There’s something about their whole approach that puts one in mind of the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory, but in the best possible way.


But while it is inevitable that many of the startups are IT and Internet 2.0 orientated, that is far from the whole story. One winter Tuesday morning at an EEF eBreakfast the room was packed with budding entrepreneurs, all coming to listen to a conversation between Peter Záboji and Stefan Englert, Executive Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The BFO orchestra is 25 years old, which makes it almost prehistoric in terms of today’s startups, but by more usual orchestral standards it is a mere infant. These days however it is recognised as one of the world’s best. Founded, adventurously, in the mid 1980s by Iván Fischer, the BFO receives some state funding but was an early innovator when it came to commercial sponsorship deals. Fischer began innovating from the start, introducing for example ‘cocoa concerts’ for children, ‘midnight music’ concerts for students, and so on. The amiable and thoughtful Stefan Englert talked of how the BFO continues innovating. The crowd listened intently as he described how unlike so many other orchestra, they do not effectively hire their musicians for life, but as contract players, which Mr. Englert argued encourages musicians to think of themselves more as artists, and not just ensemble. Whether discussing the BFO’s hiring policies or its embrace of social media, it’s an engaging address and demonstrates how encompassing the startup culture can be.


Indeed, the Budapest startup culture truly runs the gamut, from data protection software to well, Hungarians in Space. If that sounds like the plot for an oddball science fiction film, it’s not. In all seriousness, Budapest startup company Puli Space Technologies’ primary goal is to reach the moon by 2015, as one of the official Google Lunar X Prize teams. To illumninate, Google are offering some $30 million in prizes to the first privately funded teams to land a robot safely on the surface of the Moon, traverse at least 500 meters over the lunar surface,


42 entrepreneurcountry


Indeed, the Budapest startup culture truly runs the gamut, from data protection software to well, Hungarians in Space


then send video, images and data back to Earth. Beyond that, Puli Space Technologies mission is to eventually be routinely sending spacecraft to the Moon, providing as it were, a ‘launching pad’ for investors interested in commercialising space. To say that sounds ambitious is an understatement. Yet the founders of Puli Space are not Bond villains plotting away in luxurious hi-tech seclusion. Tibor Pacher, the CEO and founder of Puli Space gives a talk at an event held by the Common Sense Society, a splendidly named organisation which holds regular debates and lectures on the shabby- genteel premises of an inner city Pest mansion. Mr. Pacher is passionate about his company yet almost folksy in a down home Hungarian kind of way. Check out their website, you can actually make a ‘small step’ donation there for as little as 1000HUF. Even the name Puli means sheep dog in Hungarian. It doesn’t get much more down to earth than that.


The Common Sense Society are, how shall we say, on good terms with the EEF, the European Entrepreneurs Foundation. One of the EEF’s signal


achievements was bringing Seedcamp to Budapest. The London based micro- seed investment fund and mentoring program like to claim they are the world’s most connected seed investor! The fact is that since Seedcamp’s launch six years ago, they have invested in some 80 startups and made several acquisitions, despite most of their management team looking as if they’d graduated high school back in 2007. In any case, their standard investment is 50,000 euro in return for an eight to ten percent stake of a new venture. The Seedcamp sessions last just one day and entrepreneurs are encouraged to bring their A-Game. They should also come armed with what they call in the film business, the ‘elevator pitch’. (Meaning what you would say if you stepped into a lift with Ridley Scott and had just a couple of floors to sell your script). The day consists of three minute presentations by the competing teams, panel discussions and four one- on-one mentoring sessions. Definitely not for the faint hearted.


Yet out of this almost gladiatorial atmosphere, there were victors. Here’s what Seedcamp’s General Manager Kirsten Campbell had to say about it: “Having invested in our first Hungarian startup Antavo we were excited to see more of the region’s talent. At Seedcamp Budapest in October last year we were joined by great companies, a really good showing of international mentors and super high energy throughout the day by everyone present. The icing on the cake was investing in two brilliant startups Futurelytics and Codeship. Our hosts set the bar high for future events and we certainly look forward to returning this year.”


Codeship are a B2D (business-to- developer) SaaS (Software as a Service) solution that helps developers and engineers create better software, faster. They’re a team of Austrians based in Berlin, while customer analysis software company Futurelytics originates from the Czech Republic. In a sense that just goes to prove that Budapest is becoming a regional hub, developing an entire ecosystem where Hungarian and international entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58