Taking the first steps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem can be daunting – the lingo, the fast pace, the new technologies. But worry not, we have a handy guide for any non-entrepreneur about what they need to know to navigate #LIS and what can they take advantage of.
What is #LIS?
Lisbon Investment Summit is an a surprisingly informal and slightly unexpected startup conference. The motto of the event? #nobullshit. That means business. During these two days, #LIS will promote thought-provoking conversations, will join at the table the most disruptive innovators and the most seasoned investors, and completely change the way you think about your business.
Get to know the lingo
If you want to blend in, you need to dominate the lingo. This is important to make sure you understand where each other attendee is coming from – a startup in the seed stage or raising a series B are not in the same position – which means they also have different things they can offer and are looking for different things. It’s easier than it sounds – we made a little dictionary of what you need to know – find them here and here.
Inspiring Talks
At #LIS you will get access to thought-provoking keynotes, given by world-renowned speakers. That is the case of the #LIS headliner, Andrew Kween, best-selling author of “How To Fix the Future”, who will speak about the dangers of a digital world and how can we overcome them. Maybe some of the talks about disruption will be a bit scary – especially if they fit your sector – but take the chance to be open to learn what chances are taking place – and how to take advantage of them. Check out the agenda of talks here.
Workshops
The workshop stage powered by Google, is the perfect place for you to learn new ways of doing things, from tools to digitize your business, to identifying business opportunities – get your hands ”dirty” in innovation.
Pitch Competition
The pitch competition is where up-and-coming startups (previously selected by the LIS team) pitch on stage to a crowd of angel investors and corporate venture capitalists, looking for investment or new clients. Why should you watch the live pitches? Well, for one, any of these startups could be disrupting your business, so you should keep an eye on them. But also, their new technologies might bring incredible advantages to your business – and they will most likely be open to partnerships, so take the opportunity to get to know them.
Unexpected Side Events
One of the best things at #LIS are its side events. Sure there are spectacularly fun parties, but it’s the unexpected that makes it fun, like in Dinner With a Stranger – you just have to sign-up and get selected to meet a curated group of people in a fabulous Lisbon restaurant. You never know who could meet – maybe your next business partner, maybe someone who inspires you to venture into your own business idea. We promise you one thing – it will be memorable. Wait no more – get your tickets to #LIS19 here.
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.
Google will be joining forces with Beta-i at Lisbon Investment Summit, where it will be the host of the Google Workshop Stage – dedicated to founders’ talks, workshops and hands-on sessions on specific technologies.
We spoke with Nuno Pimenta, Industry Head Travel, Retail & Start Ups at Google, to know more about Google’s hands-on approach to help digitize the market and its involvement in the entrepreneurial community.
RT: How do you see digitalization happening in the corporate world and how is Google contributing to it?
NP: Digitalization in the corporate world is happening though at very different paces in different industries and companies. We see that Digital Sales have been one of the main drivers of this change meaning that companies where digital already represents a bigger share of their sales are speeding up. Google has been partnering with companies from all industries to help them to take the most out of their data and to accelerate their transformation efforts.
RT: What attracted Google to partner up with Beta-i and #LIS?
NP: Start Ups, Tech and Innovation are important pillars of Google’s operation in Portugal. We’ve been partnering closely with Beta-i that has been pivotal in creating the right set up for these pillars to foster in Portugal.
RT: What will Google bring to LIS?
NP: With the Google Talks, we will (again) this year bring some of the most successful founders and CEOs of startups to share their stories and how they made it. We believe their stories are truly inspirational for both founders of new companies and experienced leaders of big corporates. Additionally, we will have very interesting sessions on Cloud and how this technology is changing the way companies operate in many aspects.
RT: Why should corporates attend LIS?
NP: Innovation (and threats) are coming from everywhere and leaders of big corporates need to pay much closer attention to this. Lisbon Investment Summit is one of the most important events in Portugal to get a good sense of what areas are being disrupted and to find new potential partners for the future.
Attentive has been in Beta-i’s ecosystem for a long time – they were winners of the Fall Edition of Lisbon Challenge in 2015. Since then, they have grown their company and took advantage of Beta-i’s network and events – just like Lisbon Investment Summit.
We spoke with Daniel Araújo, CEO and Co-founder of Attentive.us about their relationship with events like LIS.
ReThink: What first attracted you to attend Lisbon Investment Summit the first time around?
Daniel Araújo: We were part of the Beta-i community even before the first edition of the Lisbon Investment Summit, so when we heard about it we were very excited about having an informal gathering of many of the key European investors interacting with early-stage Portuguese startups. Since that first edition, Beta-i always brought a nice element of surprise, in the content and in the venues, that kept the event’s unique positioning untouched.
RT: What did you enjoy more in your experience at LIS?
DA: I’d highlight the vibe that you feel among all the attendees – positive, open, constructive. There’s always a lot to talk about around the content of the panels, and the event feels designed to leave some room for casual interactions. This makes it incredibly fruitful. Did I mention that everyone seems to be having a great time? 🙂
RT: How did your attendance at LIS impact your business?
DA: Every year, participating in LIS allows us to strengthen and reinforce our connections to the ecosystem, especially around investors. We’ve got several investors that we meet only at LIS, despite us participating in other events across Europe and the US. We also got to meet many partners of the Portuguese ecosystem, which have supported us in so many different ways over the years. I get asked many times by early-stage founders how to kickstart their network, and my invariable answer is: go to the Lisbon Investment Summit – network and absorb the great content.
RT: You recently announced your latest investment round of $1.2M, led by Mangrove Capital and Indico Capital Partners. Did Beta-i or LIS help you get in touch with your investors, or in some other way?
DA: Beta-i and LIS are intrinsically linked to our company’s first steps, so they played – actually, they still play today – a very important role in our development and growth. Not only did the event kickstart our network when we were starting, but we also refined and tuned our pitch, improved the way we communicate our vision and contributed to us getting access to TechStars. After meeting several dozens of investors, Mangrove, Indico and we were incredibly aligned on our vision for what Attentive can become. Moreover, they have an incredible track record, which will surely help us as we grow.
RT: Why do you think Portuguese startups are so relevant and able to attract foreign investment?
DA: There’s a very combination of benefits that Portuguese startups can and should take advantage of, several of them have been shown repeatedly at #LIS: English-speaking, global ambitions, strong universities, and talent. In the last few years, as investors started to come for LIS and the Web Summit, they have built a local trust network that gives them the confidence in our talent. I’m pretty sure that will only increase over the next editions of LIS!
Gil Dibner, Founder and Managing Partner at Angular Ventures, has been confirmed as a speaker on Lisbon Investment Summit, happening on the 6th and 7th of June in sunny Lisbon.
The first time Gil came to Lisbon Investment Summit was a random accident, but a fortuitous one: he ended up meeting a founder of a company that became an angel investment. “I hope it’s the first of many” he added.
For startups hoping to get this type of luck and casually meet an investor at #LIS, or startups applying to compete on stage at the pitch competition, Gil suggests they think global: “Remember that every stage is a global stage. There really is no such thing as a “local” startup or startup hub.”
Thinking global is also one of the reasons Gil believes are in the growth of Lisbon as a startup hub, able to attract investment from around the world:
It’s increasingly clear that technology is a global business – and that great innovation can come from anywhere. It’s also clear that Lisbon has a strong and growing track record of producing companies with global significance.
Gil Dibner will be at Lisbon Investment Summit, an informal event that gathers the most innovative startups, seasoned investors and daring corporate innovators, happening in Lisbon on June 6th and 7th. Get tickets here.
