Thanks to the Design Terminal and its partners, including HIF, seven promising Hungarian startups could make their debut at the technology-based Northside Festival in June this year.
As a result of the cooperation between Design Terminal, the Balassi Institute in New York, the iCatapult and The Hungary Foundation as sponsor, seven emerging Hungarian startups got the opportunity to introduce their products and services at the technology-based Northside Festival in New York (Brookly) in the middle of June this year.
This trade show, one of the biggest of its kind, presents the most promising startsups and the most important companies from digital industry year after year. In the history of this event, this was the first time that Hungarian companies were listed as participants.
Hungary was represented by RoboPhone, Synetiq, GraviTalent, Plays.IO, Videomapping, ANGL and Opp.io. During a one week long study tour, these companies visited the most famous and important startsups of New York and had many opportunities to negotiate with potential investors and to meet potential customers.
Several Hungarian teams got the chance to make a presentation to the most influential and significant investors of the digital industry at the headquarters of Microsoft. This was a huge and one-of-a-kind opportunity, as entering the US market is the first step for startups aiming at global markets.
Zoltán Bereczky, co-founder of Plays.IO, which provides services for tracking online media contents, is very pleased with their participation: „We received a lot of positive feedback from inquirers, performers and musicians at the Festival. We are working on arranging a partnership with a Dutch startup company that also presented at the Trade Show. Among others, we managed to make contact with the staff members of the VH1 and MTV as well, which is very important for us.”
„We got plenty of comments and feedbacks from the visitors and potential customers during the Expo. In this way, we were able to test our pricing and product positioning. That was exactly what we needed to move to the next level.” – said András Holló, co-founder of RoboPhone, which develops applications and robotic devices for educational use.
„We managed to meet with potential partners, customers and investors, and to identify and prepare those steps which are needed to conquer the US digital market. The firm got invited to the partnership program of New York City Economic Development Corporation, we negotiated with Business Insider and Greenhous.io for cooperation, and we had promising discussions with the founders of IBM, Codeacademy és Affdex.” – said Dávid Szilágyi, CEO and Co-founder of Gravitalent. The firm applies serious gaming, cognitive science and big data to revolutionize the way companies recruit, retain and develop talent.
Further information: http://northsidefestival.com/innovation/2014-schedule/