On the first day of November me and my partner in oikos “blog crime” had a chance to spend the Sunday evening at Danish Parliament and hear how 20 teams were pitching their business ideas for the judges. Two teams of this event were recruited by oikos. Basically all the teams spent 3 full days (from 8 am to 10 pm) in the Parliament working hard on their business idea and getting advised by mentors and help from other partners (3D printing, IT solutions etc.)
Most of the pitches were held in English but some also in Danish. The team had a chance to choose the language. Here I must apologize for all the teams who pitched in Danish. Since I am “a foreign investor” and I did not understand their business idea I cannot advertise them here. All the teams had 3 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for answering the judges’ questions. The panel consisted of Stine Bosse, Martin Thorborg, Anette Nørgaard, Birgit Aaby.
The business ideas varied from recruiting applications (Talent Flag) to investing platforms for investing in companies that are not listed in a stock exchange (Sharefunders). Some business ideas had already been tested while others had come in life during the competition. VTect presented the most innovative idea in my opinion – toothbrush will tell if you have disease or not when using it.
We had also opportunity to ask some questions from the oikos team Cloud Burst. Their idea was about gadget that measures the water level during the floods and warning the clients when the water level will get critical so that people could rescue their stuff. All the members of the team said that this event had been fun but also stressful since like always the best solutions come up in the final seconds. Even though the team was not among the winners, they will definitely keep working on their business idea.
The winner of the competition was Journy and took home 50 000 DKK. It was about finding the best attractions while traveling and getting the local experience. The second place belonged to SHUTE, third was Cook with a local and Link Aiders was awarded the forth place. Only first 4 got the money but basically all the participated teams got pretty good rewards from Microsoft and other sponsors. So, the event was great success for everybody!
For more information check out the Startup Borgen official website: http://www.startupborgen.dk/
…or visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StartupBorgen
Here is the picture of the first 4 teams
oikoscopenhagenblog.wordpress.com 