The role of women – Forum & roundtable on…

The role of women in re-launching the economy and innovation decision making

Forum & policy stakeholder roundtable

22 November 2021

Join us live in Budapest, or follow the discussion online!

The global pandemic has affected our lives in almost every aspect from our health and families to our economy and our prospects. It is a challenge not only to re-launch the economy but to re-launch it on a path that leads to more resilience, growth and sustainability on a national and a regional basis.

This path should include more women and more investments into innovation in the V4+ and the Central-Eastern European regions where market economy is much younger than in Western Europe. As a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation driving the discussion we connect stakeholders from two axes – V4+ countries plus Norway, Serbia, Romania – for the first time. This is why a policy discussion is long due on the topic of business angel investments, innovative start-ups and more female participation in both parts.

We invite the stakeholders to discuss their approach, share their opinions and display their results in special roundtables on innovation and business angel investments.

Program*

15.00 – 15.15
Registration, Welcome coffee
Introduction of the “Ask about WINGATE!” desk

15.15 -15.20
Welcome from Women / Business / Angels Association – Eszter Szabó (President)

15.20 – 15.30
Opening speech: Amb. Petr Mareš (Executive Director, IVF, TBC)

15.30 – 16.20
How to involve more women into innovation funding? Opportunities and bottlenecks
Policy stakeholder roundtable. (Supported by the IVF)
Moderator: Edit Szilágyiné Bátorfi (Former Executive Director, IVF)
Participants:

• István Szabó PhD. (National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Vice President for Science and International Affairs)
• Irén Márta (Director, Business Council for Sustainable Development in Hungary)
• Beatrix Bedő (Co-founder, Incubation Lead, Angel, Impact Hub)

16.20 – 17.10
Innovation in many colors – Innovation support case studies with the support of the WINGATE project
(Co-funded by the EEA and Norway Grant Regional Cooperation Grant)
Moderator: Beatrix Bedő (Co-founder, Incubation Lead, Angel, Impact Hub)
Participants:

• Jeanette Grendahl (Women Investment Network, Norway, TBC)
• Emilia Mamajova (Co-Founder, Espira Investments, Czech Republic)
• Aleksandar Bijelić (Director, SeVeN, Serbia)

17. 10 – 17.20
Key takeaways in innovation and the role of women in funding
(V4+ and WINGATE panels + audience)

17.20 – 17.30
Closing speech: Janina Lamøy (Innovation Norway)

17.30
Invitation from the Norwegian Ambassador to Budapest (TBC)

18.00- 19.30
Reception at the Norwegian Embassy (with separate invitation & registration)

The working language of the forum is English.

*We reserve the right to change the program!

How to participate

For personal attendance, please register here:

REGISTRATION

The event is available online on Zoom, please click here to register in advance!

The event is an opportunity to learn from the experiences of two different projects that nevertheless have similar goals – supporting innovative women entrepreneurs and business angels – and an overlapping geographical coverage.

The WINGATE project: Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Norway

We are also beneficiary partners in the WINGATE project, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation. This consortium work across Norway, Serbia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, supporting and training women entrepreneurs and women business angels.

The Visegrad 4+ project: Visegrad 4+ countries

Women/Business/Angels Association is the consortium leader of a project, co-funded by the International Visegrad Fund, with participating partners from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Georgia and Moldova besides Hungary. We aim to support the development of business angeldom and innovation ecosystem building in these countries and within that, the role that women play in making investment decisions in innovative startups.

Implemented by:

WBA Club: Me as an investor – Grand Finale

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In the framework of the WINGATE project, supported by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation, Women/Business/Angels Association has organized a forum on the evening on 29 June 2021 around the theme of “Me as an investor”.

The goal was to show the aspects and details of business angeldom, to introduce newcomers – both entrepreneurs and potential investors – to the domain and to elaborate a bit on the tricks and treats of being an angel.

While Barbara Verő, WBA Club Director opened the forum live from the TRIP ship in Budapest, speakers also joined us via Zoom from all parts of Europe.

First, Eszter Szabó, President of WBA spoke about WBA’s mission and goals, then Renata Anna Jaksa introduced the WINGATE project – an international collaboration aimed at supporting, training and connecting women entrepreneurs and business angels. Trine Skymoen, Ambassador of Norway reminded us about the place of women – which is “at the helm, in the office, in the lab, in space and so forth” and urged business and society to “play football without benching half of the team – the women”.

Then Amparo de San José Riestra, CEO of the prominent Spanish IESE’s Business Angel Network and Board Member of EBAN urged angels and angel networks across Europe to share knowledge and collaborate with each other. Closing the first part of the programme, Ivar Siimar from the Estonian Business Angels Network emphasized the importance of syndicated angel investments – which allows to “combine your knowledge and expertise with other investors” and to learn by doing while risking only a limited amount of funds.

The next panel discussion, moderated by Imre Hild, WBA Training Director, offered a complex view of the dilemmas of angel investing. Participants were Júlia Sohajda (Vespucci Partners), Bea Bedő (Impact Hub), Zoltán Kovács. The qualified investors pointed out the role of angels – “be part of the team but not the boss”, and the need for openness and curiosity – “it is not the who-knows-best, but the how-can-we-learn”.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Training: What Makes a Company Valuable?

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Women/Business/Angels Association held its 4th training in its 2021 Spring Semester series on 25 May, from 6PM CET. The training was a comprehensive walk-through on start-up and company evaluation, presenting the topic from every possible angle.

After Imre Hild, resident trainer of WBA opened the event and Eszter Szabó, president of WBA welcomed the participants, two special speakers were on board for the evening.

First, Emilia Mamajova shared her experiences. She is Founding Partner of ESPIRA Investments, a private equity firm targeting growth capital investments in Central-Europe-based SMEs with a special attention to gender balance. She talked about all the relevant financial and managerial factors to overview before making investments. Emilia highlighted that sustainability is the key in financial, marketing and management terms as well. The most important human factors are the integrity of the management and the trust relation between management and investors: to avoid micromanagement and too close monitoring.

Péter Kádas, the well-known Hungarian entrepreneur, investor and blogger talked about the case of early-stage startups, where traditional metrics are less relevant. According to Peter, “it does not matter how much of the company you’ll own -don’t be greedy!” – but to choose the right startups and to act swiftly are crucial. Make your decision and due diligence in 30 days – and be ready to move on! After all, only 10% of the exists make the 85% of the profits and not even all companies make the exit. Furthermore, keep some of your budget aside for follow-on investments – also called “doubling down”.

The training was closed by a short Q&A session and an invitation to our next event – the 4th Club on 8 June from 6PM CET.

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Club: The Investment Process

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The 3rd Club event of the WBA 2021 Spring Semester was held on 11 May from 6PM CET with the business angel investment process in focus, through three different entrepreneurial case studies.

We invited Webshippy and Bindr, and we also introduced a newcomer start-up company.

Highlights of the event:

• After Barbara Verő, WBA Club Director opened the scene, Eszter Szabó, WBA’s President welcomed the participants.
• The first company introduced was Webshippy, whose co-founder Imre Hild told us the story of the company. The most important lessons from the case highlighted the difference between institutional and professional investors, and raised a good question on smart choices in terms of going with domestic and /or international investors.
• Márton Kosdi-Kovács from Bindr came as our second speaker. He recounted the story of the special app designed to help students learn from each other, to overcome procrastination and alienation (that hit hard on student communities in the times of the pandemic). Márton emphasized that the most important task for a startupper is to work with the product itself, talk to the users, keep on developing. If the product is good and appreciated by the users, the investors will come.
• The third case was pitched by Péter Ványik, founder of QA Auto, aiming at solving a long-term problem of information asymmetry on the market of used cars. In this brilliant network designed for buyers, sellers and car repair shops everyone wins if they cooperate clean and transparent.

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Training: The Investment Process

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Women/Business/Angels Associaton’s third training event in its 2021 Spring Semester – held on 27 April from 6PM – looked at the investment process itself related to business angel investments into startups.

Imre Hild on behalf of WBA opened the training and introduced the first speaker, Erik Bovee from SpeedInvest.

• Erik talked about the similarities and differences of the US and the European/CEE ecosystems, emphasizing that the European investment environment has developed a lot in the last 10 years and it is built on very good foundations – good education and significant amount of investment funds. Erik pointed out the special place CEE holds in the global investment scene – the opportunity for angels to make good money by finding excellent local startups and helping them to step up to a larger market. “Once those founders step off the plane in San Francisco, you have already doubled your money” – he said. Erik advised us about certain factors to look for in a startup while he also warned us about red flags.
• In the second part of the training, Levente Zsembery, Chairman of the Hungarian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association gave us an excellent talk about the valuation process of companies. He not only helped us better understand how to evaluate the startup, the product, the market, the status of the investment but also pointed out that “the investment story” is only a part of a larger equation. Even more important to keep in mind the potential exit stories, and mentioned that investors do appreciate flexibility, when the startup foresees more than one potential prospective outcome.
• Finally, we invited the participants to our next event, the 3rd WBA Club on 11 May from 6PM, with startups like Webshippy and Bindr sharing their stories on the investment process and angel cooperation. Eszter Szabó, President of WBA thanked all for the evening and urged the audience to sign up for WBA’s upcoming events!

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Club: The Lifecycle of start-ups

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Our second Club event was held on 13th April in the framework of the WBA Spring Semester 2021!

The event was hosted by Barbara Verő, and as welcoming notes, Eszter Szabó, the President of WBA highlighted some key elements of the Training and Club event series.

Highlights of the event:

• Imre Hild introduced our speakers of the day: first, Kristóf Bárdos, co-founder of Green Fox Academy shared his experiences with start-ups, angels and investments. He pointed out that the most important for start-up founders is to really and deeply understand the problem they are trying to solve. Kristóf also helped us to better understand investor dynamics: for example VCs, contrary to the common misbelief, are happy to see an angel investor on board, and are not interested in buying out the angel. Rather, working together, building on the angels’ expertise and network, the chances of success multiply.
• Our second speaker was Emese Pancsa, co-founder of Compocity. Emese explained that expertise should be the most important when you are building a start-up’s team. She also compared the relationship of the start-up and the investor to a marriage in terms of commitment.
• The third speaker of the evening was Andrew Hartványi from the start-up Stokes that offers a smart, AI-based recommendation solution for websites and their customers.

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Training: The Lifecycle of start-ups

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Our second training event was held on 30th March in the framework of the WBA Spring Semester 2021!

“Opportunity does not have a huge sign on its forehead, saying this is an opportunity” – said Imre Hild at Women Business Angels’ second training on 30 March from 6 PM.

Highlights of the event:

• Eszter Szabó, president of WBA opened the event and Imre Hild made his introductory presentation. An important takeaway was that the crucial element to success is timing: if a business idea – even if it is good – is too early, or maybe too late, it will not prosper.
• Imre was followed by Christopher ‘Che’ Mott, who shared with us his experiences in the IT&AI scene from the US and Europe. According to Che, no matter how smart the founders are, how brilliant a start-up idea is, good strategic business thinking must be added to the mix in order to thrive.
• Gergely Németh introduced our next speaker, Attila Petheő from Corvinus University. Attila is an academic by day, an entrepreneur by night, having enterprises working at many Hungarian and international festivals and events – from Lupa glamping to Glastonbury. He provided us with many examples and interesting insights from his experiences.

The training was closed by a short Q&A and the invitation to our next WBA Club event on 13 April at 6 PM.

You can watch the highlight of the event here.

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Club: The ecosystem

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Our first Club event was held on 16^th March in the framework of the WBA Spring Semester 2021!

Continuing the theme analyzed at the first training on 2 March, we have investigated the state of the art of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) innovation ecosystem.

Some highlights of the event:

• After Eszter Szabó, President of WBA opened the event, Ádám Somlai-Fischer from Prezi talked about his experiences in the US innovation ecosystem and how those can be adapted in CEE. He also explained the Bridge Budapest initiative that aims to change the framework, the mindset around Hungarian enterprises and entrepreneurship. Ádám emphasized the role of diversity and the role of women’s involvement into innovation.
• He was followed by Enikő Nőthig-Hegedűs, co-founder of EdUcate, who underlined the importance of connections, expertise and advice – as the most important tools for development. She advised new startups to go and pitch to investors as soon as they can, because the feedback is crucial from the first steps.
• The next speaker, Emese Katona, co-founder from the start-up Askara pitched their concept on a special social game for couples, trying to respond to the challenges placed by COVID on relationships. The pitch was followed by questions, comments and suggestions from angels and angel-to-bes.

See highlights of the event here.

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA Training: The ecosystem

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The first online training of Women/Business/Angels was on 2^nd March, which was the kick-off event of the 2021 Semester.

It was very good to see how many people were interested in this topic. Based on the presentations and discussions it is clear, that the innovation ecosystem is a very complex topic, and fortunately we had the opportunity to examine it from several perspectives. This event will be followed by 4 more trainings like this on a monthly basis, and in between these trainings we will organise club events, concentrating more on the practical part of angel investments.

Some highlights of the event:

• The advice from Imre Hild was to know the local and global players who can help start-ups otherwise you keep repeating the same old mistakes as a founder.
• Dr. Christina Theodoraki emphasised that no one should copy and paste the Silicon Valley model as every location is different.
• Gary Whitehill stressed that local sharks can distort a promising path international and local master minds  draw to build a  successful and fast roadmap for an ecosystem.

You can watch the highlights here.

How can you learn more about the Semester and join it? Fill in the registration form on the website!

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

1. Barbara Verő (vero.barbara@futureproofconsulting.eu, +36205565058)
2. or Eszter Szabó (eszter.szabo@eszterforcee.com)

WBA CEE Angel Club | Demo 2

16 February 2021, 18.00 – 21.00