Their insights and experiences shed light on the challenges and opportunities faced by healthtech startups in Romania.

We are grateful for their cooperation in sharing their vision with us!

Special thanks to VoxiKids, Eduson, The Care Hub, Docviser, Cardiomedive, Zitamine, Dahna, Digital Clinics, Sano-Meter, InnoVR Solutions, .lumen, Bright Living, Doctor 31, GenetX, NutriCare.Life, Telios Care & WakeZ.

Rising Interest of Romanian Investors in Healthtech Startups

The Romanian investment landscape has been seeing a rise in interest towards healthtech startups, especially in recent years. With the help of technological advancements, the healthcare sector has been able to offer new solutions to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases. 

As Romania’s startup ecosystem continues to grow, investors are increasingly interested in backing innovative healthtech companies that can tackle healthcare challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, resulting in a surge in demand for healthcare technology solutions.

From my experience there is a growing interest in healthtech startups among Romanian investors. Healthtech has become an increasingly important sector in recent years, as advancements in technology have enabled new ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases. Romania has a growing startup ecosystem, and investors are increasingly interested in backing innovative healthtech companies that can offer new solutions to healthcare challenges.

AnaMaria Onică – Co-founder & CEO Voxi

While interest in the space is high, there is a general perception among investors that the amount of money needed for a startup is too high, and the return on investment is expected to be short, usually lasting only one to two years. In healthcare, certification can last up to 18 months, which adds to the perceived risk. Despite this perception, a few interested investors have been successfully attracted to invest in medical startups, as they understand both the pros and cons of investing in such companies.

However, investors are more inclined to invest in startups that already have paying clients or can prove some type of traction. Although some investors may not consider healthtech as the best option to generate revenue due to the certification process, others are passionate about healthcare and see health tech products as being on a favorable trend.

The growing interest in healthtech among Romanian investors is a positive sign that the potential impact of healthtech on society is being recognized.

said Edi Butaru – Co-founder of InnoVR Solutions

The startup founders are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and are confident that investors and entrepreneurs alike will continue to recognize the need for improvement in the healthcare industry, including the mental health sector.

The Role of Technology Startups in Overcoming Healthcare Challenges in Romania: Collaboration and Openness towards Innovation

The healthcare system in Romania is in need of significant improvements, and technology and innovation have been recognized as a potential solution to many of its challenges. While some medical professionals are eager to explore new solutions and partnerships with startups, others remain reticent and resistant to change. The fear of the unknown and lack of understanding about technology and its potential impact on patient care and outcomes are contributing factors to this resistance.

I have big hopes that things will improve over time and these people will realize that technology must be to their advantage and not seen as a threat.

Alexandru Lazăr – CEO of Docviser

There is a growing number of startups in Romania focused on developing digital solutions to improve the healthcare system, but adoption of innovation in healthcare is slowed down by various factors, including regulation, funding, and mistrust in new technologies. Despite this, there is a positive trend in the interest and openness towards startups among medical professionals, particularly in the private sector. Many hospitals are beginning to accept and embrace the role of startups in providing technological solutions to existing healthcare challenges, and doctors are increasingly looking to become entrepreneurs or collaborate with startups to improve the healthcare experience.

It is important for medical professionals to recognize that technology can be an ally in improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. Collaboration between startups and healthcare providers is crucial in developing solutions that are reliable, tested, and certified to meet the demands of the healthcare industry.

While change is a process, the growing interest and openness towards startups in the healthcare system in Romania offer hope for a brighter future, declared Mirela Meită, founder of Digital Clinics.

Overcoming Obstacles: Improving the Healthtech Ecosystem for Startup Founders

The healthtech industry is rapidly growing, with startups continuously developing innovative solutions to address healthcare challenges. However, the ecosystem still faces several obstacles that impede the growth of healthtech startups. To address these challenges, several changes can be made to improve the ecosystem and make life easier for startup founders.

One of the biggest challenges that healthtech startups face is securing adequate funding to support research, development, and commercialization of their products or services. In order to tackle these difficulties, there should be an increase in funding opportunities, such as grants, venture capital, and government support. 

Many things need to change in the Romanian health tech ecosystem, but if we’re only referring to the start-up community, we would like to see more events gathering startup founders where we can share our experience, more funds/investors focused on this field, and also more support even from the government (maybe in the form of grants) to encourage innovation in this field.

Alexandra Stroe – Co-founder of Zitamine

Besides funding, streamlining regulations and creating a more transparent and predictable regulatory environment could help startups move more quickly and efficiently through the approval process. Collaboration and partnerships between healthtech startups, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders could also lead to more effective solutions that meet the needs of patients and healthcare providers.

Education and awareness is another aspect that needs to be addressed, said Daniela Tatu Chitoiu from Dahna. Increasing education and awareness around healthtech and its potential benefits could help generate more interest and investment in the sector. This could include initiatives to educate medical professionals and patients about new technologies and encourage adoption of innovative solutions that can improve healthcare outcomes. Moreover, digital literacy among doctors and hospital management should be emphasized to adopt technology and be more efficient in healthcare delivery.

In conclusion, the healthtech ecosystem requires several changes to support startup founders in bringing innovative solutions to healthcare challenges. The changes include increased funding, streamlined regulations, collaboration and partnerships, education and awareness, and digital literacy. These changes would make the journey of launching a healthtech startup less intimidating and make the life of a founder much easier.

The Future of Healthtech in Romania: Personalization, Innovation, and Access

The field of healthtech in Romania is rapidly evolving, with numerous developments expected in the next decade. As technology continues to advance, we can expect to see an increase in the adoption of digital health solutions, including wearables, telemedicine, and remote monitoring. These solutions could help improve access to healthcare services and reduce costs, particularly in underserved areas.

In addition, telemedicine and virtual care could also help improve access to healthcare services for children in rural or underserved areas, where in-person consultations may be difficult to arrange. This could be especially important for children with complex medical needs.

Personalized education and therapy programs, tailored to a child’s specific condition, level of functioning, and learning style, can be used to address the unique needs and challenges of children with special needs. Healthtech has the potential to significantly improve the lives of children with developmental differences by providing innovative solutions that are tailored to their unique needs and challenges.

As technology continues to advance, the focus in the healthtech sector will shift towards personalization and offering customized, automated solutions to solve individual problems. The use of wearables that track different health-related data points, as well as the ability to order at-home blood test kits, will become more widespread and easy-to-use. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) will also contribute to the development of more advanced digital solutions and increase data interoperability in the digital healthcare sector in Romania.

Virtual reality could also play a significant role in the future of healthcare, particularly in the field of psychotherapy. The use of virtual reality simulations for exposure therapy, virtual reality assisted mindfulness practices, and even the exploration of different aspects of the patient’s inner world, could greatly benefit patients suffering from PTSD, anxiety disorders, depression, and personality disorders.

Overall, the potential for innovation in the healthtech sector in Romania is vast, and with the right investment and development, could significantly improve access to healthcare services for those in need.

Everything depends on the mentality of those who are part of it (part of the ecosystem).

Constantin Lucian Nutu – Founder of Doctor 31

The integration of technology and healthcare can help provide tailored solutions for patients with unique needs and challenges, ultimately leading to better outcomes and improved quality of life.

Don’t miss out on the latest insights and trends in the Romanian healthtech industry. Check out the Romanian Healthtech Overview Report now and discover the innovative solutions that are transforming healthcare in Romania.

And if you want to get in your inbox various opportunities for startups (funding, acceleration programs, competitions, conferences, pitching opportunities), join the Startups League newsletter: https://activize.tech/startups-league 

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However there are a few ideas that change the usual perception of marketing, that can contribute to turning your startup into a unicorn. Hence there is always the great opportunity of learning from the best, from the ones that have been there before and succeeded.

Asaph Sculman is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of FIREBOLT, a big data analytics startup that aims to revolutionize the way businesses use data and he presented a few good marketing practices that they applied for FIREBOLT that brought the best results. One key thing in his approach was proposing activities that did not require a financial effort.

So here is how to market a baby unicorn on a budget:

1. Choose your people wisely!

The first step in any marketing strategy is to have the right person to create and deliver it. As an early stage startup the recommendation would be to get someone that knows a little bit of everything, a „Jane of all trades” as Asaph pointed out with a good understanding of all the main marketing processes. And your Jane needs to be both CREATIVE and ANALYTICAL. Data is really important, while thinking outside the box is too. The more senior you can get, the better, while you need someone that is ready for the hands-on work and also for working by themselves.

How soon do you need to make your first marketing hire? As soon as the product is getting ready to launch! Even better if one of the co-founders can fill in the role as he is much more involved in the startup creation and close to its essence.

If you choose complementary strategy to work together with agencies on specific projects or needs, they have more experience with a larger portfolio of clients and a pool of experts in different marketing areas. There are two important tips that Asaph recommends: make sure you are not the smallest and negligible client the agency has and make sure the person you work with inside the agency is familiar with your product/service and your team, create common working spaces.

2. The impact of webinars

We have all been to at least one webinar held by a fellow company or startup, whether it’s about gaining knowledge, understanding the product, networking purposes or sheer curiosity.

The impact Asaph talks about is a visible increase in the number of participants from webinar to webinar and even more, an increase in meetings set. Webinars are also useful for user generated content, meaning participants tend to share their thoughts and learnings on their social media.

Tips for before:

• Add the question “What questions would you like us to cover?” in the registration form;
• Offer a PRIVATE WEBINAR option for the hot leads that registered;
• Recommend the webinar to the cold leads;
• Dedicate a webpage to the webinar and exit intent pop-ups for registration;
• Do email marketing and ads.

Tips for during:

• Stream Live on social media platforms to engage more people;
• Use poll questions for understanding the audience;
• Make it short and simple (30 min session) so that people do not lose interest;
• Have someone that is responding live to the questions;
• Always have a Q&A at the end.

Tips for after:

• Send all the participants a link with the recording of the webinar;
• In the same email, you can ask them to subscribe to your newsletter;
• Follow up with the participants that were more active in order to set meetings.

Asaph also recommends a different type of webinars → “LIVE PRODUCT DEMO”: talk about your product, what makes it unique, show how it works and answer all questions.

3. Thought leadership on LinkedIn

You might have noticed but in case you did not, Asaph confirms that personal posts on LinkedIn have a way better engagement that company page posts.

Thought leadership means that employees share on their personal profiles posts on different topics related to the company: observations of the market, experiences in the company and personal stories, entertaining posts. Important note: these posts should not explicitly promote the company!

How does this help? This strategy generates organic traffic and followers on the company’s page, private messages and even a constant stream of partnerships and candidates.

How to manage thought leadership on LinkedIn? Set regular meetings with the people involved. A good strategy might even be for the marketing team/manager to prepare the content beforehand and for employees only to share it.

4. What about a Podcast?

One way of starting your own Podcast would be to first participate in other podcasts to get a grip of how things should work. You can either offer to be a guest speaker or to actually financially support an existing podcast in your niche, some of them might be looking for new guests, topics or sponsors.

There is a general perception that hosting podcasts is hard, but actually they might be easier to make than expected, plus it’s worth the effort since the blog content market is already saturated, while podcasts as many as they might be are still a new trend and a more engaging one.

Inviting certain guests to your podcast can develop strong relationships especially if they are prospects for your business. The content created through these can be highly diverse and interesting to listen to, people might even share it and you can also use it many ways like social media posts.

5. The crazy corner

Ellen Sussman, an american journalist and author once said “Perhaps you’re not crazy, but you’re very creative.” and we definitely agree. Any marketing strategy needs some drops of crazy. Creativity will be the one that ultimately will make your business stand out.

Asaph tried a few “crazy” marketing activities that, in FIREBOLT’s case, brought crazy results: thousands of viewers, amazing feedback, social media and website visits; all these while bringing joy and fun into the team.

Their proposal?

• A Spotify playlist dedicated to their customers, that they could listen to while waiting for specific queries;
• Brand Videos: entertaining videos that are not specifically about the product (ex. The Big Data Dilemma)
• Games: creating a game that tells the story of your brand, it can be cheaper than some might think, it’s about finding the right background story and the right person to deliver it, it can even be a freelancer.

TAKEAWAYS

It’s safe to say that FIREBOLT had some great marketing strategies, cheap and creative, that implemented and adapted in the right way sound like they could bring great results to any business.

“If you never copy best practices, you’ll have to repeat all the mistakes yourself. If you only copy best practices, you’ll always be one step behind the leaders.” – Asaph Schulman, CMO FIREBOLT

*Asaph Sculman presented the above strategies during an event powered by Angular Ventures. You can check out the entire recording of the event here: How to Market a Baby Unicorn

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The event gave us the chance to explore engrossing topics, by which those who want to, have the possibility to feel empowered to take actions in order to create meaningful and innovative ideas. Furthermore, it can give us thought-provoking points, which guide our way in discovering the rich colors of the tech world.

One trend that we have seen throughout the conference is that even though the main topic was technology and innovation, somehow the speakers ended up emphasizing on people, making them the main driver of the industry and we could not agree more. 

Innovation requires innovative people that put up the work and in this sense the key to today’s and tomorrow’s technology lies in the hands of our employees and in the needs of our customers. This is why building needs oriented products and team oriented organizational cultures is essential!

“One important idea that I learned at this conference was that the biggest industry disruptors have broken through the door of mediocrity without a great deal of experience, and this leads me to think that in some situations expertise can rather be the innovation’s enemy, than it’s friend.” says Andrea, one of our colleagues who joined the conference.
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What we learned?

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Powering Success by Fostering Community – Prashanth Chandrasekar (Stack Overflow)

Product-Market fit: delivering relatable value, measuring leading indicators. 

Product-Market expansion: customer problem journey and use cases. 

The go-to-market approach and the growth of the business can have multiple shapes; it can be product-led, sales-led or marketing-led.

There is a clear connection between our product, the brand and the community. While our product is about the best features or quality, reliability and distribution, the brand is about our values, the heritage and history, customer relations, quality and positioning. Having these things on point manages to create a shared identity with our customers. Moreover, building together with them, offering incentives and rewards for users creates a true community around our product.

Another important point in the development of our products is… the team! According to Prashanth, depending on the phase we find our business in we should have stage-specific teams, for example if we are in an early stage then our team shall be small, a tight knit group focused on product, architecture and engineering. While in a late stage the team is bigger with the ability to focus on market differentiation vs. market relevance, investments, on the voice of the customers while also having a go-to-market approach through a sales team.

Moving Fast at Scale – Randy Shoup (eBay)

What is the solution to moving fast at scale according to Randy from eBay? You have one guess! Moving fast at scale is about the culture, the organization and the practices!

More important than any other factor in the team’s success is the psychological safety – the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, there is no fear of negative consequences. Psychological safety leads to dependability, leading to structure and clarity, clear goals and roles which gives meaning to the people, making work important on a personal level, which in the end leads to impact.

Fewer things, more done? Do you agree? We were convinced by Randy that this is a great approach. Why? Priorities matter and we should focus on delivering the highest priority first, this makes us deliver full value earlier, since the benefit of now is more important than the benefit of the future.

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In Conversation with Eric Friedman (Fitbit)

A short but very insightful discussion with Eric from Fitbit shed some light on how an ideal product fits the needs of the customer but furthermore constantly upgrades in order to respond to more and more of them. Fitbit started out as a fitness monitor for the average person, lending help in measuring different activities, the challenge was to constantly upgrade it; this led to introducing new features like the sleep monitor in order to break the market.

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? According to Eric “part of being a founder means having the confidence that I can conquer the world but also understanding that maybe my hypothesis is wrong.” 

Accepting this truth will lead to the ability to change and adapt the ideas on what the market actually requires. Another aspect that might be perceived as clicheic but that it very simple and true is that being an entrepreneur is doing it out of passions, having money and fame as a main motivation will lead to failure, these two should rather be perceived as nice outcomes while the main driver will always be the passion.

Find your focus – Zoltan Vardy (The Launch Code)

Zoltan Vardy from The Launch Code synthesized very accurately during his panel why focus matters, the nature of focus and how to find your focus as an entrepreneur. The focus creates a path, so it enables you to find the necessary steps to achieve that and to take decisions and moreover keeps you motivated.

Zoltan did not just emphasise the importance of focus but also provided us with four steps we need to follow in order to create a destination that reflects the business you want to build. First one would be to choose a point in time in the future when we want to reach that, then write a series of statements in the present tense, but keeping in mind to cover all key focus areas (qualities offered by the product, clients, team, strategic partnerships, rewards). Last but not least, don t forget to describe how you feel about that journey and outcome so you are aligned with it on an emotional level too.

You find your focus when you decide what business you want to make, that destination giving you a clear direction. Focus requires a commitment to execution so be firm in the long run, but flexible along the way so you could easily adapt. Let focus guide your mindset and actions!

Pro tip from Zoltan in order to keep your focus in mind is to create a snapshot of it and then place it where you see it everyday, share it with others and use it as an endpoint for all planning. However do not just stare at it but act on it. Choose your love, love your choice and just do it.

Remember to think big and your focus will eventually find you 🙂

Building Inclusive (UX) Team Culture by Melanie Yencken (Google)

Melanie Yencken from Google came to Techsylvania with a complete experience and sustainable actions on how to build an inclusive team culture.

Employees experience the company through their manager, so building team trust and respect is mandatory results in psychological safety. The best performing teams make the most mistakes, because they’re able to talk about them with honesty. When issues arise, it’s about the team, not the individual, and focus on learning.

Moreover, Melanie opened up regarding her experience at Google where she struggled dealing with impostor syndrome, perfectionism and fear of failure.

Most of the time, we tend to focus on being accepted vs. being ourselves. And how does this hold us back? We don’t want to seem ignorant, incompetent, intrusive, negative.

Psychological safety is team empathy and trust but also permission to fail. 

She emphasises the importance of getting to know each other in the team at a professional level but also on a personal one. One nice exercise they implement is sharing personal baseball cards with type of personality, skills, when/where I work best, communication norms, feedback norms, strengths I am happy to share with others, my personal areas for growth, weekly must haves. Also reevaluating from time to time who we are outside of work and what we are gonna leave behind to be more present are also good practices as they maintain the focus.

Appreciation and compassion are a must so they run team exercises to express appreciation for something specific about a colleague or project. Acknowledging and appreciating each other shows compassion. Compassion towards others supports and promotes a culture of respect and inclusion.

Giving permission to fail helps reframe failures as learnings so they have ~tales of fail~ and share 5 minute stories of the key failures they want to celebrate – helping to humanize the concept of failing.

The Art of Growth – Lloyed Lobo (Boast.AI)

For this session Lloyed came with an easy to follow list of tips and tricks that he learned for assuring growth:

1. Pick an aggressive goal.
2. Understand your customers’ jobs to be done.
3. Validate your idea by charging for it.
4. Focus on 1-2 distribution channels at a time. It is known that in a marketing strategy we tend to approach things through many actions and channels at the same time (PR, search engine marketing, paid ads, offline marketing, email marketing, content marketing and many more). Lloyed believes that in order to grow one should focus on one channel in order to scale it. For instance pickinging from the entire list of strategies one that proved to be working for that specific business, concentrate on it in order to reach more people and jam more data.
5. Once you acquire users, get them to an `Aha moment` right away. Community is yet again the keyword in this case, people need to have the opportunity to connect both between themselves and with the product, webinars, monthly dinners, conferences are ways in which we can achieve that. We need to get people to start a conversation.
6. Make your product sticky. The more customers use the product, the better it should get or the more they lose if they were to leave.

Computational Intelligence and Artifacts from the Future – Stephen Wolfram (Wolfram Research)

The last session of Techsylvania was the one that blew away the audience. Stephen presented the way the Wolfram Language, a full-scale computational language integrates immense knowledge to allow a new level of computational description and automation. Only seeing the way this software can respond to certain queries and the enormous amount of information that it stores left people in awe.

This presentation raised really deep questions in the minds of those who participated: “Do we live in a simulation? If we get closer to representing everything around us using computational methods, does it make the simulation hypothesis more convincing?”. 

Well to find the answer to this question and many more and to understand the greatness of technology and innovation… you just had to be there!

This is why you need to make sure to participate in all the sessions Techsylvania 2022 will offer. See you there next year!

Based on what i saw in my work with startups, very rarely a startup dies (or even challenged) because of direct competitors. There are dozens of reasons related to team, business model, market need, product etc. which have a much much higher chance to kill a startup.

While analysing 100+ venture-backed (so theoretically not very early-stage) startups post-mortems, CBInsights made a study / statistic of “Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail” and competition was not even listed among those 20 top reasons.

I remember that, at my first startup, we were constantly watching the competitors (around 7 other startups spread around Europe) and putting emphasis on differentiation points. But two years later all of these startups were dead or zombies without even being influenced by the existence of the others.

Actual competition (= two startups get to clash on the same potential clients) happens later in the game when both have product-market fit, when they are targeting the same users.

Until then it’s good to watch competitors, learn from their actions; but it’s more of an imaginary threat compared with the other potential causes of failure.

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If you are a startup founder join our “Startups League” where we inform you about various opportunities that appear on our radar (investment funds, acceleration calls, conferences, competitions, business development opportunities, grants and other opportunities).

At Activize our aim is to monitor and gather information about the startups ecosystems in Eastern Europe and deliver it to stakeholders in a meaningful and useful way. You can contact us at hello@activize.tech.

From my point of view, I recommend each founder to contact the various existing accelerators and discuss everything to form their own opinion. Based on previous experiences with various accelerators you will find down below a series of questions that the founders can ask both the accelerators and their staff to figure out what is best for their startup.

In the last 3 years the word accelerator has come to be used quite often and with different meanings. The model has evolved from traditional accelerators that offer pre-seed investment, to corporate ones with a focus on one or more areas, but also to those based on equity services.

Accelerators, both traditional and newer models, usually offer a mix of the following:

• an educational program with thematic workshops
• access to mentors, various experts,consultants who can help with pieces of advice and feedback
• business development services related to their product / startup
• market access and expertise (such as finance, health)
• support on administrative and legal issues
• providing a framework for communication with other startups in the accelerator and mutual support
• office space (although the pandemic has shifted many of the activities online)
• some also offer investment – usually between €20K and €100K for 5-10% equity in the startup

1. Going back to the startups area, first of all, the founders should know clearly what their situation is, for example:

• Is it the right time for an accelerator? – If your startup’s business model is already validated and the trajectory is clear, do you still need all the activities in that program?

• What do you need an accelerator for? It could be for several reasons, but it is important to form your expectations according to the needs of the startup:

• access to an extended network (mentors, company representatives, potential clients)
• clarifying the vision related to the business and the product
• the investment offered and the connections with the other investors
• finding a co-founder or recruiting new people to the team

• What investment are you looking for – What is your preferred amount and what minimum threshold do you need? What calculations do you rely on when proposing this amount? Make a budget with your monthly expenses and a cost forecast for the next year, you can also use a template like this one here.

• Do you need capital to finish the product faster, to validate the business model or to expand?

Another important suggestion comes from Valerica Moțoc, former participant in the Startarium program:

‍“I think that when you think of applying to an accelerator, you have to ask yourself questions about yourself as a founder. And one of them would be: [what do I need to do better and grow my business?] And I think that the question about oneself applies very well in Romania because most of the founders still come from the IT field, so they probably lack the know-how of business, finance and sales. Maybe that’s how they realize that they either need to learn other skills or find a co-founder who has the necessary skills. ”

2. Some questions that need to be asked regarding the accelerator (some of them already have answers on the accelerator website, but others can be asked directly).

1. What are the activities that will be included in the program? What is compulsory and what not?
2. Who are the mentors and to whom will we have access? Are they coming to the accelerator or will we meet separately?
3. Who will I work specifically within this accelerator? What expertise do the members of the organizing team have?
4. How much time do I have to devote to accelerator activities? If there is something that is not useful to us, will we be able to not participate in that activity?
5. Beyond the activities and access to mentors, what else do you offer us? Office space, product consulting, business development support (how many hours per week)?
6. How will the communication between our team and your team take place? Do all the founders have to get involved in the program or one representative is enough?
7. At what intervals will the meetings be held about how progress report and status check
8. How much equity you take and what funding you offer (this is usually known in advance)
9. Through which process do you invest in a startup? (ex: equity investment, convertible notes)
10. What are the conditions for a subsequent investment on your part?
11. How many funds are you in contact with that could provide us with follow-on investment?
12. What are the expectations from our startup in exchange for participation?

There are also accelerators that look for startups on a certain vertical/domain – in this case a worthwhile analysis needs to be made on whether the network to which the accelerator has access includes companies and people in the industry in which your startup operates.

It is important to see the term-sheet you need to sign to participate in the accelerator. I do not recommend an accelerator that does not make public the conditions in the term-sheet.

In an interview with start-up.ro, Jon Bradford, nicknamed “the godfather of European accelerators”, mentions that:

‍“Before you agree to participate in such a program, do your homework. Talk to those who participated and receive feedback to see if the program is worthwhile and if it’s ok to take action in your startup.”

Other founders who have gone through an accelerator are the best source of information about the quality of that accelerator. Usually the participating startups are listed on the accelerator website, so you can easily get the contact details of the founders to ask for an informed opinion. Write to 4-5 founders and you will for sure receive some answers. It takes 15 minutes to write to them. And don’t just rely on one answer, it’s good to hear more than one.

3. Additionally, we recommend that the participation in the accelerator to be conditioned by the setting of clear objectives, based on the needs of the startup, to be agreed by both the founders of the startup and the managers of the accelerator. For example in the Memorandum of Understanding you can have something like:

By the end of the acceleration period we will achieve the following:

• (product) the product will reach the level of MVP which includes … and will be tested with 50 potential customers
• (business model) – we will validate / invalidate the three monetization models and we will draw a conclusion that is the most appropriate
• (sales) we will reach the first 20 paying customers, with a conversion rate of 10%
• (investment) we will attract a further round of investment of €100K in the next 2 months from the end of the acceleration period
• (marketing) we will clarify which are the three acquisition channels that have the greatest potential
• (team) we will hire another backend developer and a marketing person with experience on running campaigns

It does not mean that it is mandatory for these objectives to be achieved 100%, but the expectations of both sides are clarified and a common direction for the work is set, and those in the accelerator will be able to use their resources in those directions.

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After two acceleration programs in which I participated and ten other incubation/acceleration programs in which I was involved as a mentor or coordinator, for me the most important decision factor is the attitude of the team in the accelerator and what kind of relationship you can establish with them.

It is important for the created relationship to be constructive, to have mutual respect. An accelerator can’t impose on a startup what to do next, it can only advise, consult, influence decisions, but in the end the founders are the ones who will make the business/product decision.

The accelerator should provide the right framework for founders to make as well-informed business decisions as possible. If an accelerator ends up forcing a startup into doing something, then I think it didn’t know how to explain well enough the reasons why a startup should make a certain move or it did not have the right attitude.

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In conclusion, I think that an accelerator should be used to the maximum by the startup. In the acceleration programs we worked on, I was the most impressed by those who actively requested access to our network (mentors, company managers, potential customers, investors, consultants) and who constantly asked us about various opportunities or with the ones with whom we talked a lot and in detail about the problems they had.

Although the employees of the accelerator will offer various things, the founders are the ones who should ask for as much as possible and be proactive in using the resources of the accelerator, sometimes to the irritation of those involved; only then you will know that you have asked for enough and if you have reached the threshold. Keep asking, of course with respect and consideration. Make use of everything you can, the accelerator’s employees will say no if they can’t offer something (and it’s very normal that they can’t or don’t have time for everything you ask for, but at least you asked and found out).

That being said, good luck accelerating!

At the beginning of the hackathon

Usually at the beginning of each hackathon, there is a session for pitching ideas, for 1-2 minutes and afterwards the best prefered ones are selected.

• usually you are not allowed with slides so the verbal messages has to be very clear

• write down before what you want to say, it will be probably 4 paragraphs, less than half a page

• practice it with loud voice three times to make it easier for you to remember it

• at the beginning mention your name and the name of the soon-to-be startup so people will remember it when they look for you to ask details

• during this 1 minute, focus on the problem you want to solve, who has it (customer segment) and your proposed solution

• in the end add an “ask” – what do you need in the team? (developers, marketing, sales people etc).

• if you can find one, mention also an inspiring mission, which is inspiring for the potential team mates to join you

• probably there will be 20-30 ideas pitched, so be memorable by having a clear voice and explanations (if you can make a joke, is even better)

• even if you are not allowed with slides, it doesn’t mean you cannot use visuals; use an A4 or A3 with the name of your idea to have in hand when you present (visual clues like this one are useful for them to remember)

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Pitching in front of the jury

Usually the final presentation, in front of the jury, at the end of the hackathon is a big hurdle for all participating teams as the jury will evaluate the projects and decide the winners. 

It’s paramount to be prepared and deliver a good presentation in the time allocated for your presentation (3 to 5 minutes, probably).

1. The presentation shouldn’t be complex. It is good to keep things simple in your presentation so that people can ask you questions about your product instead of finding out everything from your powerpoint presentation. Remember you are not doing public speaking, you are just presenting your idea in front of an audience from where you want to acquire investors, customers or feedback.

• You can also use other platforms to pitch and showcase your idea such as Miro or Visme

2. You should do a roadmap throughout your pitching allocated time. You are guiding the audience through understanding your project. You can control what people are focused, by directing their attention to one piece of content at the time.. 

3. Your pitch should be split in granular parts so the person can understand your startup bit by bit. That is why some slides can be split into multiple ones such as the business model one and the buyer persona or even if two pieces of information share the same slide it should have an animation or something that can engage the audience’s eye. Give the audience one message at the time, do not overload with information, make it easier for them to digest.

4. Another effective way to show the audience the distinctive features of your product is to let them see it and experience it first-hand. Pictures or screenshots of your product can help make it more tangible, but if possible, letting your audience actually handle the prototype or try out a live demo can increase your impact.

5. Be prepared to support any claims, as in you always have to keep in mind that any assertions you make in your presentation – regarding your target customers, financial projections, marketing strategy, or anything else – need to have adequate support. Being unable to back up your claims will undermine your attempts to convince jury members that you understand your startup

6. Ask for feedback on your presentation from the menthors. While you certainly need to create the core business idea yourself, talking to the mentors to polish your pitch can help you better convey your message to the jury.

7. Remember to take the feedback and follow-up in it. Ask a colleague to take the notes or watch the recording afterwards to see your pitch again and what the jury had to say about it. 

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Slides to have for the final pitch

See below a list of slides recommended for the final pitch (the order can be different, do it as you think is fitting your project). Most of the times you can find some amazing templates for your slides online; which will impress the audience (for example on https://slidesgo.com/).

Slide 1: Introduction slide with logo and what is in one phrase 

Slide 2-3: Customer profile targeted + problem you want to solve for them (how do they do it now?) 

Slide 4: Broad view of your solution and functionalities 

Slide 5: Benefits / advantages of your solution 

Slide 6: Validation done so far, research or talking with customers, progress done this week 

Slide 7: Go-to-market strategy – how do you reach your customers/users? 

Slide 8: Your business model – how do you make money and what pricing? 

Slide 9: Team and expertise, roles 

Slide 10: What are the next steps regarding business and product (short term + long term?) 

Slide 11: Details on what you need (investment, partnerships, mentoring, employees) 

Slide 12: Final slide with a motto and vision/inspiring and with contact information

In case the above don’t fit in the time allocated, is best to make what you say shorter in words and eliminate some slides which you think are not essential in your case.

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Practical tips for presenting

Using the microphone – it is important to test it before so to have a sense how to hold it (microphones vary, not all of them are the same). The practical advice is to hold it close to the chin, a bit under your mouth, at a distance of one centimeter. Some microphones have to be held closer, so that’s why testing before is best to find out how to deal with it.

Position on the stage – check where the jury and the audience are positioned and find a spot and orientation so you can face all of them, even from different angles (but for sure not to be with the back to them). 

Looking at your slides – ideally you should have your slides in front of you (on a smaller computer), in case you are with the back to the big projection screen. If you don’t have that, just look from time to time to the slides, but don’t make them the central point of your view (which should be your audience). 

Movement on scene – choose an area or spot and stay there; some people have the tendency to make a lot of steps on the stage, don’t do it at all or keep it moderate in a 1×1 square meter range.

Look at the jury – it’s good to focus on the jury while looking as this makes them a bit more engaged in what you are saying; even if your rotate your eyes from time to time, come back to the jury and be like you are speaking to them (as they are the ones evaluating your pitch).

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Tips for on-line pitching (for example on Zoom)

• Find a place with no background noise, silent enough to be heard properly
• Check headphones and microphone before
• Make sure you un-mute when your turn comes or else you will hear the most famous quote of 2020: “you’re on mute” 🙂 
• Put more energy in the voice and in speaking as this is the main way to transmit your vibe through Zoom
• Don’t forget to also go through the slides (click next, one by one) – yes, some people forget about that
• By the way, some people prefer to stand up while presenting because they have more energy
• Regardless if sitting or standing, your camera should be on the same level with your head, so to look straight at the screen
• Check the platform you are going to use beforehand so you won’t get confused with the features it has and how to use it
• Do a dry run so you notice how much time it will take for you to go through the presentation and notice where you hesitate.
• Have another laptop device next to your laptop or a mobile internet hotspot in case the laptop or your wi-fi connection crashes.

All in all don’t pressure yourself, and treat your pitch as a learning opportunity for you and your startup. You’re only going to continue to get better and better, and you can extend the learning to any field of your market. 

From any hackathon you go to you get valuable insight on what you should do next through mentoring, through networking with other startups and from the jury itself so remember that it is up to you to make this experience a valuable time spent and a step forward towards achieving your goals.

As simple as it seems, this form of marketing implies some clear strategies and even sensitive topics we should consider when deciding to start an influencer marketing campaign especially for a startup. This huge industry has a lot to offer even to early-stage businesses as long as we know how to correctly approach it, so follow us through the journey of getting to know and use influencer marketing below. 

Statistics on the influencer marketing world-wide or in Europe

According to the State of Influencer Marketing 2020: Benchmark Report influencer marketing is considered to be a highly effective way of promoting a product, 51% of businesses preferring this campaign method to previous avenues of marketing. The industry was predicted to be worth $7.7 billion in 2020, 84% of businesses having endorsed a campaign that will be implemented within a year. 

On average, a dollar spent on influencer marketing can generate around $6 worth of publicity for a business. Besides all these great prospects, it’s also important to keep in mind the fact that influencer marketing is a complex system that is often instantaneously affected by changes in political or social trends, both occurring nowadays. 

The amount of people who follow influencers stagnated in the last year (50% in 2018, 69% in 2019, 68% in 2020), but influencer marketing can still be extremely effective if we keep an sharp eye on trends and pull a truly diverse set of influencers.

“The Central and Eastern European Influencer Marketing market will grow in sync with the European market, reaching EUR 250-350 million by 2025. The growth is based on the positive evolution of Social Media consumption which adds to a more general trend of moving the pole of gravity in advertising from TV and BTL media budgets to digital. ” says Florin Grozea, founder and CEO of MOCAPP 

More infographics about statistics on the influencer marketing world-wide, you can see here.

When is the moment to use it for you startup

A competitive business environment requires startups to implement influencer marketing strategies to grow and assert themselves within their market, but in which stage would be perfect to launch a campaign?

Of course, there’s a big difference between influencer marketing for startups or small businesses and large corps, especially in terms of the budget they have available and the approach. If large companies c-corps can run $100,000 campaigns without worrying very much about their budget, we can’t say the same thing about  startups and small businesses. Instead they have to be very careful when managing their available resources. But this fact can also lead to generating genius campaigns because they also have to get creative about how they conduct their influencer marketing campaigns.

Although social media influencer marketing is only recently becoming more popular, some young startup brands already mastered their strategy and built their entire brand around it. They managed to grow at a rapid rate by selecting the perfect influencers for their brand and creating fun and authentic campaigns which have generated organic content for their products. So huge budgets aren’t vital (depending on which category of influencers you want to approach), but you must have a very clear strategy and metrics funnel to monitor and be sure you don’t have a leaky bucket.

That being said, there’s no perfect timing for starting an influencer marketing campaign, but it depends on the needs (ex. if you are preparing to launch a new product, if you are a new brand that wants to enter the market creating buzz in Social Media or if you want to reach another segment of the public) and the strategy of your brand. However, it’s important that each company would take a closer look at what influencer marketing can achieve, where it falls down, and how you can do a better job with this latest form of marketing.

Good practices

In order to conduct a successful influencer marketing campaign, it must rely on both social and content marketing. The best social marketing works because it’s nothing more than a natural social interaction, and also the best content marketing works because the information is genuinely helpful.

The most crucial aspects are indeed the credibility and genuine authority established in the minds of the audience so put the product in foreground and make the influencer an communication anchor. Also, keep in mind that it is the influencers that built their keen audience, and they follow the influencer, not the brand. They care about their influencer opinion, so if your collaboration with him/her is not appropriate, they can walk away taking their audience with them. Influencers aren’t interested in doing influencer marketing solely for the money, they will be naturally protective of their reputation and the people who trust them.

Other elements that stimulates research, determine brand loyalty and relevance are:

• digital events, substitutes for offline experience
• experts presenting tech products/services open a door for a personal in depth research
• being there for your consumers through a continuous and consistent communication
• sharing personal inspirational stories
• being relevant in the actual pandemic context
• using multiple influencers
• using in campaigns inspirational artists
• products/service testing

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Experiment first to see conversion and quality of users

Of course in the beginning you need to test this type of marketing campaign with smaller amounts or with one influencer in order to learn and see how it works best for your startup and then you could expand the collaboration or contract more influencers. One great way to do this is by opting for nano-influencers and using the performance-based payment mentioned in the pricing section above, a mention-for-mention agreement, guest bloggers invitations or by offering a free product sample.

Make sure the influencer know well your product, perfect is he is a user/client

While it’s the influencer’s audience that’s the ultimate prize, the target market for brands includes the influencers themselves. So we should consider curating or creating content that’s hand-picked to get the attention of influencers. 

By doing this you gain early access to their followers, you’re showing your face as a member of their community, adding to your credibility down the line, despite the fact that you’re not promoting anything to them yet.  Also, by doing so, when you do propose some kind of influencer marketing collaboration, they’ll already know you.

Flat fee + set a commission for successful for user on-boarded in your product

In case the influencer is not a user/client yet, you must make sure he understands properly your needs and his responsibilities so having a clear brief or a presentation folder is mandatory.

Moreover, regarding pricing, here’s a win-win arrangement that could make sure both parties are satisfied when signing a contract with an influencer. Setting up a payment system based on base fee and then reward on the performance of their posts is one of the best ways to protect your startup when closing a deal with an influencer.

This way, instead of paying the influencer per post regardless of outcome, the results that you define (for example, the number of people who clicked the link they posted) determine their final pay.

Have you yet considered giving influencer marketing a shot? Our influencer marketing guide will provide you more insights about the steps you need to follow to create a marketing campaign. You can subscribe to Startups League and you will receive the guide by email.

You will find out what influencer marketing is, how it is done, what to consider in selection of influencers, where to find them and how to approach them, what platforms to use for finding influences, all grounded by various examples of successful campaigns for startups and also examples of failure of implementation. 

And if our extended guide is not feeding your appetite for knowledge completely, you can also check MOCAPP’s blog for more tips and tricks.

Every startup has a ‘why’ and a story to tell even if the product might not have catchy features. 

Describing your product is a matter of perspective, especially when pitching to investors or selling it to users. People are not only attracted by data but also by the emotional value that your business can come with. 

Storytelling for startups is relevant because you have the unique opportunity to create a raw and authentic story behind your small or upcoming product or business that can really resonate with your target audience. The story can be personal or just a creation of the team’s imagination but as long as it tells the main message you want to share to your target audience then it is good enough.

One of the most known ways of telling your story or approaching your audience is creating the Golden Circle, a method launched by Simon Sinek after a research done within multiple companies that are successful and sell different products. He noticed that some of them sell their products more because of their way of thinking and communicating with their target audience.  

He noticed that they understand their ‘why’ which is the purpose of the organisation, what the people inside it believe in, they know their ‘how’ – what the company does so that why can be fulfilled, and they know ‘what’ products they sell, and from these 3 questions he created the concept of the Golden Circle, a method through which companies can create their story and culture. 

In this article there are 5 startups that are known worldwide today, mostly because of their hard work and their well chosen metrics but also because of the story they shared with a few users and investors in the beginning, and then the world. 

1. Airbnb

Airbnb is one of the biggest platforms for renting places when travelling. With a unique value proposition and a clear mission in their head they managed to become a trusted platform by millions of people worldwide. 

This startup’s story began in 2007 when two guys in San Francisco had to pay rent but not money whatsoever. Their idea came when they thought they could rent 3 mattresses to strangers and serve breakfast while making some money out of it to pay the landlord. And ever since then they have also used their story to gather millions of users and investment rounds. Their mission and their why, how, what are strongly related to that story and to what they do as a startup every day for their users. 

“Wherever you go we have a place for you”

WHY – Belong everywhere – we are a community of individuals with shared values. 

HOW – Driven by trust and transparency, a trusted community marketplace enabled by technology

WHAT – Rent unique places to stay with local hosts 

2. Uber

Started off as a simple idea: ‘What if you could request a ride from your phone?’ The founders were in Paris at the time on a cold evening and they couldn’t find a ride when this idea popped in their minds. 

Fast forward a few months and they created the ride-sharing platform Uber whose goal was to make moving in traffic more efficient. 

“We create industries that serve people.”

WHY – Moving efficiently

HOW – Merging people with technology

WHAT – UberX, self driving cars, UberPool, Uber Eats and all of their other products

3. Spotify

Spotify was founded in 2006 in Sweden as a response to the growing piracy problem the music industry was facing. The founders realised that this cost the music industry millions of dollars each year so they thought that a streaming service platform that is better than the pirated ones would solve both the needs of the artists and of the listeners. 

Besides the platform and features they also thought about what message to send to their audience when pitching it and they thought that the story of the platform is one where both artists and listeners can break free, get creative and enjoy music. 

“We envision a cultural platform where professional creators can break free of their medium’s constraints and where everyone can enjoy an immersive artistic experience that enables us to empathize with each other and to feel part of a greater whole.”

WHY – Unlock the potential of human creativity

HOW – By giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.

WHAT – Having a two sided platform where you can stream music, listen to podcasts and having an on-demand, offline, ad-free listening experience

4. Fitbit

In 2007 the founders, Eric and James, realized that sensors and wireless technology had advanced to a point where they could bring amazing experiences to fitness and health.

They created a wearable product that would change the way we move. They saw the opportunity in that direction and they went for it creating a story with a mission around it.

“To empower and inspire you to live a healthier, more active life. We design products and experiences that fit seamlessly into your life so you can achieve your health and fitness goals, whatever they may be.”

WHY – To empower and inspire you to live a healthier, more active life. 

HOW – Building products that help transform people’s lives and achieve their fitness goals whatever those might be

WHAT – Smartwatches, trackers and so on

5. Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing was founded in 2004 by a small group of travel and cultural exchange enthusiasts determined to change the world by providing greater access to the kinds of meaningful travel experiences that depend on connecting with people.

Their story connected really well with their target audience, the millennials, whose needs were to find a cheap place to stay due to lack of money while experiencing the culture and meeting new people. The idea caught up with both investors and the world and today the platform is used worldwide by both travelers and locals. 

“We envision a world made better by travel and travel made richer by connection. Couchsurfers share their lives with the people they encounter, fostering cultural exchange and mutual respect.”

WHY – We envision a world made better by travel and travel made richer by connection.

HOW – Connects members to a global community of travelers.

WHAT – Have a platform for both hosts and travelers where they can connect with each other and find a place to stay or share your home.

______________

This process can be applied to any organisation including service-based one, so we decided to run the method on our company as well. At Activize we used the Golden Circle method as well to set a clear vision and tell our story to our target audience. See below how it looks like.

“We organise the Eastern European startup-related information and connections delivering it to the world in a meaningful and useful way”

WHY – growing the Eastern European startup ecosystems

HOW – organising the information and delivering in a meaningful way

WHAT – startup scouting, consultancy, advisory, acceleration programs, competitions, workshops, reports, overview content, presentations, cross-collaborations

Even though in this article there are only B2C startups, storytelling applies to B2B or B2G ones as well. You and your team created its story, you and your team talked with your buyer persona and validated it, you and your team came up with an idea so the story should come easy no matter what type of product you sell. 

Lastly, always keep in mind these three questions when creating it or pitching it in front of a group: 

Who is my target audience? 

What message do I want to share with them? 

How do I connect with them?

Sources: 

1. https://simonsinek.com/commit/the-golden-circle
2. https://www.airbnb.com/, https://www.uber.com/, https://www.spotify.com/ro/, https://www.couchsurfing.com/, https://www.fitbit.com/eu/home
3. https://www.starttech.vc/blog/2020/storytelling-for-startups/