solutions are created in an experimental environment,
testing, improving and tuning what has relevance for users/clients. These creative
ecosystems are start-up companies taking risks and growing along with the
developments made, where the aim is, indeed, to grow into a higher scale and turn
into a scale-up company.

The two distinct phases of company growth, start-up and scale-up, have
differences that are clear and complement the description of each one. The most
obvious difference between a digital start-up and digital scale-up is product-market
fit: scale-ups have perfected it, while are still experimenting with things like
customer segmentation, customer acquisition costs, and product features. Scale-
ups on the other hand, have already validated their assumptions by proving their
units are economically sustainable.

In this context, the purpose of this module is to strengthen the quality of start-
uppers and entrepreneurs and enhance their professional development through
improving digital entrepreneurship competences by a clear idea about what are
digital start-ups and digital scale-ups companies, as well how and when to transit
from one to another.

This is why it is of major importance and relevance to understand in a clear and
objective way the concept of start-up, per se, and the definition of start-ups in the
digital and tech context, as well the description of scale-up companies and the
main differences between both.

1.l. Summary of the syllabus for the Module: “Digital start-ups vs. digital scale-
ups”

Providing solutions to a problem takes creativity, risks, testing and implementation
in a technological and digital world we live in. Start-ups do it due the
entrepreneurship spirit of some. Digital start-ups have revealed to be huge boost
for the economy when growing in a sustainable and scalable business. The
confirmation of this are several examples of digital big companies today that
started as start-ups. The proposed training module outlines learning objectives,

Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training
Project Number: 2019-1-PL01-KA202-065209
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