Seedcamp was camping in Budapest this week. If you?re a number person, you?ll love their number pitch: 200 applications, 20 selected teams and 2 investments. I had the pleasure to mentor 4 of the 20 startups. These teams came from Budapest, Bucharest, Brescia and Nis. It was a diverse event, carefully selected, quality fruit, strong mentors and a number of very serious investors from Central and Western Europe. The event was hosted in the Corvinus University, a prestigious location, and Peter Zaboji, the organiser amazed us again.
?European entrepreneurial investor of the year?? Klaus Hommels (early investor in Skype, Facebook, Xing and Spotify) has been on stage as key note speaker, mentored teams and was available for chit-chat ? wow ? I say wow because he wasn?t just wondering around in Budapest as a tourist, but he flew here as a friend of Peter (sits on EEF?s Advisory Board) and shared what was in his mind with the Seedcamp guys ? us. I still remember the shock in the room when he has spoken to one of the teams on stage and (I try to quote him) kindly said:
?Your target market is about 10,000 enterprises,
So, if you work super-hard and do your best ever job in the next 4 years,
You?ll hit $ 6 m in revenue, ?Jesus!
If you don?t think big, you?ll never get big?.
Surely shocking and so far away from the Central European reality; I was so glad to see this happening with my own eyes.
Taking it all to the next level, Peter invited us all to his E Liquidity event, sponsored by KoWerk. Here, about 150 people met and mixed, exchanged ideas and business cards or just simply had fun. In case you haven?t been to Peter?s events, he?s doing a great job of filling his friends? calendars with quality events like this, slowly but steadily building a hub or better ? a family ? of entrepreneurs, wannabees and enthusiasts in the region. There are people who drive for hours from Cluj, Ljubjana, Prague or Bratislava to drop by for a few hours, and then drive back home. I look around at these events and can?t believe that this is happening in Budapest. Or in other words, I can?t believe that I?m in Budapest. Something great has started, quality stuff and it?s growing in impact. Once in a fortnight, there?s announcement of $1 m investment into a startup (graduated at EEF?s accelerator course) who has been around, just drinking ros? and chatting on one of these events last week. It?s a true elite club, always quality, always productive and always fun.
Where is all this going? I haven?t a clue. Klaus Hommels said in his pitch something that I see as a steering factor in the European entrepreneur ecosystem though. He compared Europe, China and the USA in terms of startup revenue and average investment size in the light of GDP per capita. His tarot showed Europe and China somewhat in the same range, while they stood by the US column chart like a parking mall by a skyscraper. It?s obvious that startups make their big money in the US and Europe is purely the talent sourcing department ? and you know what? I?m very proud of this. The world has changed and I?m glad to see this rather special part of Europe to open and offer these amazing opportunities to the best talent ? to let them shine where there?s need for sunshine.
Source: http://www.europreneurs.org/2012/10/european-vc-ecosystem-visiting-budapest/
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