Great results with our organizing partners: H13 Diák- és Vállalkozásfejlesztési Központ and HUNBAN. Thank you!
The organizers were very happily surprised by the huge number of participants in an English speaking workshop on innovation – women-region. 80 participated with 10% men included. Even for the pro-action café, several hours later (facilitatiors: Antónia Imre, Eszter Szabó and Ágnes Puskás) on the future of Women/Business/Angels angel investor and startup training, we had 30 people putting in their extra hours. The success was beyond expectation and serves as a stepping stone for the one-and-a-half-year organisation.
Women/Business/Angels founders and all Hungarian and international partners participated at the event. Apart from the main organizing partners mentioned above the intellectual power came from the partners:
CEE Business Angels (CEEBAN), and Business Professional Women Budapest (BPW), Vállalatvezetők Üzleti Közössége (MVÜK) representing 400 CEOs and Hungarian Economic Association.
Some examples from the speakers
Ambassador of Finland to Hungary, Markku Virri stressed that he was pleased with the invitation to the workshop. „ We are looking forward to finding ways to cooperate with Women/Business/Angels in Budapest. We hope to be able to contribute to this very important, growing sector also in 2019,”- said the ambassador.
Emilia Mamajova founder of Espira Investment in the Czech Republic inspired the audience with her personal motivations as an investor. She explained why she chose education as the found’s first investment. She gave a positive example, what it means to have a female investors, highlighting the importance of a “gender lense” for venture capital investments. Espira’s EUR 50 million fund’s first investment was in an education company with a very young man as a founder. Besides the founder, his assistant was responsible for several areas of the management. By the end of the closing of the investment she promoted to the COO of the company from an assistant. An external point of view was needed for this promotion to happen. Mrs Mamajova stressed the importance of women in the decision making of the economy.
“There is no gender in professionalism,”- said Eszter Szabó, the founding president of the Women / Business / Angels Association. “However, with the greater role of women in investing, we activate a previously hidden financial and knowledge capital. As a side effect we create a stronger, more collaborative culture in the innovation ecosystem here. Women need to believe that their contribution is necessary for international competitiveness in Central- and Easter Europe”- she added.
All participants agreed that business angel investment happens if the idea is original and the founder has self-confidence to execute, while on the investor’s side trust in the founder is crucial. The second most common reason why a start up fails is the lack of capital, but if they do not start, we all lose. First of all we are building the next generation of businesses for a better economic future. “
Andrea Dintser and Imre Hild talked about the lesson learned from the association’s 14 monthly pilot training sessions so far as well as the next phrase of the training.
An all female business success stories panel was moderated by Péter Szalay, Managing Director of IBM Hungary (COO), a member of the Advisory Board of the Women / Business / Angels. This panel scored the highest based on the feedback form after the workshop. Participants were: Virág Réti, founder and managing director of Capsolutely, Nóra Szeles, founder and leader of the Capital Portal, and Antónia Imre is the strategic advisor to the Invendor Innovatiton Academy. They shared results, national and international experiences in building a business.
Virág Réti as a bionic engineer together with her husband changed from a researcher to a startupper. They build a business in the USA and in Hungary with the help of an American angel investment.
Nóra Szeles, a market management consultant and founder of Tőkeportál, Hungary’s first crowdfounding equaty portal just about to start operation. She stressed crowdfunding is becoming more and more popular worldwide, and its principles must be fully understood by all stakeholders.
Antónia Imre has been shaping the Hungarian startup culture since 2012 working with numerous CEE companies. Her own company’s, the InVendor’s team organizes start-up events every year in Budapest. As a businesswoman who was born in Bulgaria and lives in Hungary, she is committed to helping more women and young people to become entrepreneurs in our region.
Look for Women/Business/Angel’s next phrase of training and follow it on social media for the new and see you at the 6th workshop.