by tombento | May 23, 2018 | Corporates, Investors, Startups
The Norwegian writer Erling Kagge describes boredom as experiential poverty. By that he means that, when we find ourselves either lacking or overstimulated from experiences (e.g. never going out vs going out every night for a week), our brain specifically tells us, and this is a technical term, “your life sucks”.
From my personal experience, this tends to happen with a lot of events. It’s either the same old “sit and listen” format, or an excess of lighting shows and music that makes you feel like you’re at a club at 11am on a Tuesday. I’ve been building and hosting events for a couple of years now and the truth is, I’m guilty of this as well. We all are. Building a sweet ass event that leaves people happy, inspired, hopeful and enthused, is hard. Like, really hard. And it takes time.
With this in mind, I woke up today thinking “if there were 3 really good reasons to attend the Lisbon Investment Summit”, what would they be? And could I put it in words? And why am I late for work already?
Anyway, here are 3 really good reasons for you to attend #LIS 18.
- Less Is More
There’s always immense pressure to put out the most content possible, to have a full room at all times and to deploy a non-stop experience. But this year we’re going to remove that pressure (which is mostly self imposed) by simply trimming down and focusing on what makes #LIS unique: an intimate, chilled, stress-free and sunny space for entrepreneurs, investors and executives to connect.
- We Bring Top Notch, Killer Speakers
If you look at our recent speaker rosters (2017 or 2018) you’ll see one common trend: these are some really kickass people. From the heads of some of the best VCs around, to rising star entrepreneurs and experienced innovators, we focus on bringing on stage the most interesting people out there. It’s just not people you’ll see on Youtube.
- Save Yourself a Sea of Trips
Are you based in Europe? Think about this: imagine you want to pitch Marvin Liao from 500 Startups. How much would a flight to San Francisco cost you, including a hotel? Or imagine you want to pitch Jenny Fielding from Techstars in New York, how much would that cost? By coming to #LIS, you can meet them and over 250 other investors and entrepreneurs, for a fraction of the cost. We’re literally saving you time and money.
If this got your blood pumping and the juices flowing, get a ticket now before prices go up (or we run out. We cap it at 2000 people).
I want tojoin #LIS 18
by tombento | May 16, 2018 | Corporates, Investors, Startups
A quick Google search for “you are those you spend time with” reveals the most interesting results. There’s Jim Rohn’s “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, there are mexican, russian, assyrian and japanese proverbs that are variations on the same idea, Corinthians 15:33 says “bad company ruins good morals”, which, when turned into a positive, means “great company makes for great morals”, and even Seneca, the stoic philosopher, said “I spend my time in the company of all the best”. Clearly, there’s power in this timeless, universal truth.
With this in mind, who will you be able to surround yourself with at the Lisbon Investment Summit? Here are 70+ speakers you’ll get to meet, by their fields of expertise.
Innovation
- Ana Casaca, Head of Innovation at José de Mello
- Paul Jozefak, Managing Director at Liquid Labs, Otto Group
- Maria Antonia Saldanha – Director PAYFORWARD Innovation Program at SIBS
- Timothy O’Connell, Open Innovation Director H-Farm
Accelerators
- Janet Bumpas, Program Director at ScaleUpNation
- Jenny Fielding, Managing Director at Techstars
- Marvin Liao, Partner at 500 Startups
- Raphaël Crouan, CEO & Founder at Startup Bootcamp IoT
Ecosystem
- Sofia Benjumea, Head of Campus Madrid
- André Zollinger, Director of International Relations at The Camp
- Declan Kelly, Head of Investors at WebSummit
- Ricardo Mesquita, Head of Immersive Learning at IE Business School
- Francois Mazoudier, Founder at TMRW
- Cedric Gaudard, Director of Partnerships at Station F
- Louis Papaemmanuel, Director at The European Young Innovators Forum
- Paulo Rodrigues Silva, CEO at Euronext Technologies, Portugal
- Luís Roquette Geraldes – Senior Associate at Morais Leitão Galvão Teles
- Patric Gresko – Head of Division – Innovation and Technology Investments at EIF
Angel Investors
- Paola Bonomo – Non Executive Director & Angel Investor at Italian Angels for Growth
- Pedro Bandeira – Founder CEO at Red Angels
- Zach Coelius – Managing Partner at Coelius Capital
Sector Specific
- Alexandre Santos – Chief Investment Officer at SONAE IM
- Richard Muirhead – Founding Partner at Fabric Ventures
- José del Barrio – CEO and Founder Samaipata Ventures
- Ellen Bark-Lindhout – Co founder at Collider
- Celso Martinho – CEO and Founding Partner at Bright Pixel
- Valentina Milanova – Venture Associate at Founder Factory
- Orson Stadler – Principal at Mustard Seed VC
- Antonio Miguel – Managing Director at Maze Impact
- Ricardo Sequerra – Principal at Cherry Ventures
- Roberto Saint-Malo – Managing Partner at BetaAngels
Early Stage
- Jaime Novoa – Investor at KFund
- Philipp Moehring – Venture Hacker at Angellist
- Ben Marrel – Founding Partner at Breega
- Laura Roguet – Associate at Korelya Capital
- Pierre Yves Meerschman – Co-founder & investor at Daphni
- Stephanie Hospital – Founder at OneRagtime
- Andrew J Scott – Founding Partner at 7percent Ventures
- Sean Seton-Rogers – Partner with PROfounders
- Alexandre Flamant – Investor at Notion Capital
- Prasad Vanga – Founder & CEO at Anthill Ventures
- Joao Kepler Braga – Partner at Bossa Nova Investimentos
- Daniel Ibri – Co-founder and Partner at Mindset Ventures
- Gillian Muessig – CEO at Outlines Venture Group
- Sia Houchangnia – Investment Partner at Seedcamp
- Pedro Falcão – Managing Partner at LC Ventures
Early Stage Deep Tech
- Gil Dibner – Founder Managing Partner at Angular Ventures
- Stephan Morais – Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners
- Ton van’t Noordende – Deeptech Investor & CEO at 01 Ventures
- Liz Fleming – Principal at Adara Ventures
- Pedro Ribeiro Santos – Partner at Armilar Venture Partners
Late Stage Investors
- Nicolas Debock – IDinvest
- Felix Petersen – Managing Director Europe at Samsung Next
- Tobias Schirmer – Managing Partner at Join Capital
- Ashley Carroll – Partner at Social Capital
- Elliot O’Connor – Investor at Firstminute capital
- Matthew Weigand – Principal at Accel Partners
Entrepreneurs
- Bertier Luyt, Founding Member of Hub France IA
- Arbia Smiti, Founder & CEO at Carnet de Mode
- Clara Armand-Delille, Founder at ThirdEyeMedia
- Laura González-Estéfani, Founder and CEO at TheVentureCity
- Florence Herry, CEO at Libheros
- Maarten Roerink, CEO at Guidion
- Brett Putter, Founder & CEO at Culture Gene
- Jean Louis Frechin, Founder & CEO at NoDesign
- Sebastião Lancastre, CEO at EasyPay
- Jason Lee, Founder & CEO at Illumr
- Pablo Viguera, General Manager Spain at Revolut
- João Menano, CEO at James
- Carolina Marçalo, ICO & Crypto Business Strategist at Aptoide
Make sure you get your ticket here.
by tombento | Mar 7, 2018 | Investors
On June 5th 2017, a group of 30 aspiring angel investors sat in front of an improvised stage at Chiado 8 in Lisbon, waiting to hear the gospel from 7 experienced investors. The goal of this event, anti-climactically named Investors Academy, was to provide participants with the unique chance to learn best practices, first-hand experiences and receive concrete help on how to define their investment roadmap from seasoned players.
The idea was Beta-i’s brainchild. But the immersive, full-day program was co-designed and developed along with its speakers: Marvin Liao, David Haynes, Rodrigo Martinez, Ricardo Sequerra, Cristina Fonseca, Luís Roquette and Alex Hoye.
We’ve been in the event curation business for a while and, truthfully, there’s a lot stuff out there that is just plain vanilla (we share the blame on this as well). But what we’ve come to learn is that when you bring speakers on board and actually involve them in the process of designing the audience’s experience (a tough job because it’s a thin line between being inclusive and just plain bothersome) something magical happens.
And I believe that’s what happened at the Investors Academy in 2017. Speakers are present on stage at all times during each other’s presentations, and have carte blanche to intervene and share thoughts on what’s being discussed. The audience is heavily encouraged to do the same. As a result, when a participant asked “how hard is it to invest in startups?”, Marvin Liao’s answer was simply: “in this game, if you’re not willing to lose all your money, you should quit while you’re ahead.” That’s the kind of honesty that matters.
With a range of topics from Investment Lifecycle, Different Approaches to Investing, What Post Seed VCs Are Looking For, The Impact of Negotiating Terms and The Importance of Building Relationships with Founders, our goal is to increase the odds in favour of aspiring investors.
The Investors Academy will be back, with a new roster of speakers and a limited class, this time on June 5th 2018. If you’re looking to take your investor skills to the next level, make sure you get one of the 30 Ultimate Investor Ticket available.
by tombento | Feb 14, 2018 | Investors, Startups
I am really pumped about 2018. Last December, we made the decision to spend as much time as we could talking to past attendees, speakers and investors to get a clear feeling of what #LIS meant for them. We then went back to the drawing board and re-imagined the experiences we would provide in 2018. This is a collection of those thoughts and what you can expect from #LIS18.
- Less Is More
There’s always immense pressure to put out the most content possible, to have a full room at all times and to deploy a non-stop experience. But this year we’re going to remove that pressure (which is mostly self imposed) by simply trimming down and focusing on what makes #LIS unique: an intimate, chilled and sunny space for entrepreneurs and investors to connect.
- Women
If the lack of women in tech is evident, we believe the same can be said for the lack of women in the investment scene. That’s why we’re following Slush’s lead and decided to commit to a better, stronger and clearer representation of women on stage. If a panel on blockchain doesn’t have a woman in it, it’s because we’re not doing our jobs right, not because they don’t exist.
- On Stage: More Time, Less People
Most interesting topics cannot be addressed in a 25 minute, 5 person panel. We’re scaling back the number of panelists and increasing the time for discussion up to 45 minutes. We’ll also have more keynotes with follow up live interviews and Q&A from the audience. Quality, not quantity. That’s what we’re looking for.
- Power to the Moderators
As Willy Braun from Daphni points out in this great article, having engaging and committed moderators is key for a great event. We’re putting a great emphasis on this in 2018, aiming to give moderators as much power and support as they need to run a great conversation on stage.
- Drivers
To deliver a strong experience at #LIS in 2018, we’re helping investors, startups and key partners with curated matchmaking, we’re helping startups figure out how to pitch both on stage and one on one during the event, and we’re hosting a series of side events, such as The Investors Academy, The Speakers Dinner, The Founders Getaway and the Midnight Conference (more on these soon), designed to make these worlds collide.
#LIS was founded on this idea of a space where people can engage, connect and learn without the burden of FOMO or the need to act inconspicuously (or as it’s more commonly known: never show your badge). That’s what we’ve achieved these past years. And that’s what we’re looking to take one step further.
If you want to reach out, feel free to write me back at tomas.bento@beta-i.pt
Ps. If you’re wondering about joining us, our Early Bird flies away on February 18th.
by tombento | Nov 21, 2017 | Corporates, Featured, Investors, Startups
When Jason Calacanis, “arguably the world’s greatest angel investor”, is asked whether you must be located in Silicon Valley to be a successful angel investor, his answer is an emphatic “yes!” According to him, if you’re not it’s ridiculously hard to get any meaningful investments under your belt.
Now, Jason is a straight-maths kind of guy (he’s known for figuring out how much money startups have left in the bank by asking a few simple questions). He knows what he’s talking about. For now, more than half of the world’s unicorns are in the United States (54%), so it stands to reason that if you want to have a go at angel investing, that’s where you should take your shot.
But we also know that this is not contextually true (e.g. two of the three most valuable startups in the world are Chinese) as the time for maturing incumbent markets is upon us. And Lisbon is clearly on that list.
If you think you’ve seen Lisbon at its best, we’re here to assure you that we’re just getting started. That’s why, in 2018, we’re going all in with our newest edition of the Lisbon Investment Summit. You may ask, why you should join us on June 6 and 7? I can think of at least 3 reasons:
Reason One – Emerging Startup Power
Just this year we’ve witnessed new strong investments in the ecosystem, with Farfetch getting a €397 million investment, Feedzai raising a €50 million Series C and Veniam raising a 22€ Million Series B. And there are many more startups coming out blazing that you should keep an eye on. If you want to meet them, #LIS is the place to be.
Reason Two – A Crazy Talent Magnet
When companies like Mercedes Daimler, Zalando, Pipedrive, Amazon and Uber are betting heavily on new offices, digital innovation hubs and operation centers in Lisbon, that’s what we call “validation”. These moves signal a straightforward proof that our sunny city is joining the big dogs. If you’re curious about understanding why it’s a sound bet and how it can be done, guess where you should be during those two fateful days?
Reason Three – Early Stage Startup Gold
In our 2017 edition we brought over 700 startups to Lisbon, with 50% of them looking for early stage seed investments. And 150 investors answered the call. It helps that according to Allianz Kulturstiftung, Lisbon ranks as the fifth-best-performing startup community in Europe, ahead of other powerhouses like Stockholm and Dublin. So if you’re looking for your next investment or if you’re looking to raise money for your startup, you should definitely check us out. We’ll even help you out with the matchmaking.
If this gets your blood pumping, you should know Early Bird Tickets are out.
See you in June?
