NEWS

News and Reading Tips: Edition #9

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NEWS

We know the best startups in Slovakia

The sixth year of Startup Awards is over, the winners are known. 2016 was the first time a full-day event was held, and it was great.2016 edition of Startup Awards took place at the 1200-seat Istropolis venue, opposed to the Old National Theater from the previous years. The aim was to be bigger, better and global. The organizers sold more than 1100 tickets and invited big technology and business names.

For more information, click here.

We launched our first batch of t-shirts

To attract people at conferences, in coworking spaces, or anywhere else both online and offline, and to make the first step to generate our own revenue, we decided to design our own t-shirts for people to wear them and spread the word about Slovak startup ecosystem.We asked a renowned designer Miro Zaťkuliak to give us a helping hand.

For more information, click here.

DECENT opened Blockchain R&D Hub in Armenia

The race for championship in putting the best blockchain solutions to service masses intensifies, with industry leaders broadening geography of engagement by investing and bringing in new talents in research and technology development from around the globe. Notably, blockchain startup DECENT continues advancing its challenging mission by introducing a new valuable member to its family, the Blockchain Research and Development Hub in Armenia, lead by a Harvard grad CEO and co-founder Gagik Yeghiazarian. 

For more information, click here

General AI Challenge launching soon

Several weeks ago, a new fan page on Facebook emerged: General AI Challenge. As the About reads, the main goal is “to help accelerate the search for general artificial intelligence.” The idea for the series of challenges came from GoodAI which is also the main organizer.

For more information, click here.

WHAT TO READ

Startup Grind: Peter Irikovsky (LRJ Capital)

Peter is CEO of Exponea, one of the fastest growing Slovak scale-up companies, and managing partner at venture capital holding LRJ Capital. Before that, he used analytics to turn Slevomat Group into one of the fastest growing internet firms in CEE with over €100M revenues, and a #1 in flash sales in 6 countries. In the past, he worked as a regional director at Groupon UK and a consultant with McKinsey and KPMG. He studied computer science at Charles University and is a Singularity University Graduate. Watch the video

Is The EU Supporting Its Startup Ecosystem Enough?

Arguably Europe’s top startup hotspots at the moment. However, if one looks a little closer, a stark difference comes to the surface: the degree of government involvement. While the UK and France made efforts to make their startup ecosystem visible, through financing brands such as TechCity UK, or La French Tech, the situation could not be more different in Berlin. Although recognized as one of Europe’s best startup hubs, the government’s implication has been low in comparison to its counterparts. Read the full article

Cutting Through The Machine Learning Hype

The tech ecosystem is well acquainted with buzzwords. From “Web 2.0” to “cloud computing” to “mobile first” to “on-demand,” it seems as though each passing year heralds the advent and popularization of new catchphrases to which fledgling companies attach themselves. But while the trends these phrases represent are real, and category-defining companies will inevitably give weight to newly coined buzzwords, so too will derivative startups seek to take advantage of concepts that remain ill-defined by experts and little-understood by everyone else. Read the full article

What is FinLeap’s recipe for building a FinTech company? Interview with Carolin Gabor MD

Interview with Carolin Gabor MD at FinLeap, the Berlin-based FinTech company builder that lauches several startups per year. Read the full article

Study: 20 Percent of Startup Founders Believe They’re Building the Next Unicorn

A new study from 700 startup founders revealed that if there’s one thing entrepreneurs have in common, it’s confidence. The percentage of founders who think we’re in a bubble dropped from 73 percent to 57 percent year-over-year. What’s more – one in five founders believe they’re at the helm of the next unicorn. Read the full article


Cover photo: Unsplash.com by Visual Supply.co

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