Slovenian start-up Gotoky began Startupbootcamp HighTechXL in the first week of September. The Eindhoven-based programme gives start-ups three months to work intensively on getting their company off the ground. For Gotoky, it’s a chance to further develop a smart walkie talkie – before the competition does. CEO Denis Lončar will be talking to e52 every week about his experience with Katja Lipičnik, Chief Marketing Officer, over the next three months. This week: Life is a Pitch (Read all the previous instalments here)
“This week we scored 100% again.” Denis admits that it sounds a bit geeky. All the teams get a score at the end of every week of Startupbootcamp. A grade, of sorts, for how things have been going over that particular week. And Gotoky just had another great bootcamp week. But what does this kind of score say about how it’s really going?
“On the one hand, it’s going very well,” explains Denis. “The marketing is coming along, there’s already a lot of demand for the first version of the Gotoky and we’re doing tests with the Slovenian emergency services and other partners. But, ultimately, the most important thing you need as a start-up is money.” And so talks with investors are the order of the day. Last week’s dinner with the Port of Rotterdam, at which Jan Peter Balkenende was also present, resulted in a few useful contacts. A Dutch investor was very interested in the Gotoky, and so Denis had to do some pitching. Though, of course, this kind of deal isn’t closed right away after just meeting someone.
An advantage of the Startupbootcamp programme is that the organisation itself has a network of investors. And the knowledge about how you have to tackle these kinds of talks. What do you and don’t you say? This week Gotoky and the other teams will attend workshops on pitching to potential financiers. The acid test will be on the 26 November: Demo-day! That’s when Startupbootcamp will come to a close in the Evoluon and all the teams will be able to give their pitch one more time – and hopefully attract new investors. Last year, different investors from home and abroad came along, investing a total of around 3 million Euros.
Until then, Gotoky is going full steam ahead, finding new collaborators (anyone with contacts at North Face and Red Bull?) and, of course, money.
Part 6 next week.
Read all the earlier instalments here.
Related Posts
