1. Awarded by
Newsletter #18, 06th December, 2012
TradeDare among the 20 lucky guys at Slush BGI announces the 3rd Ed. Finalists & Honorable
3rd Ed. P&S Track Mentions
Honorable Mention
represented Portugal at
Slush in Helsinki, Finland. The startup summit is On 13th November, in a packed full auditorium, the semi-finalists pitched live
probably one of the largest of its kind in the world and
certainly the most prominent in Europe. TradeDare and the Award Partner announced the 4 Finalists, each one receiving €100k in
enjoyed international exposure with many institutional
and corporate investors. TradeDare has created a web financial support from Caixa Capital: RDFixer (Life Sciences), Veniam (E&T),
platform that integrates customer loyalty and stock faces.in (IT & Web), D-Orbit (Products & Services).
management that allows businesses to increase,
sustain and drive sales through their channels in an
efficient way.
faces.in on Vodafone and Robi
After having successfully launched with Vodafone PT,
the 3rd Ed. IT & Web Finalist is now available for Robi
Axiata subscribers. Faces.in was first launched for
smartphones and works by displaying on a single
screen all your friends in social networks in your
proximity. Faces.in also works in non-smartphones via a And the 4 Honorable Mentions are: Cardiocare (Life Sciences), RetroSiM
proprietary geo-location algorithm based on SMS texts -
integrated with carriers' LBS platforms. It enables users (E&T), Fidesys (IT & Web) and TradeDare (Products & Services).
to check-in and find their friends through simple text
messages, allowing millions of users worldwide to
participate in geo-location and social discovery on any Congratulations to all teams, this is only the start of a challenging process
device without a data plan or GPS.
that is creating a technology-based company!
The competition next steps will be to prepare Finalist teams to the Grand
MIT: At the Top
Finale (28th February 2013, Lisbon, Portugal) where one selectee will
double the award to €200k in non-dilutive financing. Out of the 20 finalist
How did MIT become the candidates, the top 12 will enroll in the international catalyst program.
most important university in
the world? Hint - it has a lot
to do with the Institute's focus
on tech entrepreneurship, the
Trust Center, and the unique, innovative students that
MIT attracts. Lessons learned from an entrepreneur
João Afonso, Founder & CEO of Musikki, 2nd Ed Grand Finalist
Unlugg on its way to Plug & Play Tech Center
Lately, everyone keeps asking us what we have learned over the past year.
Silicon Valley recognizes the quality of the 3rd Ed Well, we have learned a lot and we could sit all day discussing that but I
Building Global Innovators E & T Semi-finalist –
Unplugg. The start-up was offered a 3-month stay in the was taught to be objective and synthetic. If we subtract all the daily tasks of
Plug and Play Tech Center by Leadership, a
Portuguese-based consultancy company, to do further running a company which I must admit - we also had to learn what those
development on their energy management B2B2C are, I come to the conclusion that there were four major lessons.
solution. Unplugg is an IoT, cloud-based start-up that
focuses on Home energy management platform,
2. Awarded by
gathering data from smart meters and delivers potential 1. It is a long run, not a sprint
savings of up to 20% to its customers via a mobile app.
Just over a year ago we entered a bootcamp at ISCTE-IUL, a prominent
Lisbon-based social sciences school, for the first day of the e-teams I crash
course. We had no idea of what was about to happen, so we were a little
nervous. In the afternoon, all teams were invited to stand in front of the
Some of the emerging accelerator programs are classroom and pitch their ideas. On that day, I probably made my worst
sponsored by some large Turkish corporations.
presentation ever. And I really mean it! When we left the campus later at
Turkey today is a fast-growing dynamic economy in a
very dynamic part of the world. Many large corporations
night, I thought I had ruined every chance of succeeding in the Building
see the entrepreneurship-related activities as part of Global Innovators competition. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we got
their social responsibility. The government, through
many different programs, has been aggressively back the other day and tried to make it better. Seven months later we won
promoting entrepreneurship. More universities are
introducing courses, programs, and facilities towards
the Grand finale. So, who would have thought it possible? To us this meant
entrepreneurship to attract better students to their that it does not matter how or where you start and what sort of mistakes we
degree programs. The outlook for entrepreneurship is
as bright as ever. Further advancement of make on the way. What really matters is how you respond to those
entrepreneurship depends on the skills to develop new
and creative ideas and business models. Read more.
challenges and where you get to. So if you start behind your competitors,
this only means that you will have to run faster somewhere down the line. It
just means you have to adapt your product offering or strategy because at
Consumer, Internet startups Increasingly Targeted the end of the day, your mission is still the same: to succeed. In fact, the
for VC Backing
mission is probably the only thing that will not change throughout the life of
Venture dollars have shifted to early rounds from late- your startup. There is no problem on stumbling as often as you might, as
stage deals over the past several years. It is a shift that
proved fastest in quick changing industry segments, long as you are not afraid of falling and starting again.
such as the consumer Internet, and slowest in
segments like semiconductor, which are less
dynamic…Since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2. The only thing that is constant is change
2009, venture capitalists have shifted substantial dollars
to the early stage. Read more.
When you are in a startup you fail in the morning to succeed in the
afternoon. It is an action-reaction pair that pushes your learning process
All Desk, mobile launching forward and pushes you to the limit. This all seems logical. Everyone knows
about the trial and error process. You learn from experiment and make it
better the next time. However, it is very difficult to keep everyone in your
, 2nd Ed. IT & Web team motivated and aligned to work this way. Some people do not like to
Finalist, can now be
accessed via a mobile work for two weeks on a task and find out later that what they have
App. In this version you can: 1) See locations around achieved will be thrown to the bin or that you have to start all over again
you, 2) Search all over the world and 3) Make
reservations. The startup will extend these because now there's a different layout or a different programming language.
functionalities in the future and for that they are eager to
get your feedback so feel free to let them know of your It is your job as a CEO to persuade and convince your team that this is the
opinion. right way. Being opened to change allows a continuous iteration, which will
result on a better product at the end. If you work in innovation and
disruptive products you have to be extremely open to change without losing
DIGITAL 100: The World's Most Valuable Private
Tech Companies focus. That seems easy, but those who have been there will certainly share
It's been a crazy year for technology companies. Many
this experience. And you only have 24h in a day, 7 days a week, which is
of the top companies from last year's list have gone
3. Awarded by
public. Some (most) of their stocks have gotten never enough. If you have someone on your team that is not aligned 100%
clobbered lot of young companies are receiving wild
valuations that are starting to get corrected by the down that probably means that he or she is not the right person for your startup,
market, and there's a new mentality shift in startups: no matter how good he/she might be. There are a lot of opposite strengths
users aren't everything; making money matters. Click
here to scroll through the Digital 100. By Alyson when you are trying to build a successful company. You just cannot afford
Shontell, Business Insider.
loosing efficiency as time is of the essence. And don't forget: time is money.
A scarcity a startup typically does not have.
Top 15 U.S. Startup Accelerators and Incubators
Ranked 3. Consistency of speech
There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator
programs in the United States. We are fans of these We have defined our company’s culture as “a company that is all about
programs (not to be confused with pure co-working music. That perceives technology as a mere tool to achieve an end, to offer
spaces) as they offer entrepreneurs a way to spend a
few months laser focused on a single idea... With all the the perfect musical experience to the user". That aims for the user' senses
startup accelerator programs popping up across the
country, one is curious to find out which programs through music and other forms of art expression like photography, film and
would offer the biggest bang for the time, money and design. Users that love simplicity. We know that to convey such message
effort spent in the program. TechStars Boulder narrowly
edged out Y Combinator for the top spot, read more. we have to be very careful on how we communicate. What we forgot is that
this must be applied in the most simple of tasks, like writing an email. When
I first started contacting possible partners within the industry I wrote detailed
Small but Mighty: Startups Are Shaking Up
Healthcare introductory emails, explaining what the company was all about, all the
product benefits, how the world would be a better place with us and so on.
“…it has become abundantly clear that startup
companies can play a big role in healthcare innovation Guess what? No one replied. I then decided to take a different approach.
and should not be ignored. While their company size Instead of a detailed email I sent one with a short phrase and the company
may be small, their ideas and determination are mighty.
What they may lack in the way of ability to scale, they links on the email’s signature. “Hi, we would love to get your comments on
more than make up for in creativity and rapid
development… Rising costs, skyrocketing demand and what we’re trying to do here.” The difference was huge. Almost 100%
a need for improved safety and efficiency makes the conversion rate! What happened was that, in the second approach, we
healthcare industry ripe for out-of-the-box thinking. But,
no single company holds all of the answers. Read more didn’t let them any other chance but to actually try the product. “Who are
these guys? Oh, here’s the link!” We advocated that we were all about
simplicity and let what matters speak for itself but we sent long complicated
Mobilize 2012 discusses emerging trends in mobile
emails that showed exactly the opposite.
Each year GigaOM’s Mobilize conference explores the
next frontier for connected devices. Watch the world’s
4. Be prepared to act fast
leading mobile thinkers and doers discuss the wealth of
opportunities spurred by the skyrocketing expansion of
devices and apps. Speakers include Dave Morin (Co- I have always been an advocate of less talk and more action.
Founder & CEO, Path), Dennis Crowley (Co-Founder
and CEO, foursquare), Spencer Rascoff (CEO, Zillow) Consequently, this also meant less planning and more action. Although I
and Vlad Sejnoha (CTO, Nuance). Watch an authentic
discussion of what's happening in mobile lead by still believe this can be achieved when we are talking about product
GigaOM Pro analysts and writers. development, I have completely changed my mind when it comes to
business development. The only way to move fast is by planning everything
ahead of time and collect as much knowledge and information as you
New job postings available - here for more
information. possibly can about your market segments. This will allow you to respond
quickly to every move of your competitors or approach a possible investor.
For example, if you are planning to go for a funding round you can start by
4. Awarded by
screening every venture capitalist firm out there in your field or industry and
ask yourself: what is their selection process? What kind of information are
Save the Dates – update your calendar now:
they looking for? What are they looking in their investments? Can they bring
04 – 06.12.2012 LeWeb more than money (smart money) to you? Who have they invested in? Are
17.12.2012 UTEN Portugal Annual
Conference there any competitors on their portfolio? What is there track record? Who
26 – 29.01.2013 Midem do you know on their network? Is there anyone you could talk that could
28.01 – 18.03.2012 Start Smart Class
28.02.2012 Building Global Innovators give you more information about them? Who in their team seems to be the
Grand Finale
best lead? What are you looking to achieve with your round?
More events around Europe? Here This may and indeed are simple and obvious questions, but so of then left
poorly answered. So beware when you start down the funding path. Think
Follow us on big but act small. With this information you can prepare your line of action
and make your choices depending on your strategy and roadmap. If you
research all of this in advance, when the time comes you will have all the
required data ready, you will know who to contact, what to expect and even
to whom you say no. Being able to draw a line and being assertive is really
key in such a funding process. By the way, saying no is probably one of the
difficult things you will have to do in your job but also one the most common
and you must be prepared for that. It is great to found a company, lead a
group of people on trying to achieve a common goal and fulfill a dream. But
you must be ready to understand that such a great job comes with great
responsibility. It has been more than a year since we entered the Building
Global Innovators Venture Competition and a lot has happened since then,
most of them I could never have dreamed of possible. We were
inexperienced, we had no clue on how to run a company and we had this
crazy idea that we could change the world of music. We have grown,
matured and established the foundations of a promising company and…
guess what? We have this crazy idea that we can change the world of
music.
The Organization wishes to thank to João Afonso & Musikki for contributing to the
current Newsletter issue with this press opinion article.
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