Bootcamp #1

Day 1 :
Intensive training on how to get funded. All you need to know before getting investment summarized in one day. Expert advice from a former VC on everything related to funding, from how to find the right investor to establishing a good term sheet.
At the end of the day, the participants will take part to a networking event.

Day 2:
In the first part of the day you will get first-hand experience from entrepreneurs in your sector. Followed by a hands-on coaching on delivering an effective pitch in a relaxed and informal setting.  

Day 3:
Welcome to the contest part of the bootcamp! On this day, you will deliver your best pitch in front of a panel of potential investors and other industry experts, who will evaluate your business proposition. Three teams will emerge from this day and the top pitch will be awarded with the chance to present at the European Venture Summit in December.

Click here for details.

The STARTIFY7 Bootcamp will take place from the 30th of September until the 2nd of October at the ICAB Incubator and the International Auditorium in Brussels. 

1st Prize:

The winner will get the opportunity to pitch at the European Venture Summit (EVS) 2015 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

EVS facts:
- December 7-8, 2015
- 100+ companies presenting in 20 different sector-focused presentations
- between 100 and 120 experts investors are present to provide feedback
- Europe's largest tech investment matchmaking event
- attended by high-tech entrepreneurs, advisors, corporates and government partners
- presentation sessions, one-on-one meetings, discussion sessions, partner roundtables and more

Runner-up prize:

The first Runner-up will be granted free entrance to an EUN Venture Forum.

Dates and details on upcoming events can be found here.

2nd Runner-up prize:

The second Runner-up will be provided with access to mentoring activities.

Mr. Patrick Brady
Co-Founder and CEO at NimbusFish

Patrick Brady is the co-founder and CEO of NimbusFish, a half-profit company that creates and manages city websites that serve local communities through providing a C2C and B2C online marketplace, artist pages, business and non-profit advertising, and event calendars. Patrick is also the Regional Director for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), an association of successful entrepreneurs. He has worked with EO since 2005 with a brief stint as an Account Manager at Europe Unlimited in 2009. Patrick is currently launching Half-Profit, an NGO to promote his half-profit business model where stakeholders receive 50% of the profit from companies they invest in while the remaining 50% is directly given to charity. Patrick’s new form of social entrepreneurship was conceived at an EO event where Muhammad Younes and Kofi Annan were speaking on the topic of ‘Change the World’. He came up with a model that is neither full profit nor non-profit, but one that would use the strengths of each model to change the way business can be done while leaving a legacy.

Mr. Cédric Latessa
President of C.E.L Conseil

Cedric has been involved in venture capital since 2000. He has now launched his fundraising boutique helping companies raise Eur 5-15M. Previously he was Aster Capital (2010-2014) as an Investment Manager where he is in charge of sourcing, investing and following investments in European and American cleantech companies. He led the investment of Aster in Avantium B.V. (Amsterdam) and he is representing Aster at the board of OST (Oxford). Before joining Aster, Cédric worked for three years at DFJ Esprit 2007. Prior to this Cedric worked for BIP, a private equity fund investing in high tech companies, where he invested in companies such as TiGenix (IPO), Cima Nanotech and 21Net. Cedric holds three masters' degrees in Business, Corporate Finance, and European Politics from Sciences Po Paris and is fluent in English and Spanish, in addition to his native French.

Mr. Olivier Gramaccia
Steering member

Olivier is a Business Development Consultant for “Smart & Small” within SIRRIS Since 2012, Olivier works as a Business Development Consultant for SIRRIS, supporting SME’s and international companies in their development of smart products integrating M2M, smart materials, smart coatings, micro manufacturing, RFID and IPv6. He also leads several European research projects involving smart devices. Olivier's main specialization is Strategic Intelligence in Smart Systems. Olivier obtained a Master in Nuclear Engineering and a MBA at Hult International Business School from Boston. He has more than 20 years of commercial experience with high tech products on an international level. From power electronics to data acquisitions systems in telecom or aeronautics & aerospace, Olivier managed different OEM projects from specifications to deliveries. He is steering member of IoTBE that is the first and the biggest Belgian community of people interested and passionate by the Internet of Things.

Ms. Emmanuelle  Mather
Presentation Coach

With no less than 20 years of professional experience in FMCG, in 6 different countries, Emmanuelle Mather is used to responsibilities at top-management positions, with an expertise in Sales and Marketing. Along her career, she had the opportunity to give numerous Marketing Presentations of product launches across the globe, motivational speeches for salesforces, addressing journalists at press conferences, presenting concepts to potential customers, negotiating with potential buyers, pitching a new brand concept and writing new corporate Mission & Vision statements. All this experience has given this passionate storyteller a clear view on how to give impactful speeches. And how to avoid presentation disasters. She also plays theatre and enjoys being on stage as an actress. With her highly-professional presentation style, she captivates audiences with an aim to inspire with innovative communication ideas. She strives to energize and inspire people to think differently.

Mrs. Myrna Rodríguez Hausséguy
Senior Project Manager

Myrna was born in Chihuahua (Mexico). She studied and worked in the USA, Canada and Germany before moving to Brussels to pursue a career in international business networking. She speaks Spanish, English and French fluently as well as intermediate German. She holds a B.A. in Organisational Communication and a M.A. in International Relations from Université Laval in Québec, Canada. In addition, she has a wide range of professional experience covering multinational corporations such as Johnson & Johnson and EPT Management as well as research institutions like the Institut Québécois des Hautes Études Internationales and the Economic Mission of Mexico to the EU. At Europe Unlimited, she manages the team that executes projects focused on ICT and related investment forums. Her experience in such projects ranges from policy analysis to monitoring of industry trends in Europe.

Mr. Ben Tompkins
Partner at Eden Ventures

Ben is a General Partner with Eden Ventures, one of Europe’s leading early stage technology investors. With over €150 million under management, Eden’s funds have invested in over 35 European startups – typically initially investing at the seed/A round but with the capacity to invest up to €10 million in its best companies. Ben focuses on the Saas, e-commerce, internet and games sectors and is a Board member of Huddle (www.huddle.com), Reevoo (www.reevoo.com), Borro (www.borro.com) and GreenManGaming (www.greenmangaming.com). Prior to joining Eden, Ben spent 18 years in investment banking in the technology sector and has advised on over 100 M&A and financing transactions. He advised on his first internet transaction in 1992 and so has an interesting perspective to bring. Ben is also an angel investor in his own right, having invested in over 15 start-ups personally and a number of other VC funds. He also sits on the board of Seedcamp, the leading European technology accelerator.

Mr. Jan Andriessen
Associate Partner

Jan Andriessen (associate partner) joined henQ in February 2015. Before, he studied business administration at the Rotterdam School of Management and the Wharton School. While he initially decided to make a career in investment banking in London, he soon found out that his true passion lies in building companies. Guided by this ambition Jan founded Scord, an organization that helps start-ups that are run by a technical founders team with business development. Scord was a great learning environment to become aware of the issues early-stage start-ups face and the success factors that help them grow; a perfect bridge towards becoming a venture capitalist at henQ.henQ is the only Dutch VC firm that dares to invest in early stage start-ups that are looking for seed investments from 100k upwards and has the ability to continue to invest in next rounds up to 10 million euros.

Mr. Patrick Crasson
Partner - Strategy & Innovation

Patrick Crasson is the founder and managing partner of BeNovate(Strategy &Innovation), Ceinoo(Board advisory) & P2C Management Consulting, an Executive Advisory and Business Angelship company. Patrick has twenty five years of experience in executive management, consulting, sales/marketing, business development, Innovation management and entrepreneurship and has worked successfully with both startups and large technological/professional services companies having built during this period a large and qualitative network. His experience includes a successful track record in growing local and international businesses and raising/managing their related funds. P.Crasson has held several management and executive leadership positions in the Defense industry, high-growth Startups, Professional Services Business/Technology Consulting. P.Crasson is an enthusiast and regular speaker on a variety of topics at Solvay Brussels School of economics, EVTA, Euracademy, European Parliament, CloudStorm, etc

Mr. Eric Pol
Associate Partner

Eric Pol is Associate Partner at Ventures4Growth, the first open partnership boutique corporate finance house in Europe, founded in 2007. Based in Brussels, Eric leads the Lifescience/Pharma operations of the partnership, managing buy-side, sell-side or capital-raising projects. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Pfizer, Novartis, GE, Philips, Cerner or Quintiles as well as innovative SMEs, leading strategy consultants like Bain & Co, BCG or LEK, as well as Venture Capitalists, Corporate Venture and Private Equity firms. His specialties are strategy development and implementation, fund-raising and mergers and acquisitions. He is mainly active in Europe including the CEI, the GCC and North America. Eric studied at Boston College, Strasbourg Business School and the University of Stirling. He followed Executive Programs at INSEAD.

Mr. Jorge Schnura
Co-Founder & VP of Users

I am a young entrepreneur who has completed an undergraduate education in Business Administration at the prestigious IE University. Since the age of 15, I have taken a very active interest and invested in stock market opportunities. Furthermore, I have gained additional experience working for three years in Spanish politics and two years as Coordinator of Investor Relations Departments for three mineral exploration companies. In September 2011, I co-founded Tyba, Europe's leading recruitment platform, where I am the VP of Users and manage everything related to the user side of the business, from the product itself to the marketing thereof, apart from managing the company on a high-level together with my co-founders.

Ms. Merce Tell
Partner

Mercè Tell has recently founded and co-leads Avet Ventures, with previous venture capital experience as an analyst and an Associate at Highgrowth Partners (generalist tech fund). Mercè has led and supported seed and early stage venture investments into eCommerce, mobile, telecom and other tech startups. Mercè currently seats on the Board of Nuroa (vertical search engine), Voztelecom (VOIP) and Mutua de Propietarios (insurance company). Previously, Mercè Tell worked as a financial analyst at Ashland Inc. (chemical sector) in Belgium. She has a degree in Business Administration and Management from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and Economics from the same university.

Ms. Michelle Conaghan
Emerging Business Division

Michelle Conaghan is a specialist in highly focused digital marketing and social media with over five years’ experience of devising, managing and implementing digital projects for high profile clients and brands in the hospitality and leisure sectors. She has been applying in depth knowledge of the drivers of impactful consumer targeted digital marketing strategies and campaigns to drive revenues for clients. She has a senior level experience of leading cross-functional teams comprising agency partners, strategic industry partners, brand managers and hospitality industry experts and stakeholders.