If you have ever searched for a subsidy to finance your innovative idea, research project, or awesome new startup adventure, you probably know: finding the right subsidy can be tough. Real tough. In this blog, we highlight what makes it hard and how we can fix it.

Reason 1: Subsidies are scattered

I think that for me personally, this was one of the most frustrating (and surprising!) parts of my search: the sheer amount of different organizations that provide subsidies. And thus the maze of possible locations to look for them. I had this constant FOMO that I'd always miss out on opportunities. And that was only for the Netherlands. Imagine if you'd try to find the best opportunity worldwide.

Reason 2: Subsidy requirements are hard

Then if you have been able to get out of this horrible maze, you'd still have to decipher the requirements of the subsidy to understand whether you are eligible at all. And that, my good friends, is maybe even more difficult. If possible. Especially European subsidies are equipped with a set of requirements that are, well, hard for us mere humans. That goes for the hard eligibility criteria, but even more so for the criteria that are essential to qualify. For example, a "Gender Equality Plan. or the ethics review procedure." Such requirements, and the fear of missing such requirements, don't make it easier for smaller organizations without specialized knowledge to successfully apply for European funding.

Reason 3: Information can be outdated

This may be one of the most frustrating elements. You finally found a subsidy that looks like an awesome match, only to find out the information was actually outdated.

Reason 4: Your subsidy advisor is a human

Sounds a bit lame, but it is actually important to keep in mind: your subsidy advisor is only human. So they would know a lot about a few subsidies, and a bit on a larger amount, but they won't be able to give detailed insights on all of them. With tens and tens of thousands of subsidies, that would just be impossible. So if he or she advises you, they will be inclined to advise subsidies that they know a bit about. And unfortunately for you that means you'll miss out on quite some other opportunities your advisor never even heard of.

Reason 5: Most databases are hard to navigate

Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of databases out there that include most or even all subsidies available. Unfortunately for us, these have their own issues. Most importantly: it is notoriously hard to navigate. You may be able to filter only results relevant for businesses, or innovative businesses, but that still leaves you with tens or hundreds of opportunities. And with these hard to understand requirements, most of us would just, well, give up.

So far the bad news. The good news? We're working our asses off for a solution.

With Whatsub, we have three main goals:

1. Make sure you don't miss out on opportunities.
2. Make it much easier for you to make informed decisions between subsidies.
3. And make it much easier for you to successfully apply for the subsidy.

In our next blog post, we're going to tell you about what we aim to do and how we want to achieve that.