FiBAN recently showcased the successful outcomes of the BAKE project at the *ship Startup Festival on May 17th and at a Startup Clinic at Maria01 on May 28th.
Business Angels Knowledge for Entrepreneurs (BAKE) is an EU-funded innovative training program for entrepreneurs on how to effectively raise funding and establish successful relationships with business angels, which was a fitting match to these startup events. In this article, we’ll share with you the highlights of our two events that were targeted to help startups and foster the relationships between angels, startup founders, and key ecosystem partners.
Success Stories from the Pitch Captain Competition
The *ship Startup Festival stands out as a prominent student entrepreneurship event in Finland, organized by XAMK students in collaboration with esteemed partners such as Google, Cursor Oy, and FiBAN. Cursor Oy, a member of FiBAN’s extensive network of ecosystem partners across Finland, plays a crucial role in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Supporting early-stage start-ups and university cooperation is important for FiBAN to ensure that potential start-ups find FiBAN at an early stage, which is why the BAKE project’s mission is important to our network.
Notably, the top three finalists of the *ship Startup Festival’s Pitch Captain Competition: HOPES Energy, Berrytron, and Wave were all participants of the Idearace startup competition, an event organized by LAB Business Mill, another valued partner of FiBAN. It’s a great example of how high-quality startups are being fostered in our vast partner network! Our network does not only span to organizations but to people, too! Did you know that FiBAN has numerous regional angels across Finland, practically in every major city?
At *ship Startup Festival and Idea Race finals, we had indeed one of our local angels present, regional angel Antti Pellinen from Lappeenranta, together with our Training and Development Manager Mari Kirjalainen, who represented FiBAN and shared their insights as the jury members of the Idea Race Finals.
Numerous startups gathered for the startup clinic in Maria01
A major connecting point was our Startup Clinic, organized together with Kiuas Accelerator, Business Helsinki, Baltic Sandbox Ventures, and the BAKE project. To have more success cases in the Finnish startup sector, collaboration and uniting forces are key. Very often startups face similar problems, so why not help them all at once in events like this?
This is why we decided to offer coaching and help for startups in these hard economic times and in the name of the BAKE Project, where collaboration with angels and startup founders is at the core. This was a chance for founders to ask their questions about angel funding, get free coaching, solve their most pressing problems, or simply share what they are going through now in their startup journey.
Some of the topics that were covered with startups were:
- Help in Early-stage funding
- Business and product road map
- Fundability and prepping you for what investors are looking for.
- Go-To-Market Strategy
These events are great examples of the significance of a strong ecosystem partner network in driving entrepreneurial success. Our team remains committed to empowering early-stage entrepreneurs and believes that collaboration within the Finnish startup ecosystem is essential for sustainable growth and innovation. Investors can only thrive with successful startup founders.