Seedcamp arrived in Zagreb in the midst of 3 solid days of snowfall, so with 20 companies from all over Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Paris, France(!), who made a flurry with the mentors?
We were impressed by the variety of concepts on show from AR gaming to tablet devices and music streaming services, all demonstrating the technical talent from the region. Some startups stood out from the crowd and the winners selected by a popular vote were Clover Studio (Zagreb, Croatia), Garmz (Vienna, Austria), GIS Cloud (Zagreb, Croatia), Salepod (Zagreb, Croatia), Visionect (Ljubljana, Slovenia). Thanks to all teams and mentors for taking part – we are sure that many successful startups will emerge from this group.
Ales Spetic, chairman of Zemanta spiced up proceedings with his moderation of the investor panel asking the panelists (Stefan Glaenzer, Jure Mikuz, James Routely, and Richard Titus) to present a business concept in the customary style of a bad pitch, with the resulting discussion focusing on dissecting the key mistakes made. The full video (worth watching for Stefan Glenzers “the Google of sex” pitch 4 minutes in…) is below followed by a summary of the advice.
- What is your product? There is no point in going any further in your presentation until they get what it is. This can be explained simply using a key use case (James)
- Why is your product competitive? Need to know your competition and how you differentiate (Jure)
- How do you make money? Or what problem are you solving? Proof points on the concept help to make a convincing argument. (Stefan)
- Know your market and users – demonstrating a keen understanding builds confidence. The best businesses start with a small but virulently passionate group of users and then expand out, if you describe your potential users as everyone then you have created an impossible marketing problem! (Richard Titus)
The discussion then moved on to a general conversation on investment in Europe and the practical steps to raising local, European and global funding – watch the video to learn more!
Thanks again to all the teams, mentors, our local host Viktor Marohnic, and our sponsors – Microsoft Bizspark, Associated Northcliffe Digital, RSG Capital, The Croatian Chamber of Economy,Sun Startup Essentials, UKTI GEP, and supporters Eagle Ventures, netokracija,Shout’em, tportal.hr, and Zemanta – for helping make Mini Seedcamp Zagreb a success.
Applications are open for Prague (til 16th Feb) and Barcelona (til 19th March), so get applying!
