On May 16, 2018 HeBAN was guest at the International Hellenic University in Thessaloniki to talk to Master students about Angel Investing. Dr. Andreas Baresel-Bofinger discussed with the students the importance of building up a vivid Business Angels community in Greece and the resulting opportunities for the growing national startup community. With the students’ lively interest the concept of smart financing was analyzed, encompassing also the provision of mentoring, know-how sharing and international networking.
Greece’s Startup Ecosystem
Greece is emerging as a hub for innovative startups. Helping to fuel this transformation is EquiFund, a platform established by the European Investment Fund. EquiFund expects to provide Greek
startups with up to €1 billion for early-stage and growth-stage funding by 2022; about €260 million has already been committed for this purpose. This infusion of capital will embolden growing startups and help investors fund young companies with high potential.
Although capital is a catalyst for growth, a sustainable startup ecosys- tem requires more than investor interest. Large enterprises can play a critical role in nurturing the startup ecosystem by partnering in prod- uct development and funding mentoring programs. Collaboration among universities and government agencies can provide growing startups with a competitive edge.
This report, examines the current obstacles to boosting entrepre- neurship and building equity in Greek startups, including limited ac- cess to the right talent, undeveloped collaborative networks, and still a largely unfriendly business environment and market structure.
Find the whole report here Greece’s Startup Ecosystem
Reid Hoffman: To Successfully Grow A Business, You Must ‘Expect Chaos’
He’s the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, Greylock Partner, a mentor to many, and, starting in May, the host of a new podcast called ‘Masters of Scale.’ Here, Hoffman gives us an inside look at how he teaches entrepreneurs to grow successful businesses.
Read the whole article here.
Startup investment in Central and Eastern Europe: A ground-breaking research
Already recognized for their engineering excellence, several countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are now emerging on the global startup scene. Thus for the past couple of years Belarus, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine and some other countries of the region have seen their local companies assert themselves on the international market, raise considerable funding and/or be acquired by global companies.
Read the whole article here.
The Art of the Pitch
If you’ve ever seen me speak at an event, you have probably noticed that I get very excited and passionate about pitching. There’s an excellent reason for that. I believe that a great pitch is useful in so many walks of business. As the CEO of a company, you’ll be pitching your startup morning, noon and night. Short, 90-second elevator pitches. Three- to six-minute pitches as part of a demo day or a pitch competition. And finally, the Holy Grail: in a VC’s office, for a 30- to 60-minute explanation of what the future looks like, if you have anything to do about it. Becoming a truly great pitch artist takes a lot of practice, which I encourage you to invest time in. But that doesn’t mean that there’s any excuse for having a downright poor pitch.
Read the whole article here.
The United States, home to Silicon Valley, is the most entrepreneurial country, right?
Americans tend to think of themselves as very entrepreneurial. After all, there’s Silicon Valley — home of Google, Facebook and Apple – and the rise of legendary entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Many more want to join their ranks: Sixty-six percent of American millennials want to start their own businesses, according to a recent Bentley University study. And deeper in the collective American consciousness lives the ingenuity and business acumen of the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, inventors who changed the world.
Read the whole article here.