#Realitycheck on the international aspirations of Hungarian start-ups

Women/Business/Angels Association, together with its partners, Global Traction and IBM Hungary  hold a forum on the trends of Hungarian and regional start-ups on 11 November 2019. After a welcome note by Eszter Szabó, President of Women/Business/Angels, an introductory presentation was given by Achilles Georgio, Assessor for Management Development program at IBM on the role of those “superhero” start-ups that can “sail the stormy seas” of the global business environment. He was followed by Imre Hild, CEO of Global Traction who shared the results of a research analyses conducted on the sample of 240+ innovative companies in the framework of a regional road show study. Based on this unique research effort, the audience have learnt about the fields where Hungarian start-ups excel and where they need support to develop.

The forum continued with a panel discussion on the relationship of innovative start-ups and multinational companies. Corporate accelerators emphasized the role of “sponsors” at multinationals for start-up relations, the crucial importance of people understanding both the multinational and the start-up mindset, who by “speaking both languages”, can conciliate and support the cooperation of the companies despite the difference in their size, approach and mentality. “Decision making on procurement at multinationals can last up to 6-12 months. In that timeframe a start-up can go bankrupt, if financing is not secured” – said Kinga Daradics, head of MOL Integrated Platforms and Solutions.

The forum ended with a short summary from Peter Szalay, COO of IBM Hungary, and Eszter Szabó, President of Women/Business/Angels Association.