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: Waiting for the rescue organizations
Read all the previous instalments here.
The Mountain Rescue Association of Slovenia is an important potential client for Gotoky. There have been talks for a while now about how the smart walkie talkie could be a Godsend in disasters and emergencies. But the meeting to actually start testing together just hadn’t got off the ground. The rescue organization has been completely preoccupied with the stream of refugees passing through Slovenia to get to Austria, Germany and beyond.
But now it’s happening. Denis has found a gap in their busy schedule and is flying back to his homeland for a few days this week to speak to the rescue services and, most importantly, to see how the Gotoky could be used in the field. Denis is enthusiastic: “This is a big project. The Mountain Rescue Organization of Slovenia is part of the EU team, which will also make applying for funds easier.” The Slovenian collaboration would be a great test case for the use of the Gotoky by other national rescue services, but that’s still along way off. Let’s see how this week goes first.
There have also been a number of other breakthroughs: Gotoky can finally patent its technology. “An expensive but very important step.”
Read about the importance of patents for start-ups here
The BV has also been set up in the Netherlands, even though Denis is expected to return to Slovenia after Demo day. [expand title=””]The closing event of the Startupbootcamp programme on 26 November.[/expand] “We have another company there and it would be hard to run it properly from the Netherlands.” Registering your start-up in the Netherlands is a prerequisite for taking part in Startupbootcamp, but that’s not a problem for Denis: “We now do a lot of our meetings – including those with the Dutch – via Skype. That’s much more common here than in Slovenia.”
Read all the previous instalments here.
Part 9 next week
Photo (c) Kimon Kodossis
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