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Newsletter #18, 06th December, 2012

TradeDare among the 20 lucky guys at Slush

3rd Ed. P&S Track Honorable Mention represented Portugal at

Slush in Helsinki, Finland. The startup summit is probably one of the largest of its kind in the world and certainly the most prominent in Europe. TradeDare enjoyed international exposure with many institutional and corporate investors. TradeDare has created a web platform that integrates customer loyalty and stock 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 proprietary geo-location algorithm based on SMS texts - integrated with carriers' LBS platforms. It enables users 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 device without a data plan or GPS.

MIT: At the Top

How did MIT become the 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.

Unlugg on its way to Plug & Play Tech Center

Silicon Valley recognizes the quality of the 3rd Ed Building Global Innovators E & T Semi-finalist – Unplugg. The start-up was offered a 3-month stay in the Plug and Play Tech Center by Leadership, a Portuguese-based consultancy company, to do further development on their energy management B2B2C solution. Unplugg is an IoT, cloud-based start-up that focuses on Home energy management platform,

BGI announces the 3rd Ed. Finalists & Honorable

Mentions

On 13th November, in a packed full auditorium, the semi-finalists pitched live

and the Award Partner announced the 4 Finalists, each one receiving €100k in

financial support from Caixa Capital: RDFixer (Life Sciences), Veniam (E&T),

faces.in (IT & Web), D-Orbit (Products & Services).

And the 4 Honorable Mentions are: Cardiocare (Life Sciences), RetroSiM

(E&T), Fidesys (IT & Web) and TradeDare (Products & Services).

Congratulations to all teams, this is only the start of a challenging process

that is creating a technology-based company!

The competition next steps will be to prepare Finalist teams to the Grand

Finale (28th February 2013, Lisbon, Portugal) where one selectee will

double the award to €200k in non-dilutive financing. Out of the 20 finalist

candidates, the top 12 will enroll in the international catalyst program.

Lessons learned from an entrepreneur

João Afonso, Founder & CEO of Musikki, 2nd Ed Grand Finalist

Lately, everyone keeps asking us what we have learned over the past year.

Well, we have learned a lot and we could sit all day discussing that but I

was taught to be objective and synthetic. If we subtract all the daily tasks of

running a company which I must admit - we also had to learn what those

are, I come to the conclusion that there were four major lessons.

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gathering data from smart meters and delivers potential savings of up to 20% to its customers via a mobile app.

Some of the emerging accelerator programs are sponsored by some large Turkish corporations.

Turkey today is a fast-growing dynamic economy in a very dynamic part of the world. Many large corporations see the entrepreneurship-related activities as part of their social responsibility. The government, through many different programs, has been aggressively promoting entrepreneurship. More universities are introducing courses, programs, and facilities towards entrepreneurship to attract better students to their degree programs. The outlook for entrepreneurship is as bright as ever. Further advancement of entrepreneurship depends on the skills to develop new and creative ideas and business models. Read more.

Consumer, Internet startups Increasingly Targeted for VC Backing

Venture dollars have shifted to early rounds from late-stage deals over the past several years. It is a shift that proved fastest in quick changing industry segments, such as the consumer Internet, and slowest in segments like semiconductor, which are less dynamic…Since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, venture capitalists have shifted substantial dollars to the early stage. Read more.

All Desk, mobile launching

, 2nd Ed. IT & Web Finalist, can now be accessed via a mobile

App. In this version you can: 1) See locations around you, 2) Search all over the world and 3) Make reservations. The startup will extend these functionalities in the future and for that they are eager to get your feedback so feel free to let them know of your opinion.

DIGITAL 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies

It's been a crazy year for technology companies. Many of the top companies from last year's list have gone

1. It is a long run, not a sprint

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

classroom and pitch their ideas. On that day, I probably made my worst

presentation ever. And I really mean it! When we left the campus later at

night, I thought I had ruined every chance of succeeding in the Building

Global Innovators competition. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we got

back the other day and tried to make it better. Seven months later we won

the Grand finale. So, who would have thought it possible? To us this meant

that it does not matter how or where you start and what sort of mistakes we

make on the way. What really matters is how you respond to those

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

the end of the day, your mission is still the same: to succeed. In fact, the

mission is probably the only thing that will not change throughout the life of

your startup. There is no problem on stumbling as often as you might, as

long as you are not afraid of falling and starting again.

2. The only thing that is constant is change

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

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

team motivated and aligned to work this way. Some people do not like to

work for two weeks on a task and find out later that what they have

achieved will be thrown to the bin or that you have to start all over again

because now there's a different layout or a different programming language.

It is your job as a CEO to persuade and convince your team that this is the

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

focus. That seems easy, but those who have been there will certainly share

this experience. And you only have 24h in a day, 7 days a week, which is

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public. Some (most) of their stocks have gotten clobbered lot of young companies are receiving wild valuations that are starting to get corrected by the down market, and there's a new mentality shift in startups: users aren't everything; making money matters. Click here to scroll through the Digital 100. By Alyson Shontell, Business Insider.

Top 15 U.S. Startup Accelerators and Incubators Ranked

There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with pure co-working spaces) as they offer entrepreneurs a way to spend a few months laser focused on a single idea... With all the startup accelerator programs popping up across the country, one is curious to find out which programs would offer the biggest bang for the time, money and effort spent in the program. TechStars Boulder narrowly edged out Y Combinator for the top spot, read more.

Small but Mighty: Startups Are Shaking Up Healthcare

“…it has become abundantly clear that startup companies can play a big role in healthcare innovation and should not be ignored. While their company size may be small, their ideas and determination are mighty. What they may lack in the way of ability to scale, they more than make up for in creativity and rapid development… Rising costs, skyrocketing demand and a need for improved safety and efficiency makes the healthcare industry ripe for out-of-the-box thinking. But, no single company holds all of the answers. Read more

Mobilize 2012 discusses emerging trends in mobile

Each year GigaOM’s Mobilize conference explores the next frontier for connected devices. Watch the world’s leading mobile thinkers and doers discuss the wealth of opportunities spurred by the skyrocketing expansion of devices and apps. Speakers include Dave Morin (Co-Founder & CEO, Path), Dennis Crowley (Co-Founder and CEO, foursquare), Spencer Rascoff (CEO, Zillow) and Vlad Sejnoha (CTO, Nuance). Watch an authentic discussion of what's happening in mobile lead by GigaOM Pro analysts and writers.

New job postings available - here for more information.

never enough. If you have someone on your team that is not aligned 100%

that probably means that he or she is not the right person for your startup,

no matter how good he/she might be. There are a lot of opposite strengths

when you are trying to build a successful company. You just cannot afford

loosing efficiency as time is of the essence. And don't forget: time is money.

A scarcity a startup typically does not have.

3. Consistency of speech

We have defined our company’s culture as “a company that is all about

music. That perceives technology as a mere tool to achieve an end, to offer

the perfect musical experience to the user". That aims for the user' senses

through music and other forms of art expression like photography, film and

design. Users that love simplicity. We know that to convey such message

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

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.

Guess what? No one replied. I then decided to take a different approach.

Instead of a detailed email I sent one with a short phrase and the company

links on the email’s signature. “Hi, we would love to get your comments on

what we’re trying to do here.” The difference was huge. Almost 100%

conversion rate! What happened was that, in the second approach, we

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

emails that showed exactly the opposite.

4. Be prepared to act fast

I have always been an advocate of less talk and more action.

Consequently, this also meant less planning and more action. Although I

still believe this can be achieved when we are talking about product

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

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

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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

they looking for? What are they looking in their investments? Can they bring

more than money (smart money) to you? Who have they invested in? Are

there any competitors on their portfolio? What is there track record? Who

do you know on their network? Is there anyone you could talk that could

give you more information about them? Who in their team seems to be the

best lead? What are you looking to achieve with your round?

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

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.

Save the Dates – update your calendar now:

04 – 06.12.2012 LeWeb 17.12.2012 UTEN Portugal Annual

Conference 26 – 29.01.2013 Midem

28.01 – 18.03.2012 Start Smart Class 28.02.2012 Building Global Innovators

Grand Finale

More events around Europe? Here

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