Startup Europe brings startups to Slush
Slush took place at the Exhibition and Convention Centre of Helsinki (Messukeskus) on 11th and 12th of November and Startup Europe was represented in this important event by the WELCOME Project.
WELCOME´s startups ready to enjoy Slush
Slush is nowadays the largest startup event in the Nordics and the second largest in Europe with an attendance of over 15,000 people. This includes 1,700 startups and 800 investors both local and international. The philosophy behind Slush remains to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward.
60 high profile international speakers were spread across 4 stages including Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Skype and Atomico; Niklas Ostberg, CEO & co-founder of Delivery Hero and Jyrki Katainen, Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness in European Commission, among many others.
5 WELCOME startups from 4 WELCOME ecosystems attended Slush, through the Europass activity, which funds startups to attend 2 major European startup events:
The startups were given access to the wide range of supports that Slush has in place for them. Each of the startups was offered a place at a “Startup Day” which took place the day before the conference and consisted of talks, workshops and networking opportunities for the startups.
OPSH taking part in a Slush session
WELCOME startups were also given access to the Slush platform which allowed them to make contact with the over 800 investors present at Slush and arrange meetings with them. All of our startups made great use of this platform and arranged many valuable meetings through this.
WELCOME has also linked up with e-Estonia. The Estonian government’s business promotion agency and WELCOME startups were invited to attend a mentoring session with Sten Tamkivi, CEO and co-founder of Teleport as well as early executive of Skype. Sten provided WELCOME startups with some invaluable insights into running an international startup, including tips on fundraising and managing a team across several countries.
OPSH meeting Sten Tamkiyi
This is what our startups had to say:
Lenard F. Krawinkel, CEO, Zoobe “It is the first big conference, where it was actually possible to have one to one meetings in a kind of concentrated way. […] I thought it was highly productive and well organised. Thank you very much!”
Grace McGinn, co-founder OPSH “We thought Slush was a brilliant start-up event to attend. We found it extremely manageable and focused. We met a number of investors we had planned to meet in advance, and also had follow-on meetings with 2 investors who we met at the welcoming party event. In terms of the partners, we noticed that the start-up stands tended to be 5/6 years in business, and we identified 2 partners for platform technologies and retail analytics who we are following up with now. We found the structure of the event to be extremely focused, and it was very beneficial to us for investor contacts, and partner contacts, which is what we are currently seeking. A note also to Slush making the event extremely Scandinavian cool ;)”
About the WELCOME project
WELCOME is a project under Startup Europe initiative that aims to contribute to building a pan-European tech startup ecosystem. To that end, WELCOME lays bridges for startups from five vibrant EU startup ecosystems —Berlin, Dublin, Milan, Madrid and Salamanca— by connecting them with leading organisations committed to supporting tech entrepreneurship.
The project targets early and late stage startups with activities enabling them to grow across borders and access the right combination of finance while helping them to find the best talent.
Learn more about us and take part in our activities through www.WELCOMEstartup.eu & @welcomestartup on Twitter.
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