It was during SIBS Payforward Bootcamp, the fintech accelerator powered by SIBS and Beta-i, that ReThink met with Maria Antónia Saldanha, SIBS PAYFORWARD’s Program Director and Head of Brand & Communication at SIBS, to speak about the fintech ecosystem and what are the challenges it wants to tackle.
SIBS is now a major player in the market, with 300 million clients and present in Iberia, Africa and Eastern Europe, but how did it all start? SIBS was created 30 years ago, with the help and collaboration of different companies from different industries. The goal was to serve the digital economy, which didn’t even exist yet.
“SIBS grew up as a fintech in a time where the word fintech didn’t even exist.”
According to Maria Antónia, a collaborative and cooperative model is the only way to “do things”, so SIBS has created an ecosystem of a lot of companies, all the banks, and different industries from different countries. Because of this, the payment services provider still moves with the same spirit as a startup: “SIBS grew up as a Fintech in a time where the word Fintech didn’t even exist. We were brought up as a Fintech, we work as a startup – we’re very agile, dynamic and innovative, launching every month a new service or product.”
It was their own history and this understanding that it takes collaboration to innovate, that made SIBS decide to keep the circle going, by fostering innovation inside and outside their walls: “Well, SIBS was created with the help and collaboration of different companies from different industries, so it’s time to pay it forward. It’s our chance to do for others what they did for us. To help, to share knowledge, to share expertise. It’s a way for us to help other companies to grow and to accelerate in order to become as big as SIBS”, said the program director.
The program looks for scalable, innovative solutions that can complement SIBS offer or grow exponentially from it, by taking advantage of SIBS large user market: “When we launched the accelerator for Fintechs it was the first national accelerator focused on payment solutions. The main goal was to attract fintech startups that have solutions for payments, or financial services, or complementary services around financial services so we can boost them in order to provide services either in Portugal or in other geographies where SIBS is, mainly in Africa for instance or Eastern Europe.”
The challenges that the accelerator proposes to solve in collaboration with the startups are, according to Maria Antónia, “the challenges that society faces every day. We’re focusing on Client behavior and Analytics, Security and Authentication, Payment Processes and Payments and Future Stores.”
The accelerator is committed to solve these challenges by working in complete collaboration with the startups – for the four days of the Bootcamp, the startups worked in groups with SIBS mentors – collaborators that could give them insight into the processes that go into SIBS services and technical experts who can help the startups incorporate their technologies in practical terms – and ultimately help them propose more viable, interesting and profitable pilot projects. All this is done within SIBS environment, to allow for better sharing of knowledge and understanding of the business: “We’ve acknowledged that they want to get to know us where we are every day, where we are working on innovation every day – where we have our terminals, our ATMs, our POSs, and all of our teams. So this is something that we’ve managed this year, to bring startups inside SIBS, so they’ve been working during these days in our premises, alongside us, where we work every day.”
When questioned about the future of fintech, SIBS concedes they cannot guess it, but they can be a part of it by keeping innovating inside their business and fostering innovation in the financial market: “We don’t know how the future is going to be, we don’t know how fast the future can grow, but we know that if we work together – startups, corporates, associations like Beta-i, we can move faster, we can grow faster, and we’ll probably have more products, more solutions that make us brighter and our lives more efficient.”
On its third edition, SIBS Payforward is the fintech accelerator powered by SIBS and Beta-i. You can follow the news and the projects being developed by following SIBS Payforward on Facebook and subscribe to Beta-i’s newsletter.
As #LIS approaches, we’re excited to see all the startups pitching in the competition. But we understand they might be very nervous (and excited) to be pitching in front of a crowd of potential clients and investors.
So we rounded up a clipped list of tips from our team (who has seen their fair share of pitches!) directly to any nervous founder!
First things first: think of everything that could go wrong! Is it a long list? Good, now you can prepare for those things!
And now, our top 10 tips:
1. Know your audience
Know who are you pitching for: what are their pains, what are they looking for, what level of technical stuff they understand – it will help you tailor you pitch to the crowd.
2. Always use a structure
Improvising? It doesn’t work. You will end up just losing time!
3. Practice makes perfect
No one does it perfectly in one go! Practice, practice, practice. Ask for help in discovering your weaknesses, correct them and practice some more!
4. Eyes on the crowd
Have they told you “imagine the audience is naked”? It doesn’t work! What about “Just fixate on a point in the back”? No, that will make look strangely absent. Look directly to your audience, but don’t stay on the same person for a long time (that could be awkward!).
5. Stand your ground
You’re probably nervous, but jittering about will just distract you audience. When in doubt, just stand your ground – a.k.a stand in the same place in a confident pose.
6. Behaviour drives behaviour
The audience will feed off of your attitude. So smile!
7. Clean + simple works everytime
Don’t complicate the slides! Just key information and clean and simple formatting, that follows your presentation is best.
8. Strong Opening
Start strong and make an impression that will last!
9. Pitching is a one-person show
We know it’s a daunting task, but it’s really something that has to be done by one person only – or it will distract from the important stuff.
10. Listen to the questions until the end
Don’t jump the gun! Listen to the questions (an investor will make several in one go) so you have time to give a proper answer that responds to all the points they need!
As the Lisbon Investment Summit approaches, we spoke with Pedro Faclão, managing partner at LC Ventures about the needs for more pre-seed investment and what every startup should have at the ready when talking with an investor.
Why was LC Ventures created and why is it important to create Portuguese investment funds?
LC Ventures was born on the belief that brilliant teams are creating innovative products that don’t develop due to lack of funding.
Portugal has proven its ability to generate valuable STEM and business talent, capable of building industry-leading companies (Farfetch, Outsystems, Feedzai, Unbabel, et cetera), however starting a company requires early financing – With debt out of reach due to the risky nature of venturing a tech startup, entrepreneurs turn into private capital to support their growth. Portuguese investors majorly share a risk-averse investment profile, thus entrepreneurs face a cumbersome process raising pre-seed (angel) and seed capital (the riskier stages of financing) and often don’t obtain funding – Ideas don’t get prototyped and prototypes don’t get productized.
Angel/Early investing increases the likelihood of success for startups because it brings in required capital matched with valuable mentoring from well-experienced professionals. We believe it is crucial to create (pre-seed and seed) VC funds to abet the Portuguese economy flourish through successful startups able to generate employment and drive innovation.
What did you enjoy more in your experience at LIS?
There were several things: meeting other experienced international investors and analyze co-investment opportunities, to discover promising startups led by serial entrepreneurs and exposing LC Ventures investment thesis and gather leads for LP fundraising.
Why do you think it’s important for investors to get together and share their experiences?
Investors bring in value in three forms: (i) capital available to invest, (ii) extensive network of peer investors, corporate leaders, founders, technologists and public decision-makers and (iii) operational experience. With the opportunity to group at LIS, investors can multiply their value-add by extending their network and knowing first-hand what other VCs are witnessing and how they are operating – Sharing best practices is a potent exercise to improve the VC scene.
From this informal get-together, investors might expect co-investments, strategic affixes to cap tables for their portfolio companies, CXO suggestions for portfolio companies and exposure of the VC fund thesis within the ecosystem.
Why do you think Portuguese startups are so relevant and able to attract foreign investment?
Portugal has proven its ability to generate valuable STEM and business talent, capable of building industry-leading companies (Farfetch, Outsystems, Feedzai, Unbabel, et cetera). The before-mentioned talent results from respectable universities and leading research centres.
Another reason is the hard-to-navigate business environment in Portugal – filled with bureaucratic tailbacks and low purchasing power -. Startups that successfully launch in Portugal will face an easier time selling in more fluid business environments and stronger economies such as Germany, UK, US, Australia, Netherlands, etc. So, success in Portugal is a good validation point to set sail to other markets.
Also, valuations in Lisbon are still small compared with leading entrepreneurial hubs (Berlin, London, Stockholm), thus more attractive to close deals in Lisbon (since they are cheaper). In parallel, Portugal’s government has set appealing tax regimes in order to attract foreign investment in national startups (200M).
What are you looking for in startups when you attend events like LIS?
A capable execution team (ideally with a track record of building companies and shipping to market) and a defensible scalable product (preferably software-only solutions).
What advice do you give startups that will be pitching and looking to meet possible investors?
Dedicate special time for fundraising: Fundraising shouldn’t be a “I just need the money” situation. Through a rich fundraising process founders can develop a valuable network, open commercial doors and improve operations. And know your numbers: make sure your unit economics are well-shown and compelling and clearly articulate how and why your solution beats the status quo. Also, don’t come to investors under stress, things take time (reasonably or not). Oh, and study “VC legals” – everything from drag along, tag along, convertible notes, SAFE – should be in your vocabulary.
The European Maritime Day (EMD) is the annual two-day event during which Europe’s maritime community meet to network, discuss and forge joint action. It targets maritime professionals, entrepreneurs and ocean leaders.
This year the event will take place on 16-17 May 2019, and it will have a special feature: Pitch Day for Bluetech Accelerator applicants.
The Event
European Maritime Day gathers all the stakeholders of the maritime economy in one place, to join together in discussing the future and finding plans of action to ensure healthy, fruitful and sustainable use of ocean resources.
The events’ themes range from sustainability (with talks on climate action, bioeconomy, and sustainable tourism in coastal areas), to innovation in maritime activities, like shipping and energy production (with panels on different techs – AI, Big Data, etc – and how they can bring new advantages and resources in these activities).
The event will include a workshop on Port Tech Clusters, powered by Bluetech Accelerator, that will explore the role of ports as hubs connecting sea and land and striving to maximize efficiency and support international supply chains. The panel will include Guilhermina Rego (President of Port of Leixões, Portugal), Christine Cabau (CEO / Présidente du Directoire Port of Marseille Fos, France), Carolien Vat-Sandee (Director/ Co-founder at PortXL – World Port Accelerator) and Xoan Martinez (CEO of Fishing Accelerator), and will be moderated by Ruben Eiras, Director General of Directorate General of Maritime Policy of the Ministry of the Sea (Portugal)..
Pitch Day
Bluetech Accelerator is in its selection phase and one integral part of it will happen at EMD. In Pitch Day, Bluetech Accelerator applicants will pitch for the program partners, who are selecting the startups that will join the program. This pitching session is open to all attendees of EMD, which gives these startups the opportunity to be known by some of the biggest players in the maritime industry in Europe.
With startups pitching both online and some opting to join the event for a live pitch, it’s set to be an inspiring event for the development of the blue economy.
The morning dawned rainy in Lisbon – the kind that makes you wanna stay on the sofa all morning, but for our Lisbon Challenge teams that was not an option – they just got to the busiest part of the challenge.
Lisbon Challenge wraps up today its Product Phase. After Validation Phase – where the teams worked on improving their understanding of the problem they are trying to solve and (re)validating their customers (how they feel, interact and behave around this problem in the) – they started Product Phase, where they went on to work through how their products deliver the benefits that solve those problems.
Turning Pains into Gains
The product phase focuses solely on the startup’s solution. Are they delivering the benefits their customers require? It’s all about taking the pains identified during validation phase and the benefits that solve them and turning them into product features that deliver what the customers want.
But more than just features (and having the right features), it’s about understanding and building a journey through the product that takes them straight to core value.
Taking a page from Andrew Chen’s Engagement Wall and “next feature fallacy”, the teams focus on understanding what is working and why, and also what they should just stop doing, instead of just building new things. So, it’s about weeding out the unnecessary stuff and getting as close as possible to the #nobullshit product that makes users fall in love with it.
A Mentorship Driven Program
As their Lisbon Challenge journey takes them closer and closer to a product-market fit, the teams are lucky to have a strong network of mentors, who have been through the same processes and similar experiences as entrepreneurs themselves. They stepped up to the challenge to give serious, honest and helpful feedback to our teams.
Rita Ribeiro da Silva, from SKOACH, detailed the challenges of the phase:
This has been, so far, the most challenging phase. The problem with creating a product is that there are many opportunities and you have to decide on what exactly do you want to choose, and where you want to focus. And the temptations are huge, and sometimes it’s hard to keep the focus on creating a product that is focused and having a focused message of what it is. It’s hard to keep it simple.
The team, who is tackling the challenge of high employee turnover with a solution that enables high-performing teams through gamified change of individual behavior, has taken full advantage of the mentors’ advice:
“I would say that the best advice has been from people who have used products that have tried to solve the same problem, and we’ve got some feedback about the pitfalls, the mistakes that they made, and that’s helpful so we don’t… do them (laughs)”, completed João Ferreira, also from Skoach.
What’s next
Next up, the teams will focus on finding the right metrics, messaging and channels for their product. But for now, we celebrate the end of the phase and the great group of mentors that imparted some of their knowledge and experience, with the incredible Beta-i community experience – this time delivered through the feature of brazilian-style-mouth-watering-BBQ.
