STARTEurope initiative brings out talent and products
Last night saw the closing of a 3-day-event called STARTEurope, in Vienna. Comparable to the recent Launch48 in the UK, it gathered entrepreneurial minds, developers, investors and a bunch of Wanna-bes to build and extend startups. Over the course of the weekend startups were able to exchange with business people, other startups and ultimately had to present what they were able to achieve and accomplish within those 72 hours.
Aside from some questionable “startups” there were several kick-ass products presented, one of which would receive the STARTEurope award, as voted by an expert panel consisting of people such as Amy Hoy from Slash7.com, Markus Wagner from i5invest or Bernhard Thalhammer from recently launched Austrian early-stage VC First love capital. It was a pleasure seeing Austria’s Startup scene evolve and since it was also filled with numerous people from the US and other european countries it has shown that EU startups are slowly but surely consolidating, bringing in people from diverse countries.
The winning startup of last night, Qriously, is vividly depicting this “Europeanisation” among Startups, since one of its founders is originally from the US and just moved to Austria.
Their model is compelling and from what I can tell the execution is also extremely well done, which is why it’s hopefully not the last time we’ll here about them.
It has been the second time that the STARTeurope event took place and with other cities on the way this event is another great way to meet fellow startups and investors.