Spring 2015 finished with a productive and beneficial vibe for our team. During the course of three months, we had the pleasure to participate at six international events in six countries, and we can say that we have enriched our knowledge and experience and we are ready to make the other half of 2015 even more awesome.
We were also part of the mentors crew of three local events – Codefest, NASA Space Apps Challenge Macedonia and Startup Weekend Skopje, we hosted the second Google I/O Extended Macedonia, and we participated at the Traction Camp in Mavrovo.
Our biggest opportunity was the fact that we attended one of the most known european startup events – Pioneers Festival. That event showed us a new perspective of the startup world, gave us a glimpse of the new technologies, ideas and products that the best super minds in the world are developing now, got to see the progress of the HyperLoop project, and had a first-row ticket of the battle of the SuperCars. And all that packed in a the mystical and rich austrian culture left us speechless and thrilled to be part of that event.
We learned a lot, broaden our experience, widen our network and we plotted the foundations of a new strategy for our company and products.
Here are some tips that we learned during this spring, that can be useful to every startup:
We know from previous experiences that every conference and every event has its beauty and potential to build your business. So while attending big startup events it is always important to have a clear goal on what you want to succeed during the event, who you want to meet and how you want to present your company or brand.
We learned that not every investor, speaker, mentor, or member of an accelerator will be willing to listen to your pitch or have time to talk to you during the conference. Going on a smaller events like Traction camp and Spark.me, gives you the opportunity to meet these people face-to-face, spend more time with them over coffee and lunch or even for a drink or two, but do not try to push your idea to them and only talk about you and your startup during the conversation. They most likely will be arrogant, not interested or will ignore you in a polite way.
We learned that in Silicon Valley people value time the most. And if they see that you are wasting they 2min, they will move on. Having a very good “elevator pitch” will get you to the first meeting or maybe to the next 20 minutes.
We learned that saying “NO”, to some opportunities does not make you a failure, but a productive, focused person, who knows what he/she wants and will do everything to make it happen.
We had the chance to meet some awesome people from all around the world, both our future business partners and new good friends.
We even met our competition, and we had a blast we them! That changed our whole way of thinking and we are now even more stronger and focused than before.
Our spring finished with positive experiences, finished BETA and a new website for Black, new team members and a clear path for the summer.
So happy summer to all of you!
We would love to have you visit our office for a chat and a coffee!
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