Entrepreneurship Weblog

  IE Venture Network

                                                                        Join IE Venture Network Thursday, 20th June 2013!

This weekly pitch slam is an invaluable resource for early stage entrepreneurs, a forum for engaging the entrepreneurial community, promoting your startup, and at best securing an investment from our Investors in Residence Wayra, Highgrowth Innovation, Big Sur Ventures, and Sodena.  The Venture Network is unique in that it is a very informal gathering where startups can meet investors in an informal setting over beers and snacks and focus on what’s important; building relationships.  The Venture Network is a great way to perfect your pitch, get feedback on your product, and meet the local startup community.

This week’s panel of startup experts include:

• Fernando San Martín, Director Estrategia StepOne Ventures
• Juan Capurro,  Managing Director Boltendahl International Partners
• Juan Carlos Rosique, Business Angels
• José Miguel Herrero, Big Sur Ventures

The three startups that will present their project in 7 minutes will be:

International Wayra Pitch Slam

ALISE DEVICES (representative of Wayra Madrid)

LILIAC, the security technology developed by ALISE DEVICES, marks a true quantum leap for the authentication and validation market. A totally flexible device, it can be customized to any shape, size, or color, and can be applied to any surface or object. A LILIAC label is much more than an authentication device: it can be incorporated into the trademarked product and form a part of the product identity just like any other brand element.

Overmediacast (representative of Wayra Brazil)

Pluggable video analytics on any platform.

TBD (representative of Wayra Brazil)

IE Venture Network will be held every Thursday, from 7pm to 9.30 pm, at “AREA 31” María de Molina 31, CP: 28006 Madrid

Para registrarse, por favor rellene el formulario
http://entrepreneurship.ie.edu/venture-network

Author: Ilya Goldshtein

Last Thursday people who went to Area 31 to participate in the already famous IE Venture Network might have been a little bit surprised. Area 31 decided to change a bit the face of the IE Venture Network for this one day, if not to say to show a different side of it. As usually, they could see interesting business projects and get a piece of inspiration for their own; and they saw new online solutions appear on stage. But also, they were invited to make a one-hour journey to a field of the entrepreneurial land that we do not see that often (comparing to the total amount of startups) and which has started to boost recently. All three teams pitching that day were Social Entrepreneurship projects.

The first one to present was Jose Luis Ruiz de Munain. He presented his new company –  UnLtd Spain. This company is a spinoff of the global network of UnLtd, a Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs located in the UK. UnLtd Spain will operate in Madrid in order to support Social Entrepreneurial projects with its very wild exciting network. Right now the company is looking for partners: funding partners, knowledge partners (academic institutions, consulting groups) and individuals who would like to participate in this fast growing project. He also has another company (a member of 1^st intake of Area 31 Alumni Startup Incubator), that is called ChangeFusion Europe. ChangeFusion Europe is a platform of entrepreneurs dedicated to the promotion, creation and funding of innovative and economically sustainable social enterprises with a principal objective to address social or environmental problems.

The second team was presenting the project called Dispeople, a LinkedIn for people with disabilities, as its founders explain it. As a result of collaboration of several current IE IMBA students, the project is brining to the table a very important social issue that people with disabilities have to face in searching for a job. They get rejected at job interviews due to their disabilities. Companies put too much weight on what they believe a disabled person cannot do rather than focusing on the enormous array of skills and abilities they do have.  At the same time, when companies need to hire people with disabilities as enforced by law they cannot find them. People with disabilities won’t declare it on LinkedIn or their CVs in fear of being rejected. To be able to solve this problem Dispeople offers to create a new job searching platform, especially designed for people with disabilities and companies looking to hire them.

The last project was Ecologing, presented by its founder Nicola Cerantola. His company offers their customer strategic “ecoinnovation training” and consultancy. Trying to solve the problem of many industrial companies used to old production models, Ecologing proposes a different approach to business which is accomplished by “bioinspired thinking”. In his 7 minutes pitch Nicola said that “it is time to do some real changes in the Mediterranean Region by leaving unsustainable business models and switching to sustainable ones” by implementing the so-called  “circular minimum viable product”. And this time is definitely now, “before people start to feel the pain” from their careless actions.

  IE Venture Network
Join IE Venture Network Thursday, 13^th  June 2013!

This weekly pitch slam is an invaluable resource for early stage entrepreneurs, a forum for engaging the entrepreneurial community, promoting your startup, and at best securing an investment from our Investors in Residence Wayra, Highgrowth Innovation, Big Sur Ventures, and Sodena.  The Venture Network is unique in that it is a very informal gathering where startups can meet investors in an informal setting over beers and snacks and focus on what’s important; building relationships.  The Venture Network is a great way to perfect your pitch, get feedback on your product, and meet the local startup community.

The Venture Network´s resident panel of startup experts include:

• Peter Bryant, Professor of Entrepreneurship IE Business School
• Gary Stewart, Director of Wayra Spain
• José Miguel Herrero, Big Sur Ventures

The three startups that will present their project in 7 minutes will be:

PanamNav

PanamNav provides advanced geolocation services with authentication of location and time, a unique feature protected by patent. This feature can reduce the fraud of credit card transactions to near zero percent when applied to smartphones usage. Many other applications can benefit from this product for a safer world.

Geozate Games

Geozate Games is a company of geolocalitations games, Geozate allows  to the players play in the street and real time, GeoZate is the first game of Geozate Games: the players must look for and they hunt between them and they play for a prize buy in the Geozate shop.

 Heyou

Heyou Could be defined as the first smartphone application between the Dating and the IM app. The changes is focused in the creation and personalize an Avatar to make easy the identification between user/avatar. Target (15-25 years old). Heyou can make easier contact with new people

IE Venture Network will be held every Thursday, from 7pm to 9.30 pm, at “AREA 31” María de Molina 31, CP: 28006 Madrid

AGENDA 7pm_8pm Pitch Slam – 8pm_ Networking

Para registrarse, por favor rellene el formulario
http://entrepreneurship.ie.edu/venture-network

Author: Ilya Goldshtein

Last Thursday Alice and Lupe lead a workshop about work/life balance for entrepreneurs in the frame of the Mindfulness sessions (one of the initiatives that have been launched by Area 31 Alumni Startup Incubator’s teams). The company of Alice and Lupe is called Focus on Women (focusonwomen.es). It is the first retail travel agency aimed at women in Spain. Their objective is to show 14+ destinations through the eyes of local women who host meetings and activities with travellers, by sharing their culture and customs. In their every day life Alice and Lupe try to help people to spend their leisure time in a different and meaningful way. They also know how important it is to plan your vacation, to be able to do it.

However, planning our vacation or holidays’ trips we often forget that our life is not just “days at work” and “weekends”. Our life should be balanced in between. In their presentation, Alice and Lupe were talking about importance of this balance, and what can happen with a person who does not have this balance. After making a small exercise, participants were offered to analyze their daily schedule in a way they could incorporate their personal life in their without making a conflict with their job or career plans. The set off tools Focus on Women provided was very helpful and easy to implement.

We all can fulfill our professional and personal life with harmony, we just need to find a balance!

IE Venture Network Social
A pitch slam for social entrepreneurship @ Area 31
Join IE Venture Network Thursday, 6^th  June 2013!

This weekly pitch slam is an invaluable resource for early stage entrepreneurs, a forum for engaging the entrepreneurial community, promoting your startup, and at best securing an investment.  This weeks’ event will be focused on Social Entrepreneurship. The Venture Network is unique in that it is a very informal gathering where startups can meet investors & experts in an informal setting over beers and snacks and focus on what’s important; building relationships.  The Venture Network is a great way to perfect your pitch, get feedback on your product, and meet the local startup community.

The Venture Network´s resident panel of startup experts include:

• Conchita Galdón, Director of Area 31
• Max Oliva, CEO of The Hub Madrid
• Isabel García-Lomas Drake, Creas
• Luis Camilleri, Ashoka
• Bowei Gai, World Startup Report

The three startups that will present their project in 7 minutes will be:

José Luis Ruiz de Munain, UnLtd Spain. 

UnLtd Spain – Programme for Social Entrepreneurs is a brand new initiative launched by a group of Spanish entrepreneurs with the support of UnLtd – The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. Born in 2003 thanks to a £100 million endowment fund provided by the British Government, UnLtd represents a global platform for enabling peer to peer support network for the incubation, development and growth of early stage social entrepreneurship around the world. It is already established in India, Thailand, South Africa and Ireland with Hong Kong, China, Singapore in the development process!

Ana Isabel Marcos, José luis de Rosario y Jesús Mata, Dispeople

Dispeople is the professional network where companies and people with disabilities can meet and share interests

Nicola Cerantola, Ecologing

Ecologing is a business design consultancy company focused on ecoinnovation and circular design. Our main scope is to inspire, train & help business in the transition to the new paradigm of the circular economy. At present, we are working in different projects at international level, mostly in the mediterrean area

IE Venture Network will be held every Thursday, from 7pm to 9.30 pm, at “AREA 31” María de Molina 31, CP: 28006 Madrid

AGENDA 7pm_8pm Pitch Slam – 8pm_ Networking

Para registrarse, por favor rellene el formulario
http://entrepreneurship.ie.edu/venture-network

Last month we launched the application process for the 2^nd Edition of the IE Alumni Startup Incubator in Area 31. This recently launched incubator is focused on supporting IE Alumni entrepreneurs and their teams. The quality of the applicants’ projects has been even higher on average than in last edition’s application process. The job of the selection committee is getting harder every time around. There are a many innovative entrepreneurs among the IE Alumni!

The selected 15 teams will spend the next 6 months working from Area 31, the open space for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in IE Business School. They will be joined by selected teams from the first edition who, due to their achievements during their time in Area 31 and strong commitment to creating a strong network within Area 31, have been granted another 6 month stay in the incubator. Their role is to ensure the transmission of the culture of Area 31 on to the next edition. These top teams from the first edition are:

• Trajesamedida.com
• Letsdecco!
• uniQinu
• Innubu
• camare.ro
• Soysuper
• Pathfinder

Finally, we are very excited to announce the names of the teams that will join the second edition of the IE Alumni Startup Incubator at Area 31:

• People Sports
• Echoboom Apps
• The Dumpling Club
• Flow
• Etceter
• Cursopedia
• SMARTLIGHT Inc.
• Smooth Mobility S.L.
• Weneru
• Golsie
• BePetly
• KoiApp
• BIDrink
• Savi Swap
• Quierocurro.com

La 2ª edición de Pasion>ie, Pasión por innovar y emprender, concluye con la satisfacción por parte de los promotores del programa (Accenture e IE Business School)y de las entidades colaboradoras (Ayuntamiento de Madrid, BBVA, Endesa, Ferrovial, Philips, Repsol, Servicio Madrileño de Salud, Telefónica, Vodafone y Zurich) de haber conseguido, en gran medida, cumplir con el principal objetivo del programa: apoyar a los emprendedores en el ámbito de innovación y guiarles en el camino que les llevará a hacer realidad sus proyectos.

En esta 2ª edición Pasion>ie se ha consolidado como un programa de referencia para todos los que están convencidos de que la innovación y el emprendimiento es uno de los caminos que nos ayudrán a mirar hacia el futuro con optimismo. Esto se ha demostrado con los casi cien proyectos recibidos en esta edición para el concurso de ideas a través de www.pasionie.com, plataforma que desde su creación en 2011 cuenta con casi 14.000 visitas y 800 registrados.

Este programa que apoya a los emprendedores ya tiene ganadores en su 2ª edición; son FaceOn, Liliac y Bettercare, en las categorías ‘Ciudad del futuro’, ‘Distribución del futuro’ y ‘Sanidad del futuro’, respectivamente.

Faceon system, es un software para el reconocimiento facial para evitar la suplantación de identidad, Liliac, es la tecnología que elabora dispositivos anti-falsificación fruto de varios años de investigación. Tienen un bajo coste de fabricación y resultan visibles con luz polarizada.

Better Care, una plataforma que incorpora alarmas avanzadas para la monitorización de pacientes críticos que permite incluso su seguimiento desde centros médicos con escasez de personal especializado.

Los proyectos ganadores recibirán los apoyos necesarios para desarrollar sus proyectos e implementarlos, además de otros premios en especie como un paquete de seguros “Zurich Emprendedor” o la posibilidad de visitar el Centro de Innovación de Philips en Eindhoven (Holanda).

El resto de proyectos finalistas son: BSF, Betterways, Geozate, MyVision, Primum, Project Erle, SDK Wave Turbine y Wabi Sabi EcoFashionConcept.

Estos proyectos en sí mismos representan el triunfo de la innovación y el emprendimiento. Nos vemos en la 3ª edición de este programa que aúna pasión, innovación y emprendimiento.