April 2014
Top News: President elect turns Palace into coworking space
Photo credit: Sean MacEntee
Yes, you loved this one. And yes, it was no coincidence we published it on 1 April. To the delight of the Slovak startup community, we reported in our news section, the newly elected Slovak president recognised the need to support sustainable economic growth through innovation and announced the opening of the famous Palais Grassalkovich in Bratislava as a co-working space for young entrepreneurs, freelancers and startups. Unfortunately not true but a very well received #AprilFools for you 🙂
Top Profile: Eruditius: Learning from an e-learning business
April’s most popular profile followed the story of Lithuanian entrepreneur Mantas Ratomskis and his e-learning company Eruditus, a social learning platform that aims to make education fun and engaging. Several funding rounds, some luck, failures, a pivot and some growth-hacking are only a few stops along their journey to success. Dive back into this profile here.
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Top Startup Pick: SmartDreamers
Your Startup Pick for April comes from Romania and its goal is to give you access to jobs that fit your needs. Can you guess who this is? None other than the HR and internet recruiting startup SmartDreamers. Read more about this young company and its fascinating founders here.
May 2014
Top News: What’s up in Bosnia?
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In May, our readers loved to learn news about the budding Bosnian startup ecosystem. The business Innovation Zoo (BIZOO) accelerator, events like Startup Weekend, the HUB387 coworking space and some early startup success stories are just a few of the magic ingredients of this news story.
Top Profile: Click & Grow: No green thumb? No problem
Photo credit: Click & Grow
This month’s profile focused on Estonian entrepreneur Mattias Lepp, the founder and CEO of Tartu-based Click & Grow. The four-year-old startup has revolutionised houseplants by equipping them with “smart” flowerpots in Kickstarter-backed products like the Smart Herb Garden and the upcoming Smart Farm. Read here more about Lepp’s journey and the benefits of being an industry outsider.
Top Startup Pick: Trillenium
Just when you thought that you got a handle on your online shopping, we introduced you to Trillenium in May’s Startup Pick.This half Croatian, half UK-based startup has created a software solution that can turn an ordinary online store into an immersive 3D environment. Find out more about the founders and their story here.
June 2014
Top News: Banking startup Number26 secures $2M
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The summer started with big investment news, when financial startup Number26, founded by two Austrians, received a two-million dollar seed investment from the venture capital funds Earlybird andRedalpine, as well asAxel Springer Plug and Play and several financial-service experts. Read more about Number26 and their financing deal here.
Top Profile: BikeCityGuide: The democratisation of a cyclist’s knowledge
Daniel Kofler, founder, single dad and passionate cyclist, was the subject of June’s profile. Based in the city of Graz, Austria, Kofler and his team run BikeCityGuide, a bicycle map-and-navigation app, which is available for cities in more than 12 countries. With his startup, Kofler promotes a healthy lifestyle, but also aims to get more people to the cycle, in order to solve urban traffic problems. Read the profile here.
Phot credit: Cloud Fender
Top Startup Pick: Cloud Fender
June’s Startup Pick, Cloud Fender, comes from Bratislava. They created a service that helps you keep track of cloud data and provides security for your storage activities. Find out more about this five-person team and who they think is the greatest geek that ever lived, here.
