We are on a mission… report of the SBC Demo Day (23 January)

28 Jan We are on a mission… report of the SBC Demo Day (23 January)

‘’We are on a mission to make the world a more innovative place, building one ecosystem at a time’’ – Startupbootcamp founder Patrick De Zeeuw

The most important takeaway from Friday’s SBC Demo Day is that the Dutch startup ecosystem is increasing its strength and position, with Amsterdam being the biggest leader. In the last four months 50 Amsterdam-based startups raised 10 million funding for a total of 130 million valuation. On top of the fundings received, the startups are getting increased support from corporates – a trend which will hopefully be carried on to the upcoming Bootcamps this year.

Startupbootcamp is the leading accelerator of Europe. With three billion people predicted to be online by 2025, it is organizing a program focused on internet and mobile (E&M) commerce aiming to innovate the E- & Mcommerce ecosystem by providing the most promising startups in the world with a top-notch accelerator program.

Over the 3-month program 10 selected startups had the chance to collaborate with 150+ mentors, partners and investors to build world class products, with the ultimate goal of becoming industry-leading sustainable companies. The Startupbootcamp E&M Commerce Demo day on 23 January was the end of the 100-day mentoring period and a chance for the companies to pitch to angel investors, business partners and venture capitalists. The following companies were in the spotlight of this Demo Day – Yippie!, Magnetic.io, Joopp, Relevancydata, Quiver, Tom Kabinet, Printr, Eccentrade, Saddl and Startmonday, with Quiver and Magnetic.io being the most FinTech -related of all.

The CEO of Rabobank (partner and host of the SBC Demo Day) Wiebe Draijer opened up with the statement that ‘’we are at the beginning of an entrepreneurial revolution’’ and 3 million digital innovators are changing the way we think, act, and work nowadays. He highlighted the importance for financial institutions to be close and partner with startups so that they can help them with embracing innovation and change - challenges they all face as the technology disruptors (FinTech) are accelerating ahead with enormous speed.

Startupbootcamp had chosen to start its program with two speakers from the tech-space with stories which are of interest to the startups as well.

John MacFarlane, CTO of Sonos kicked off with his experience as an entrepreneur. He is the founder of software.com (1992) and one of the first dotcom millionaires. His company now – SONOS – is a market leader in wireless sound systems the idea from a goal noted down on a sheet of paper – ‘’ lets change the way people listen to music”. His learning experience throughout the years let him to address the following advice to the current and future entrepreneurs:

1. Exit Strategy – Build a great company and do it forever. Do not think about future purchases from giants like Google, etc. rather your best friend should be the focus - focus on the customers, quality delivery and the core of your strategy
2. Culture is Important – Each company that you found has a culture, with culture defined as the way founders operate when the company is in trouble or scaling up - treatment of the employees, bonus rewarding , personnel laying –off when the market disappoints. Think about the difference between owners versus renters – you would want people that treat the company as if they own it for the long term as opposed to usage for few years.
3. Alignment is important – between founders, investors and employees. Be open and precise about your goals, he advices
4. Ask for help and listen to advice – your best approach is to ask questions, use mentors and seek Board of Directors that would always tell you the truth
5. The Netherlands is a great place to situate a business – com’s first European headquarters was in Naarden and Sonos Europe BV is in Hilversum.

The second speaker was Cees Links – Dutch inventor of WiFi and a CEO of Greenpeak, a chip designing company. He said he is “the most influential unknown Dutch person’’. He pointed out that through persistence a great product is built. He gave a simple but powerful example of his experience when he first thought about WiFi – cordless phones being on the market, everyone said this technology would not work for data transfer, but he decided to ‘’try it anyway’’

Neelie Kroes made a short appearance on stage and she stated that in the following 18 months the mission of StartupDelta is ‘’ putting the Netherlands on the global map as the place to be for startups’’. According to her, two things are important in the long term: every child must learn to code and become educated. StartupDelta is at the service for startups – her advice for entrepreneurs is to come with a clearly formulated goal.

Afterwards it was time for the companies to take on the stage and intrigue the audience with their presentations and announcements of their growth and future aspirations. All of the 10 companies did impressive pitches and have had a great progress thanks to the startupbootcamp mentoring. The companies of our main interest were Quiver and Magnetic.io which are FinTech – related.

Magnetic.io – it turns enterprise into innovators.

Innovation and change are difficult for financial institutions – IT systems are too old and do not allow for innovation. This is the reason Magnetic.io has built a container technology – Vamp - through which online services are rapidly built. CTO of Magnetic.io Tim Nolel explained for the audience how Vamp works: software components are packaged into containers, lego blocks are added letting user groups be easily switched. Time-to-market costs for online channels are drastically reduced while increasing stability and up-time. Magnetic.io has partnered up with Rabobank which will use Vamp for their mobile banking services.

Quiver – the new standard for data control

Quiver allows you to secure, track and control your information regardless of where it is. Founder of Quiver Django Lor claimed that they are the only platform combining location, timebox and identity. They have made a great progress during the program – 1 million raised in funding and expecting to raise another 20 million in the following stage.

Description of the other 8 companies:

Yippie! – Free personal shopping assistant that makes you shop faster, cheaper and safer, all within seconds

Joopp – The company offers a service that lets you build a website in seconds by using the information already available on the web, for instance on facebook, twitter and review websites.

Relevancydata – It links online video content with relevant real-time ads by recognizing faces, logos, objects and music within video content using biometric recognition technology

Tom Kabinet – trade platform for second-hand ebooks

Printr – develops the tools that will finally make 3D printing accessible to everyone

Eccentrade – supplier assessment platform that provides sustainable transparency in global trade

Saddl – introduces a solution that enables you to get anything you want from anywhere you want and have it delivered in under an hour

Startmonday – helps employers hire better people, faster – with a 15-second video