Key Facts
- When: June 11th to June 12th 2011
- Where: American University in Kosovo (Prishtina)
- 35 Participants
- 25 Guests
- 6 Mentors
- 5 Experts
- 7 Teams
- 3 Teams competing at Final Challenge
- Team invited to STARTup WEEK 2011:
The Pitchers
Final Round Competitors
- FindD
a location-based job platform to find developers according to different criteria
- Penguin Community
an educational video platform that is localized and aims to fill the gaps in the established, formal education system.
- The Pitchers – working title
knowledge accumulation meets game dynamics on a platform (“the universe”) that is aimed at youngsters
STARTup Live returns to Prishtina
STARTeurope came back to Prishtina after one year again! This time, the location was the same (American University of Kosovo) BUT the format was quite different than the traditional STARTup Live. We called it a Casting and well… we were looking for the (potentially) hottest Web- and Mobile Startups in Kosovo. And they came: about 35 participants in seven teams started on Saturday. After an intense pitch training, there was an extended business model session, both held by Can Ertugrul and being amazingly supported by the mentors we flew in from Vienna and Vilnius: Mark Tuttle, Bernhard Thalhammer and Kushtrim Xhakli.
On Sunday, we switched to competition mode, brought in some additional local mentors and IT industry experts from Tirana, Albania to get the best teams in shape for the final showdown that night. All teams went through several rounds of revision, iteration and refinement of their concepts, with some of them even dumping their original ideas alltogether. Some would say, the pressure was almost too big, but in my view, it’s absolutely okay to let go from a project early on if it turns out to be not rock-solid. Failure is fine! In fact, eliminating “wrong paths” quickly is priceless. “Fail fast, die hard” should be the credo (especially as the startup scene allows for rapid resurrection!) Three teams survived all the way to the end and competed for tickets to STARTup WEEK 2011 in Vienna.
…. and the winner is:
The Pitchers
as you can guess from their name, their Pitch was convincing 
They now have the whole summer to basically work off their asses to get ready for the StartUp
Week, where they will participate at the StartUp Challenge and compete with 49 other startups for
10 slots to pitch in front of a panel that makes you lick your fingers.
It was great to be in Prishtina (again) and we are looking forward for the next chance to go there!
[STARTeurope Team Prishtina: over and out ]
“The Pitchers" of Kosovo by Çelik Nimani, editor-in-chief of PCWorld magazine (Albanian edition)
A small country branded “The young Europeans” had a quite fired up weekend on the startup
scene. After intense days of pitch training, mentoring and competition “The Pitchers” were the ones
who “survived” and won the Startup Live Casting in Prishtina – a gateway to the European Startup
Festival happening in Vienna in October.
During the days of 11-12th June a small auditorium of the American University of Prishtina wasn’t
big enough for the bright ideas of the ambitious startup guys from Kosovo, who pitched many great
ideas from next generation learning systems to mobile apps for fighting the country’s corruption.
Can Ertugrul from i5invest spiced up the audience, giving advice on great pitching techniques and
next big things to motivate the participants, illustrated by various examples of success and failure.
“I pitch, therefore I am” (… Guy Kawasaki)”
To move ideas to the next level, Startup Live Prishtina made sure to bring experts from Vienna and
local mentors with international experience. After completing half-baked pitches on the first day it
was clear that these young potential startup guys could benefit a lot from mentors Mark Tuttle (I
have to call him “Wordsmither”), Bernhard Thalhammer (“The Yes Man”) and of course Can Ertugrul
(“The One”), in return the mentors were welcomed to join the traditional-great-hospitality dinner
covering startup topics.
“Pitching makes perfect”
To combine the model of local vs international experience the organizers brought mentors with
international experience. Kushtrim Xhakli (“The Deal closer”) and Arianit Dobroshi (“Master Joda”)
worked intensively on spreadsheets for modeling costs, revenue models and identifying the
problems of bootstrapping or refining a business model with every new customer.
After hours of engagement “The Penguin Community”, “The Pitchers” and “finD” were three out of
six teams to pitch on the big stage competing for the prize. The dropouts decided to stand back and
watch fearing failure.
The Penguins
Description:
The Penguins proposed to create a web-based community where people post articles, documents and ideas that directly contribute to a better life in the community. This way, users earn points which give an overview of who is contributing most to the community. The business idea is focused on the community side, so money would have to come from donations and NGOs.
Achievements:
Description: They already did have a brand, a preview of their web page and a way to make our living better.
Things to work on:
Too many similar projects around and potential investors might not be not interested.
The Pitchers
Description:
The Pitchers had a very good presentation, a business idea and a monetization model defined. They want to enhance the classical ways of education by challenging it with an interactive game structured in circles, which represent “knowledge galaxies” that connect with other circles of knowledge, and they expand circle by circle.
As Xhakli said, it’s sort of “Angry Birds meets Wikipedia”. There’s also the revenue model story, besides interactive learning of chemistry or math, companies can use the model to engage users by showing their products in an interactive way.
Achievements:
They convinced the jury and… won!
Things to work on:
They need to team up and make a working product for, “Startup Week”, the European Startup Festival.
finD
Description:
finD is highly qualified in technical terms, and they had an idea that should be competitive in thecontext of freelancer.com or elance.com. They try to build up a web/mobile service (they already have a working prototype) that could serve companies looking for a developer or designer close to them, and vice versa designers or developers can locate companies that post job offers.
Achievements:
The team demonstrated its working prototype and projected seven-digit revenues three years after launch.
Let’s see whether they can deliver on part two!
Things to work on:
In spite of their strong technological background, the presentation did not quite convince the expert panel, especially in the light of facing some big fishes as head-on competitors.
Wrap-up
During these two days, everyone learned a huge lesson on the startup business that they should keep in mind. Everyone was thrilled to be there and started practicing approaches, designing solutions and making field testing.
Before moving on to making a toast for the great time that everyone had, one should not forget everyone that helped to make this event happen in Kosovo.
First of all IPKO Foundation, a local NPO working towards improving the high tech entrepreneurial environment in Kosovo, then UNI Group under the leadership of its president Valmir Mustafa who did a great job organizing the event, then the guys from STARTeurope, a Vienna-based team that sets out to stimulate entrepreneurial
action and thinking around Europe, and ECiKS – an organization focused on promoting investments in Kosovo. There was also Unique, a junior enterprise team from Albania, which supported the event and brought some additional action to the second Startup Live event in Prishtina.
Well let’s say we will be seeing more and more ideas on next year’s event so stay tuned for more news from Kosovo’s startup scene, which is shaping gradually.
UNI Group and STARTeurope would like to thank Çelik Nimani for contributing this coverage of our event.
You can also watch our selected event pictures directly at our Flickr page.
Photographs courtesy to Çelik Nimani and Can Ertugrul.
Mentor Driven. Expert Rated.
Mentors/Jury
-
Mark Tuttle – biogy.com (Austria / USA)
-
Arianit Dobroshi – FLOSS Kosova (Kosovo)
-
Bernhard Thalhammer – firstlovecapital (Austria / Japan)
-
Besnik Krasniqi – Business Startup Center Kosova (Kosovo)
-
Kushtrim Xhakli – xhakli.com, Fast Europe Ventures (Lithuania / Kosovo)
Trainers/Coaches
- Can Ertugrul Can is working for i5invest, a leading Vienna-based incubator for web and mobile startups. i5invest ist a member of the Vienna-based web- and mobile startup cluster IntialFactor, a “one-stop shop“ for entrepreneurs. Together with two of Austria’s most highly recognized business angels, he now focuses on creating a novel online payment solution, “payolution“. His university studies and professional roles already took him to places as diverse as Hong Kong, China, Ukraine or Turkey. Before Can joined i5invest, he was an active member of STARTeurope, the co-host of Startup Live Casting Prishtina. On behalf of STARTeurope and Initial Factor, Can frequently serves as the cluster’s lead pitch trainer and business model consultant, coaching individuals and teams in Austria and abroad. Can visited Prishtina for the first time in June 2010 as part of the follow-up program for successful startup teams formed during last year’s event.
- Marius Starcke Marius is working at TheMerger, a boutique M & A advisory and business development consultancy for web and mobile startups. TheMerger, with its offices in Vienna and San Francisco, is another member of the Intial Factor cluster. His previous experiences within the IT landscape range from key account management at a multimedia agency in Germany via offshoring management in India to international sales channel marketing at IBM. In 2010, Marius temporarily joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Since his return to TheMerger, he has been actively involved in raising the first ‘Super Angel Fund’ for the Alps & Danube region, which is due to launch this summer. As an early member of STARTeurope, Marius led the team’s internationalization efforts and has attended more than a dozen startup events across Central and Eastern Europe as a mentor. Together with Valmir of UNI Group, Marius co-organized last year’s event in Prishtina and has visited Kosovo in this context already several times.
Thanks to our Partners and Organizers
Thanks to all our partners who made this possible. Supporting a crazy bunch like us cannot be easy
Nah honestly, you rock. Thanks.
lead sponsor
ipko foundation [ www.ipkofoundation.org ] IPKO Foundation is a local operating foundation in Kosovo. Its goal is to seed and support the development of the next generation of leaders with a digital vision for Kosovo. These young leaders may come from any sector or discipline but are united in their embrace of technology, Internet and the information society.
venue and coaching partners
American University of Kosovo [ www.aukonline.org ] American University in Kosovo is the only non-profit private university in Kosovo. Teaching is in English, and students are enrolled in degree programs at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Initial Factor [ www.initialfactor.com ] Initial Factor is a Vienna-based cluster initiative that serves as a one-stop-shop for web and mobile startups in Central Europe.
Organizers
UNI Group [ www.uni-group.org ] Founded in 2006, UNI Group is the first junior enterprise in Kosovo. It has been working to establish partnerships with businesses, academic and governmental institutions in Kosovo, as well as with student consultancies throughout Europe. In 2008, UNI Group joined JADE (The European Confederation of Junior Enterprises) as Consultative Member, and represents Kosovo within this network.
STARTeurope [ www.starteurope.at/ ] STARTeurope aims to stimulate entrepreneurial action and thinking in Europe by enabling people to realize their own business ideas and successfully launch new companies. Using concepts like Start-up Live, complementary skill sets are linked in new venture teams. The organisation was founded in 2009 by graduates of universities in Vienna.
eciks [www.eciks.org] With its professionalism and dedication, ECIKS has grown to be the leading organization in investment promotion for Kosovo. Independently or through donor-funded projects, ECIKS has served more than 100 foreign companies. With many of them already generating profits in Kosovo, ECIKS seeks to contribute to a prosperous and dynamic Kosovo, fully integrated in the European Union.
Supporters
unique [ www.uni-que.org ] unique is the first junior enterprise in Albania, founded in 2009. likewise to its sister organization UNI Group, unique works towards partnerships with local businesses and academic and institutions, as well as with student consultancies in other parts of Europe. unique joined JADE as the networks first Albanian partner organisation in 2010.
Media partners
Indeksonline [ www.indeksonline.net ] Indeksonline.net is a newly established news agency based in Pristina. With a fresh and easy-oriented design, it contains everything you need to know about Kosovo: the political, economic, showbiz and sports events. And, it’s quick and original as the motto goes. With only the first anniversary approaching Indeksonline.net was quoted several times for its exclusive reporting, not only by the main-stream media in Kosovo, but in the region as well.
On Friday, 23th September, 47 participants gathered in the late afternoon at Vollack, Germany. Many arrived by train and were brought to location by the “PionierGarage”-Shuttles. Immediately, ideas were shared with each other and first discussions came up while eating cake and drinking coffee. Shortly after 17 o’ clock the pitches started and 17 ideas were presented. Before, the pitchers were inspired by Matthias Greve (CEO VideoWeb, founder WEB:DE).
The mentors were introduced and then went to the group working spaces of the teams, listened to their plans, gave feedback, pointed out critical issues and suggested possible solutions. Usually, after one hour the mentors switched to the next team in order to get in touch with many different ideas. The feedback gave the participants essential insights on their business ideas. Afterwards most mentors stayed longer then planned to discuss further business ideas in a loose atmosphere.
We think the event was a big success and therefore plan to host another event like this in the near future (spring 2012). The Startup Live RhineValley achieved all of its goals: inspiring people to start a business, connecting entrepreneurs, pushing existing startups to the next level and having fun with amazing, enthusiastic people.
