On Tuesday I took part as a coach and moderator at Europe Unlimited’s Biotech Venture Academy, held here in Budapest. I attended the BVA in Warsaw in March, and offered my impressions about how well the format works. Hungary has a reputation as the region’s leader in biotech, so I was interested in comparing the quality of attendees at the two events.
The first thing I want to say about Budapest Biotech Venture Academy is that the quality of participation was high. The BVA format puts entrepreneurs in front of a group of business coaches to pitch their companies. The coaches offer their criticism and suggestions, and they work with each entrepreneur in a one-on-one meeting to improve the presentation.
While most entrepreneurs understand their own business, they may not have the skills and experience to successfully present their plans to investors, partners, employees and the media – people who can be critical to helping that business succeed.
Many of the Hungarian, Czech and Slovak companies we worked with had relatively well developed businesses. One company, Cyclolab, owns more than 100 patents. Many of those in the research or concept stage had promising technologies. At the end of the day, we all voted – coaches and entrepreneurs – for which business we would be most likely to invest in. The winner was Hybys (they don’t have a website yet) which is developing a technology to reduce the cost of growing bananas by reducing the fertilizer requirements – the fruit takes its nitrogen directly from the atmosphere.
I was also impressed by the quality of the business coaches – several of whom I met at the Warsaw biotech venture academy. These coaches are people with real experience in starting and growing businesses, including venture capitalists, angel investors, seasoned entrepreneurs and professional advisors.
On Tuesday, our entrepreneurs had even more time than originally scheduled with this circle of coaches. That’s because many of the companies that committed to come didn’t even show up. I don’t mind sharing this fact because I don’t believe the organizers were at fault. The Budapest BVA was well promoted and the companies we expected had each confirmed their attendance by telephone.
The experience Europe Unlimited has running similar events in the UK, France, Germany and Benelux shows that companies understand the value of this event and will compete to take part.
So what happened? I can only speculate, based on my experience doing business in this part of the world. For one thing, the barriers to trust are higher in Central Europe. People in this region don’t always value the advice of others – particularly those they don’t know well. Consulting services don’t sell too well here, either, and it’s even more difficult to sell them in other regional markets.
I don’t mean to criticize Central Europeans, but rather to point out issues that need to be taken in to account when doing business here. It’s a cliché, but things really do work differently here. Whatever the case, the feedback I got from this week’s event was that those who did attend found it very useful. Part of the benefit was a chance to improve their presentation skills, but I can’t underestimate the value of the contacts.
I look forward to taking part in the next Biotech Venture Academy, which takes place in Brno, Czech Republic later this year in November.
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