by ggomes | Mar 29, 2016 | Featured
There’s no doubt a Mentor can have a crucial role on a Startup’s way to success. Within the strong Lisbon Challenge network, there are three Core Mentors that will help and guide every single team from day one to the final pitch, covering these main areas: growth, product, tech and investment.
“It’s tempting to be focusing only on building your product/company during the program, but you should also focus on learning as much as possible, and try new things. Also, accept that many of the things you hold for true are actually hypothesis that you need to validate, and LC is the best place to do it. Lastly, be focus, be constant and show up, keep the involvement high.
My role is to push the teams to break the ice with their users and potential users, to help them go and talk with people, and build their own lean process for prototyping, testing and learning as efficiently as possible.” – Nicholas Mandelbaum.
Nicholas Mandelbaum – Former Entrepreneur and Development and Design Manager, Nicholas has more than 8 years in product design and management. He gathers a deep experience and a strong intuition into the right approach to deconstruct a problem and work on an effective user-centred strategy to solve it, always with a focus on UX/UI, innovative thinking and effective design.
Pedro Falcão – Currently Managing Partner of LC Ventures, the first global hands-on, accelerator investment vehicle based in Portugal. He counts with a solid background on managing funds and analyzing investment opportunities, that make him an expert in funding, pitching to investors and to what it takes for a startup to be investment-ready.
Fred Oliveira – Full Stack developer and UX designer, he was the first TechCrunch employee, a former 500 Startups mentor, Entrepreneur and now working at 1776, a global incubator based in Washington. As a Startup Advisor his focus areas are User Experience, Design, Development and Scaling.
“Mentors can help startups in many ways. On one hand many of the problems and struggles are common to many startups and mentors can surely help the startups address them in a better way.On the other hand, startups can lookup to mentors as someone with whom they can be totally open, being never afraid to say the wrong thing or to expose their weaknesses.” – Pedro Falcão
You can see who are the other mentors here.
by ggomes | Mar 23, 2016 | Featured
Once again, from the four corners of the world hundreds of Lisbon Challenge applications arrived at our HQ in Lisbon.
For days in a row, some of the most influential entrepreneurs, investors and mentors around were kept in a closed room, while carefully analysing each startup to see who would get the Golden Ticket for this Spring’s Lisbon Challenge.
Ok, maybe they got to step outside every now and then, but it definitely was an extremely difficult process. So, with this in mind, we would like to thank all the teams that applied and congratulate the selected ones – just remember to be in shape for your first training day next Monday.
So, without further ado, we bring to you the 13 teams who will be joining the Lisbon Challenge Spring 16:
Cryptopay
United Kingdom
Cryptopay is a bitcoin digital bank that allows to manage the everyday bitcoin needs (buying, selling and storing) along with the traditional banking services (payments, ATM withdrawals, FX conversions) in a cheaper and faster way than traditional high street banks.
Eat Tasty
Portugal
Eat Tasty connects home cooks and people ready to buy homemade food with an app that manages an hyper-local network of cooks, customers and suppliers. Everything is controlled from the ingredients to promoting competitive prices and making sure the Home Chefs receive their deserved income.
Fresh Land
Denmark
Fresh.Land is an online B2B trading platform between farmers and retailers. It replaces 3-5 middlemen, delivering freshly harvested produce from tree to store in days rather than months. It also grants farmers twice the price for their produce while providing retailers with higher-quality produce at lower prices.
Homcut
France
Homcut is a platform that allows to easily find, choose and book a professional hairdresser and bring him at home or office, fully equipped and at the same price of a salon.
Infraspeak
Portugal
Infraspeak allows companies responsible for large (or dispersed) infrastructures and maintenance services providers to excel at facility and asset management, through their software. It increases the control and productivity of the costumers, reducing bureaucracy, risks and costs.
Moyupi
Spain
Moyupi turns children’s drawings into unique toys, through a 3D printing technology and a team of artists, boosting the children’s creativity and bringing them back to the playground.
MyWineTour
Estonia
MyWineTour is like a personal wine expert, tour organizer and navigator teamed up in a Mobile App to recommend well-suiting wineries and personalized wine tasting tours according to a user’s taste and other preferences.
RealLife English
Brazil
RealLife English’s platform connects English teachers and courses to anyone that wants to work on their English fluency, through an instant face-to-face video chat.
Rnters
Portugal
Rnters is an online community platform where both rental companies and individuals can rent any personal item to other users in a safe way. It is a sharing economy facilitator.
TeamOutLoud
Portugal
TeamOutLoud is a social app for companies with a powerful employee recognition system that allows to increase employee engagement.
Tripaya
Portugal
Tripaya makes it easier to plan a trip or vacation by helping travelers to choose a destination based on interests and budget.
WeRoll
Portugal
WeRoll promotes group-storytelling through an app that creates private Rolls for each story, where any user involved can add pictures in real time, contributing to a feed that gives a real sense of the whole story.
Wonderoute
Portugal
Wonderoute is an online platform that enables travelers to request tailor-made travel guides to locals.
With such different areas adressed and highly motivated hustlers, this edition promises to be thrilling so don’t forget to keep up with the news – a lot can happen in one week.
by lc | Mar 16, 2016 | Featured
If Portugal(’s fame) in the last decades was still deeply attached to a past generation of explorers and remarkable sailing ventures, the last few years put Portugal and Lisbon again under the spotlight due to a rising community of adventurers and creators who have built a strong startup scene.
Crowned “European Capital of Entrepreneurship of 2015”, Lisbon welcomes the Web Summit next November, and the world’s top tech conference just shared a must read guide: “Lisbon: The Startup City Guide” with the help of some key influencers.
One of them, our own President, Pedro Rocha Vieira, starts by clarifying where Lisbon stands: “We are a far cry from the zombie lifestyles of some of the bigger tech hubs. We don’t need to be the Silicon Valley of Europe, we can be Lisbon”.
A great motto that highlights the city’s strong identity – where you’ll find a mixture of solid ideas, top talent and a hardworking network of accelerators, incubators, investors and mentors, topped with a great quality of life and low costs of living.
For instance Uniplaces, mentioned for their recent 24$ million Series A funding, was one of Lisbon’s Challenge Alumni that extracted the most out of all these resources available in the ecosystem.
So, whether if you’re a local or coming to Lisbon anytime soon, having a startup or waiting for your own leap of faith, Emer Henderson’s guide is definitely a must read. Learn about all the resources, main players, programs and events happening on a daily basis and feel free to reach us to know more about our own initiatives at Beta-i here.
What’s your point of view on Lisbon’s startup scene when compared to other renowned tech hubs?
The post Web Summit’s Ultimate Guide to Lisbon’s Startup Scene appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
by maria | Mar 15, 2016 | Uncategorized
A couple of months ago we got an email from Sandra Wolf from Codacy about this international Scala meetup they wanted to organise. However, what started off as a meetup turned out to be a ‘slightly’ bigger event… Codacy, together with 47 Degrees, is now organising, instead, the first international Scala conference in Southern Europe called Lx Scala.
Lx Scala is bringing to Lisbon top Scala experts, from all over Europe, to discuss the present and future trends around this programming language, in an event that promises to be a great learning and sharing experience.
Earlier last week, we spoke to Sandra Wolf, from Codacy, and Jorge Galindo, from 47 Degrees, who are the main organisers behind this event, to understand what this conference will bring to the table.
According to Jorge, Lx Scala “won’t be a huge conference, it will be personal and familiar, so that everyone can meet each other and share knowledge and experience around Scala.”
With top speakers and experts such as Noel Welsh from Underscore, Eric Torrebone from Zalando and Alexy Khravov from Scala By The Bay, this conference will be a great learning experience that has a lot to add to the tech community in Lisbon. “We’ve been organising scala meetups in Lisbon but this time, we’re taking a step further, and bringing to Lisbon great international experts” explains Sandra.
But, according to Sandra and Jorge, this conference doesn’t end when the keynotes and panels are over… It keeps its casual and informal atmosphere for the closing party, where a rock band will be playing live.
Lx Scala will be held at Microsoft on the 8th and 9th of April. So, make sure you get your ticket, as there are only 100 tickets available, and check all the details right here.
The post Lx Scala: the 1st International Scala Conference in Lisbon appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
by maria | Mar 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
A couple of weeks ago we found out that Remidi, an Italian startup from Lisbon Challenge Fall 2015 who blew everyone away with a music playing and recording glove, had launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. That made total sense… If there was a startup with a product for crowdfunding it had to be Remidi.
And as it turns out, their campaign completely matched the expectations, as they just announced that they reached their initial goal… in fact, as I write this, they have actually doubled their investment – it went up from 50.000 dollars to 114.000 dollars, from a total of 449 backers.
Impressive, right? But, just before we allow ourselves to get carried away in this crowdfunding frenzy, we need to understand why did Remidi’s crowdfunding campaign work so far. How did they pull it off? What can other entrepreneurs, who are also considering crowdfunding, learn from this? In other words, what does it take to successfully launch a crowdfunding campaign?
I did a bit of research on this and talked to Andrea Baldereschi, CEO and founder of Remidi, to get a few answers about the strategy for crowdfunding and here it is.
So, first things first…
Crowdfund where your audience is – choose the right platform
Not all startups should crowdfund. Yeah, I know it’s cool, but not all products can easily attract support from a general audience, simply because some products are too complex or just not that interesting for consumers. If you’re building a B2B software product for example, maybe going after Kickstarter or Indiegogo is not the way to go – your audience is not there. But if, on the other hand, you’re developing a B2C product, that is a physical product and not just a software (just like Remidi’s T8), you have real chances of nailing a crowdfunding campaign. You need to bear in mind that people will go after what they need and what they think is cool, and that’s what happens in most crowdfunding platforms.
For Remidi, for instance, choosing Kickstarter was a crucial factor. According to Andrea Baldereschi, CEO of Remidi, Kickstarter is “not only one of the coolest ideas and communities I’ve ever heard of, but it’s also managed and directed by the most open-minded and easygoing people that I’ve ever had to deal with – when you stream them your passion, they’ll help you as much as they can”.
So, if you’re building a B2B startup or just something that’s hard to explain to general public don’t do crowdfunding on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Take a look into other crowdfunding platforms that might be more suitable for you such as Seedrs, that focusses on startups mostly to help them get the best out of crowdfunding, taking a different approach from the generic platforms. However, you should really take the time to think this through. You don’t want your crowdfunding campaign to turn into a major flop.
Build an audience before launching
Most successful crowdfunding campaigns have taken the time to build an audience before kicking it off. Some of them have actually pre-campaigned for 3 years. And that was the case for Remidi as well. They decided to really focus on creating an audience during 8 months before launching the campaign. “If your idea is not properly marketed and if it doesn’t create buzz before the campaign, it will be very hard to reach the right amount of people needed to get to your goal” says Andrea.
Set a smart goal
Your goal shouldn’t be the money that you would like to raise but how much you actually need to develop your product. People love to bet on a winning project so if you get to your goal within the first week you’ll get much more backers from then on. Also, campaigns that have reached or surpassed their goal are usually highlighted on Kickstarter’s or Indiegogo’s homepage, so this is more exposure for your campaign.
In the end, just like I read on Forbes, what matters is for you to “set an amount high enough to cover the costs of actually manufacturing and delivering your product, but your goal should be one that you’re confident you can reach”.
Nail the pitch
This is all about how you tell the story and how you explain to your audience the real problem you’re solving. People support your campaign because they can relate with what you’re doing, they’re drawn to it. Don’t focus too much at first on lots of features, instead, let people know why you’re doing this and who is behind it. Introduce your team and be transparent. You should only emphasize the features later on and especially if you have some competition, because that’s what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Anyway, these were just some tips I picked up from a bunch of places and from Remidi’s experience. I really hope it helps those of you who are considering crowdfunding.
As for Remidi, their campaign is still up and running and they have now moved on to Techstars in Austin, where they’re putting together the pre-production sample before starting manufacturing. According to Andrea, Lisbon Challenge was “the most meaningful experience where we never learned so much in such a short period of time and it’s very hard to find such a dynamic and fun environment as we did in Beta-i”, but now it’s to “create a great network in the world of wearable technology and music tech”.
Of course that from our side we wish Remidi the best of luck and we hope you keep on surprising us with innovative technology that get us on the edge of our chairs.
P.S.: Check out Remidi’s Kickstarter campaign for some inspiration and if you’re interested back them up so that they can develop the first wearable instrument to record, play and perform.
The post How to successfully launch a crowdfunding campaign appeared first on Lisbon Challenge.
