STARTUP EUROPE WEEK AARHUS SUMMARY REPORT

Transcription

1 STARTUP EUROPE WEEK AARHUS SUMMARY REPORT Over the last decade, many global initiatives have been created to celebrate entrepreneurship. Typically, such events follow the Silicon Valley format (keynote motivational speeches, networking sessions etc). However, Europe is different and requires something more when it comes to celebrating entrepreneurship to meet its peculiarities. Regional diversity and local policy making still play a big role in shaping European startups. From helping entrepreneurs to incorporate a company, to providing grants or taxes breaks, European regions are key players. That is why we think it is critical to include the regions in this conversation. That is exactly why the Startup Europe Week was created. This year the event took place simultaneously in more than 280 cities in Europe. Among them was the city of Aarhus in Denmark, where the event took place on 7-8 th February 2017 and attracted the major startup stakeholders of Aarhus- Herning area.

2 STARTUP EUROPE WEEK AARHUS SUMMARY REPORT SEW 2017 Aarhus attracted the attention of many stakeholders from the Aarhus Herning startup ecosystem, who actively participated in the presentations and discussions that are summarized in the following sections. SEW 2017 AARHUS Startup Europe Week 2017 Aarhus is an initiative implemented by Startup Europe Week (SEW) and promoted by the SEW 2017 AARHUS-HERNING & ENTREPRENEURSHIP European Commission and Startup Europe. Keynote speech Ramjee Prasad Ramjee Prasad opened the event and highlighted the opportunities & challenges of young entrepreneurs and compared Europe with California s startup ecosystem. Open sesame - entrepreneurships hidden networks Henrik Knudsen Henrik challenged the participants by asking them to participate in an exercise. The exercise aimed to evaluate the key people around an entrepreneur when it comes to development of a given opportunity. 1

3 Startup Europe Week - Aarhus 2017 Sofoklis Kyriazakos Sofoklis presented the priorities of SEW and set the goals for SEW 2017 Aarhus. The major goal of SEW has been defined to capture of the Aarhus - Herning startup ecosystem and connect this to more than 280 cities around Europe. He also announced the forthcoming startup contest event that will be held in AU/Herning in the coming months. FACILITATORS WeLoveStartups.dk Jakob presented his vision at WeLoveStartups and informed the participants about the activities and the methodologies. Jakob Breddam Community or combust, Venture Village Community or combust Anders has his way to present the needs of startuppers and present how he offers incubation and co-working services to entrepreneurs. Anders Günzel-Jensen 2

4 Don't panic. Be awesome, Sjak27 Sander is involved in the startup industry long time ago. Among his current activities is to run Sjak27, which is a new concept of co-working. In his talk he describes his vision and priorities. Sander Jensen Barriers and challenges for startups, Venture Cup Serena presented the initiative of Venture Cup and the methodologies applied to support young entrepreneurs around Denmark. Serena Leka Studenttalks.dk Martin presented the vision and the activities of Studenttalks.dk and invited universities to collaborate and participate in the next events. Martin Johnsen Ladies First Katja talked about the priorities of Ladies First, the largest startup ecosystem for women that count more than 4,000 members alone in Aarhus. Katja Bundgaard Meyer 3

5 PANEL DISCUSSIONS Moderator: Albena Mihovska Panelists: Christian Fumz, Rita Westergaard, Casper Grønbjerg, Bobby Thygesen Moderator: Sofoklis Kyriazakos Panelists: Rita Westergaard, Henrik Knudsen, Morten Muck, Mathias Jensen I. The portrait of a Danish startupper Key characteristics, strengths, weaknesses and challenges of Danish entrepreneurs. II. How international are we? Denmark is a very international attitude; how about Danish entrepreneurs and companies? STARTUP STORIES SmartWeb Bobby Thygesen Bobby talked about strategy and how this is important for every company. In his presentation he referred to the story of his company, SmartWeb, throughout the past 12 years and how strategy has contributed to its success. The Entrepreneur and The Start-up in a changing society Christian presented his (serial) entrepreneurial activities and discussed about the role of the entrepreneur in a changing society. Christian Fumz 4

6 House of Code Apart from Sjak 27, Sanders presented the House of Code, a startup that focus on quality killer-apps! He presented the company story, the people and the way forward. Sander Jensen Make failure your friend Casper Grønbjerg Casper has been through a lot of challenges in several countries in his entrepreneurial career so far. He learnt the hard way, to fail and to succeed and he passed this message to all wanna-beentrepreurs. STARTUP IDEAS Real-time biomechanical data from rowers Morten Rytter Morten is a rower and a startupper. Jointly with his friend Mathias they developed sensing devices for rowers based on IMU components and aim to offer added value through their startup idea. Its My Shape An architect and a doctor joined forces to disrupt the nutrition & supplements market. They presented their project idea and the status of the startup. Johannes & Goda 5

7 EMBRACING IDEATORS The challenge & potential of ideation Babis Ipechtsidis Alessio Giuliotta Babis and Alessio are both supporting the entrepreneurship of young people, sharing experiences from the private sector. In their talk they explain why Ideation Phase is so important for Europe, highlighting its potential. Introduction to innovvoice.com Following the presentation of the challenges and potential of ideation, Christina presented innovvoice.com, an online ideation system that supports wannabe-entrepreneurs to make the next step. Christina Frentzou Design Thinking for Startups James is an experienced entrepreneur who is now involved in the design thinking process for startups. James presented the importance of creativity in the first steps of the idea forming and finished his talk with an advice that summarized his experience If you are about to fail, do it fast and cheap. James Rock 6

8 ONLINE PITCHING Beeswax Anna Lambraki The idea is around beeswax creams with natural and essential oils. Anna presented the development process and the challenges she is facing. Home made Whiskey Andreas has made his own whiskey and he is now trying to setup a company and sell it abroad. Andreas Karambelas Docknasium & Happy Tails Alexandros loves pets and he has identified a need that is underserved. His idea is to create establishments for pets and pet-owners. Alexandros Moze Dancing Museum Adamantia presented an online concept dealing with the Greek tradition, a sort of a folklore museum and everything associated to that. Adamantia Kalachani 7

9 PARTICIPANTS SEW 2017 Aarhus attracted overall 40 participants in the two days, from all types of stakeholders from the Aarhus-Herning startup ecosystem, such as startuppers, students, Professors, entrepreneurs, incubators, co-working spaces, mentors, accelerators. ORGANIZATION The event was organized by Sofoklis Kyriazakos and the MBIT BTECH / Aarhus University. CONTACT Sofoklis Kyriazakos, sofoklis@btech.au.dk,