Startup Sauna in Zagreb to spur local start ups
More than 10 Croatian startup teams presented their business ideas to mentors from the Finnish Startup Sauna (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)at a “Warm Up” event in Zagreb at the end of March, organized in cooperation with the Zagreb Entrepreneurship Incubator (ZIP(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)). The event was part of the Startup Sauna’s Spring ’14 Nordics & Eastern Europe tour.
Introduction to the startup world began with a dinner at the Finnish residence hosted by Ambassador Timo Rajakangas that was attended by representatives of the Startup Sauna – startup investor and logistics expert Magnus Kumlin, the founder of Holvi modern online banking for small businesses Kristoffer Lawson and the Chief Marketing Officer of Startup Sauna Martin Talvari – as well as representatives from ZIP: Ivo Špigel, Saša Cvetojević and Petra Stojanov. It was a good opportunity to hear about their activities, some of the challenges startups face and their outlook for the future.
The “Warm Up” event took place at the premises of the University of Zagreb. After short introductions by Startup Sauna, Slush (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)and ZIP, the 13 Croatian startups which made it through the initial selection, began their elevator pitches (a short and effective presentation delivered in the time span of, for example, an elevator ride that is aimed at persuading a potential client or financer about an excellent business project or idea). Each startup-team had three minutes to present their business idea, business model and vision, which was followed by an opportunity for questions and quick feedback. This was good practice for the participating startups, as for many, this was the first time they presented an idea to an audience with investors.
We heard a lot of interesting ideas. The first short and concise presentation was from a mobile customer loyalty card provider Clickcard. This was followed by the Finnish Ambassador’s two favourites,FacePay(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window), a new mobile payment application that uses face detection and Madbraz (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)which presented their street workout programs. Minicloudbox is a small data center suitable for SMEs.Nutristo (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)developed an application with recipes for people with allergies to food. Ogilityn provides service manuals in video form so that repairing a car is easy even for non-professionals. The only female entrepreneur presentedordinacija.hr(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window), an online portal where people can find information related to health and wellbeing. Sports and leisure activities can be booked through the sporttourism.com (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)website. Once Football (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)is a new analytical tool for small football clubs. To speed up the ordering process in, for instance, restaurants the Swiftorder application was developed. To ease scheduling and planning meetings TictiQ (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)website was developed. GreenGo offers a rental service for two wheel vehicles. Finally, ConnectiGo(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) is a communication channel between media and witnesses which makes crowd reporting possible.
After the initial pitches, the mentors met behind closed doors to select the teams that would participate in the second round which consisted of thorough feedback, coaching and mentoring from the representatives of Startup Sauna. This group was also one step closer to an invitation to participate in the Startup Sauna’s one-month mentoring program (Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)organized in Helsinki in May.
The teams that were not so successful were also given honest feedback from the mentors - which they highlighted was merely their opinion. In some cases, the mentors questioned the need for the service and in other cases they identified that the competition would be to stiff or the regulatory environment too tough.
The following startups were selected in the second round: ConnectiGo, FacePay, Madbraz, Minicloudbox, Ogility, Once Football ja TictiQ.
Finally, an interesting minidocumentary(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window), which tries to find answers to why the startup community of Helsinki is so vibrant.