This is it! We wrapped up this year’s edition of Lisbon Investment Summit, and we couldn’t be prouder of it.
It was an action-packed event where we gathered over 1500 attendees for 2 days of knowledge sharing, provocative discussions and hundreds of one-on-one meetings between top-tier investors, daring startups and the most innovative corporates.
Humanity Will Fix the Future
We kicked off #LIS (bravely, as Andrew himself put it) with a talk by Andrew Keen on the unfulfilled promises of technology – the promise that it would bring equality, boost democracy and create bridges between people. While Andrew painted a hard picture on the challenges that digitalization brought upon us, he also showed us how to fix it: through regulation, innovation and citizen engagement. The “fixing” of the future does not rest on more technology – it rests solely on our shoulders.
Investment in Portugal
We’re proud of the many good things we have heard today – from investors, industry leaders and startups – about Lisbon and our ecosystem. And thanks to Pedro Falcão, Managing Partner of LC Ventures, we have a clear picture of Investment in Portugal. Don’t worry if you missed his panel – you’ll be able to download it soon on our blog!
The VC path is not for everyone
We started the second and last day of #LIS with a familiar face – Marvin Liao, partner at 500 Startups. Marvin pointed out that there are different paths of entrepreneurship – even if you choose to not get investment, there are other ways to be an entrepreneur – by choosing to be great instead of big. Entrepreneurship is not a science or an art – it’s a practice!
#LIS Pitch Competition
Lisbon Investment Summit would not be the same without our amazing pitch competition, sponsored by GROW, which was one of the highlights of these two days – 12 amazing startups pitched on stage but there can only be one winner. The prize went to Musiversal, represented by founder André Miranda (and a Lisbon Challenge alumnus).
Take a look at some highlights of this year’s edition of Lisbon Investment Summit:
〰️ "Events like #LIS19 are the perfect example of key moments to bring together ecosystem, to nurture a culture of collaboration, to consolidate bridges between entrepreneurs, innovators and investors from different places and to celebrate the joint successes we've achieved in the last years." 〰️ quoting Pedro Rocha Vieira, Beta-i's CEO and CoFounder 🙌 🦄 👏👏👏⠀🎬 Here's a glimpse of the day 1.⠀⠀⠀#lisboninvestmentsummit #betailisbon #startuplife #entrepreneur #investor
“There is no school for investors – the only way to learn it is usually by doing it”. It was with this in mind that Beta-i partnered up with IE Business School to create Investors’ Academy.
The Investors’ Academy is an immersive program on smart startup investment. In this one-day event, attendees get the unique chance to learn, first-hand, from a group of experienced and successful investors and venture capitalists.
Like Luís Roquette Geraldes explained to ReThink, it’s “important to teach investors’ about best practices, and what is fair,” so that they can offer the best opportunities to the founders’ they are investing in as well.
This event wins in its atmosphere – it’s a small, intimate gathering of top investors who want to share their knowledge and are open to discussion of ideas and looking to learn themselves about new opportunities.
Right before #LIS19 we have The Investors Academy – an immersive program on smart startup investment. It's a unique chance to learn, first-hand, from a group of experienced and successful investors and venture capitalists. 📈🦄+ info: https://investorsacademy.beta-i.pt/
Publicado por Beta-i em Sexta-feira, 7 de junho de 2019
Growth Bootcamp is a three-day event, happening on 3-5th of June, to help accelerate the growth of promising startups, by putting them together with partners enabling the environment for startups to succeed. In this invite-only event, startups between Seed and Series A investment and with high potential joined experienced entrepreneurs, seasoned investors and growth experts to build their path to exponential growth.
Helping Startups Scale
This startups are, essentially, in a crucial phase between having a product and clients, but really needing to scale the dimension of their business. It’s an important time, when founders must make decisions that might impact their business in the short and long run.
Realising this need to support founders at this stage of their journey, Beta-i created Growth Bootcamp – to help founders at this stage while keeping their focus on the bigger picture.
The 3 day program includes:S
Panel sessions with leading international entrepreneurs and experts on product, growth, marketing, channels and strategy, that are willing to share their knowledge and experience on startups’ growth.
One-on-one sessions mentoring sessions with kickass mentors with entrepreneurial and investing experience, to get feedback and guidance on the particulars of each founders’ journey.
Networking with peers, prospect clients and investors where they can enjoy an open conversation between equals.
On the last day of the program, founders will get access to Investors’ Academy – an immersive program on smart startup investment – where they get to network and ask for feedback from experienced corporate and angel investors, and get valuable insight on investment strategy.
Building a Stronger Innovation Ecosystem
The final goal of Growth Bootcamp is to create a stronger ecosystem. By connecting founders with mentors who have lived the same experiences and can bring valuable advice to their choices, we give them the opportunity to make better choices – fail less – and create stronger companies that can lead innovation in the years to come.
After pursuing her education in both Portugal and the U.S., Catarina became a legal advisor for social causes. She recently joined the startup world by becoming General Counsel at SWORD Health – a startup shaping the future of physical therapy, that recently raised a $9 Million round led by Koshla Ventures.
She’ll be joining Lisbon Investment Summit this week for a panel on Cross-border Investments – but she took the time to share with us her experience.
When raising investment, what are the more common mistakes founders make in the legal department?
Not properly listening to the General Counsel! (laughs) I’m kidding. I’m new in the business, but it appears to me that start-ups do not have an in-house legal team when this type of investment comes along. I might sound biased, but I’d advise all founders out there to have one or to have a good and close relationship with someone from the legal universe.
When we’re dealing with cross-border investments, the differences between legal orders might get easily overlooked. We’re dealing not only with different branches of law that must work harmoniously, but also with different national laws, and even with different legal systems. Take Sword, where we dealt with civil law v. common law. Another rookie mistake founders tend to make is to be lenient when it comes to choosing the law firm to work with them. In our case, we lost an entire month until we brought ML on board to help us make things go forward. Timing is very important when you deal with US investors: their pace is way faster than Europeans’, and we risked losing their interest because of how long things were taking.
What should founders take into consideration when building the legal structure of their business?
They should have a clear idea of what type of company they want to have, and to where they want to lead the project. It is very easy, and sometimes necessary, to make concessions that might work in the short-term, but bring problems for the long-haul. Investors and founders would be, ideally, aligned, but that isn’t often the case. It is important for founders not to lose track of what drove them to start the business. To keep that belief in your project is fundamental, from what I’ve learnt so far. I know I digressed from the legal point, but that has a reason. The legal structure and dynamic that ultimately rise are intimately related with the commitment that founders have with their original idea. Law is a tool, not a work-product.
What is, in your opinion, the steps founders must take in order to protect themselves and the company, when taking foreign investment?
I would point the following: 1) to know whether your company is ready to face an investment round; 2) to have a clear idea of what kind of investor you want to attract; 3) to discuss in depth with your GC the tax implications of taking foreign investment, both from an individual and from a company’s perspective; 4) to have the emotional stamina to face the process; 5) to keep your GC in the loop of all the steps you take in order to avoid unpleasant surprises that might sound great from the business perspective, but can be a thing from the legal perspective. I’m aware of the fame the legal teams have…we are the fun spoilers! (laughs)
Lisbon Investment Summit is knocking on our doorstep – in just a couple of days, we’ll gather the best innovators in the world for 2 days of knowledge sharing and discussion in an action-packed agenda. Here is all you can expect from our slightly unexpected event!
Thought-Provoking Conversations
What happens when you get some of the most daring entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, seasoned investors and forward thinking leaders in one place? A lot of interesting conversations! They will be sparked by our amazing speakers – like Andrew Keen, best-selling author of “How To Fix the Future”, that will share his thoughts on the challenges of digitalization and how society can overcome them. Not to mention talks on how to build a strong startup community, collaboration in innovation and how investment is changing across borders.
Perfect Matches
In the event like Lisbon Investment Summit – with some of the best startups around and top-tier investors we expect to see a lot of partnerships starting. The guests will be able to take advantage of our matchmaking app to find potential clients, but in a relaxed environment like #LIS it’s easy to just strike up a conversation with the person drinking coffee next to you, and who knows? It might be your next business partner.
Girl Power
Gender equality is not just a hot theme, it is something that runs in Beta-i’s DNA. Besides our female speakers – that range from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists – don’t miss #iamremarkable workshop by Google, to empower women to own their achievements, and the book launch of “Ara the Star Engineer”, a book to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers.
Fierce Pitch Competition
Lisbon Investment Summit gives the opportunity for startups to pitch in front of a crowd of top-tier investors and corporate innovators – and these startups are ready to shine. Like Daniela Seixas, founder and CEO of TonicApp told us, winning the pitch competition gave TonicApp the exposure and access it needed to start their investment round. So we can promise they will be ready to rock that stage.
Surprises
Besides our incredible panels on innovation, business and investment, #LIS is full of moments created to surprise you. Have dinner with a stranger and meet some interesting people, enjoy building your network while resting your eyes on the amazing views of the Tagus River, and ride a real-life bullicorn. Anything can happen at #LIS!
Bluetech Accelerator had its Pitch Day selection during European Maritime Day, on the 16th and 17th of May.
This is the phase where partners get together to evaluate and choose the startups moving to the bootcamp phase. To help them selected they watch a 3 minute pitch from the startup (remote call or in presence), followed by a short Q&A. Thirty-seven startups were invited to pitch on this day.
This event was part of European Maritime Day, one of the biggest industry events for Europe, and was opened by Ana Paula Vitorino, Minister of the Sea of the Republic of Portugal, one of the entities behind Bluetech Accelerator.
A glimpse on what happened at #bluetechaccelerator during the Europe Maritime Day. The objective for the Online Pitch is to choose the startups joining the bootcamp. 🌊Get to know more about Bluetech Accelerator at http://bluetechaccelerator.com/
Publicado por Beta-i em Segunda-feira, 3 de junho de 2019
