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 16th 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)

First Business Angel Training Course and WBA Angels Club…

Budapest, 2 March 2021 -The Women/Business/Angels Association (WBA) was excited to announce its first international Business Angel Training Course and the launch of WBA Angels Club, focused on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This biweekly hands-on course, loaded with practical cutting-edge content runs between 2 March and end of June. Through our program – organized with HUNBAN as a professional partner-, CEE executives can learn about angel investing, grow their network, and try out their newly-acquired skills of angel investment in a non-threatening environment. The programs both feature a line-up of some of the most prominent angel investors and offer networking opportunities with promising startups in the region.

The speakers are experienced global angel investment community members. The list includes Gary Whitehill, Eric Bovee, Dr. Christina Theodoraki, Martin Olczyk, Barnabás Málnay, Ádám Somlai Fisher, Attila Petheő and many others. The trainers of the course are Imre Hild, the ED of Global Traction and Gergely Németh the owner of Cova.

In the past 10 years, we have witnessed a growing need for angel capital in the CEE startup scene. Yet the angel investor community has not been growing as fast as the startup ecosystem requires. There is a shortage of information and best practices. And, let’s face it, investing in emerging companies can be quite nerve-wracking at first. While diving in and making angel investments is one way to learn, this can be time-consuming and costly given the high risk nature of this type of investing. To spare you from early failures, we are offering a course tailored to the needs of CEE-based professionals.

The monthly topics covered from March:

  1. The ecosystem
  2. The startup lifecycle
  3. The investment process
  4. What makes a company valuable?
  5. Me, as an investor: the roles and responsibilities of an angel investor.

“30 years after the change to market economy CEE business executives have something valuable to offer to the early stage startups. They can become mentors and later can provide early stage funding. Gender diversity will also bring a plus.” – said Imre Hild, a member of Women/Business/Angels Association’s Executive Board.

You can learn more about and even join the just starting semester on
https://www.wbusinessangels.com/business-angel-training/

Share on LinkedIn and on Facebook.

You can read about the highlights of the first event here. 

Background:

Business/Women/Angels Association aims to grow the number of angel investors in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and works with its coalition partners. The Association invites a wider audience, both women and men, to gain experience, learn about new opportunities and new ways to make the region’s economy stronger while having a return on investment for each person. The Association was founded in 2017 and was recognised as a European Best Practice by Candace Johnson, President of EBAN in 2017. The Association is non-profit, non-partisan. Members pay a yearly membership fee. Other sources of income are from EAA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation, the International Visegrad Fund and NEA: Check out our website: https://www.wbusinessangels.com/en/.

WBA Training: The ecosystem

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The first online training of Women/Business/Angels was on 2nd 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

Our second and last demo started on 16th February 2021! We introduced the upcoming and unique WBA Angels Club and Training 2021 Semester.
In the first part of the 16th February Club event You could learn about the content foreseen, how to join the Semester and how you would learn new skills during the 10 biweekly sessions between March 2nd and the end of June.
In the second half of the meeting a CEE start-up from the entertainment industry met with our Women/Business/Angels executive board for feedback. Start-ups learned how to pitch to investors and how to best use valuable feedback while potential angels get experience with start-ups.
Invited experts:
– Zoltan Vardy: Business Growth Mentor, The Launch Code
– László Medgyasszay Jr. – event organizer, creative director – Medwe Events

16 February 2021, 18.00 – 21.00

WBA CEE Angel Club | Demo 1

This time two CEE startups will consult with the Women/Business/Angels executive board. The startups are in accounting and urban mobility. Founders can learn how to pitch to potential investors and how to get feedback.
Executives learn how to become business angel investors. Startups will be introduced by Imre Hild.

Please register at womenbusinessangels@gmail.com to receive the Zoom meeting credentials!
Only registered attendants can participate. Please also share this invite to this event.
The session will be held in Hungarian.

 

12 January 2021, 18.00 – 20.00

What is the potential of women as entrepreneurs and…

Innovation and entrepreneurship are the cornerstones of resilience and growth in the era of economic turbulence and disruption. Yet, the number of prospective innovative enterprises able to compete on global markets are still below its potential in Central and Eastern Europe.

WINGATE FORUM – Real innovative business talks about the role of women, capital needed and regional collaboration among stakeholders.

9 November 2020, 14.00 – 18.00

Learn more about the event