During Buildit’s previous round, the accelerator received 400 applications from various startups, and only 60 got picked for Skype interviews. After the interviews and a test, a 2-day bootcamp selected 30 startups. Finally, around 10 companies received investments, which would account to less than 3% of the initial number of participants.
Founders from the previous rounds spoke about their experiences with pitching on Slush and other conferences, and gave tips on how to make sure your start up is successful. Matiss from Squad Robotics explained how he founded the company, based in London, providing unique technology in autonomous cleaning machines. Those are the ones you see in supermarkets, driven by a person, however their design allows the machines to clean large spaces without the need for a human being to be present on spot.
Another startup founder from the Latvian startup mafia, Atis from Hackmotion, talked about their product providing wrist data and biofeedback for sports professionals, namely golf players. The wearable motion capture system captures every moment of the wrist; "the sensor system measures 3D wrist angles and is designed for both full swing and short game." Their products are being bought all over the world, with a number of great feedbacks on from professional golf players.
Joosep, co-founder and CEO of SmartVent, a company with a slogan "we will auto-pilot your indoor climate!", talked about his experiences and challenges during the early stage of his company. Joosep is just 22 and he started working on the company a couple of years ago, after finishing college, and he's been actively involved in its growth; from engineering to giving a great pitch. SmartVent's product is a cloud based software that brings all the data for building management to a mobile device.
Martin Vares, CEO and co-founder of Fractory, on-demand laser cutting service, finished the accelerator one year ago. The service provides easy to use instant quoting system for the user, and promises 3 days shipping.
One moment all of the speakers mentioned, when talking about how they had made a decision to go on with the company, was the need for all co-founders to leave their daily 9 to 5 jobs and fully concentrate on their project. Such remark seemed to surprise a couple of people in the audience, and it is one of the aspects that I find a lot of people do not understand - there would be no time for anything else in the beginning.
Buildit accelerator usually invests 20,000 for a chosen startup, but, potentially, the investment could amount up to 280k in a single company. In the end, everything depends on you!
EstLat accelerate: http://estlat-accelerate.eu
Buildit accelerator: http://buildit.lv
Startup Estonia: https://www.startupestonia.ee/startup-ecosystem
Squad Robotics: https://www.squad-robotics.com
Hackmotion: https://hackmotion.com
SmartVent: https://smartvent.com
Fractory: https://fractory.co
