InnovX Alumni @ Startup Grind 2020 Global Conference, Silicon Valley

After 11 months of InnovX BCR, we are finally in Silicon Valley at the Global Grind Startup Conference organized in partnership with Google for Startups. The conference took place in Redwood City, Bay Area. Like in the iconic U2 video, "Where The Streets Have No Name", Startup Grind closed the entire Theater District, holding an exceptional entrepreneurial show around the beautiful art deco building that hosts Fox Theater. During three full days, Startup Grind conquered the center of Silicon Valley, offering an area of cultural entrepreneurial diversity that I have never encountered before. Established 10 years ago in Palo Alto, Startup Grind has now reached 600 chapters worldwide and holds over 10 global and regional conferences annually worldwide.

The one thing that struck me from the first day of the conference is that in Silicon Valley, exceptional is something ordinary. And yes, I know it sounds cliché, but you shouldn't be surprised if at Startup grind you will talk on the sidewalk about the weather and your startup with Steve Huffman, Co-founder Reddit or a guy from Sequoia Capital, you'll have a book signed by to Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder of Kickstarter, or you'll be queuing for coffee with Meetup CEO David Siegel. I'm not talking about the conference speakers and panels, which you can watch here and here.

After three days of conference, you realize that in Silicon Valley, every business is thought to have global coverage from the beginning. It is pure technology created to solve some needs existing anywhere in the world. But three days of conference are enough to start looking at your business with other eyes. From this experience you cannot go un-transformed, there is something that started working in you from the first day when you set up your exhibition stand. And I can hardly wait to see how the following InnovX Alumni will upgrade their companies based on this experience:

MSing with Trauma: Ioana Dobroiu is a finalist of the Europe-Asia Connect Conference organized by Startup Grind in partnership with Google for Startups with one of the most interesting and useful HealtTech solutions that help to understand and deal with the symptoms of MS (multiple sclerosis) through the universal language of music. Think of the fear of the dark and the unknown, we all lived it at least once in childhood, so are the symptoms of MS: invisible, undefinable. Ioana helps you understand them, identify them, confront them and dominate them. Although business with a social purpose, there is nothing social about the founder of MSing with trauma; "Don’t MeSs with me" seems to be the saying of Ioana who embarked on an entrepreneurial mission that will improve the lives of millions of MS patients around the globe. Bootstrapped so far, with secured European patents, Silicon Valley's air was good to Ioana, who already had promising meetings to launch strategic partnerships with other stakeholders in the medical field.

indexAR: Razvan knows about business, he has taught and lived it through most of the entrepreneurial programs in Romania, but since last year it has expanded its ambitions at European and global level. Pragmatic and experienced, Razvan is like a fish in the water during conferences: he knows how to evaluate any interlocutor and give him exactly the attention he needs. And that's not because he wouldn't like to socialize, he’s a party animal, but because indexAR team knows the most important thing is execution, and they know how to deliver exceptional AR experiences in time and exceeding expectations. Winner of a research grant in RDI, within the most competitive program of the European Union: Horizon 2020, SME Instrument, accepted within the Microsoft for Startups program, Razvan has developed a global platform that democratizes AR, and the partners have not been late to appear. The Romanian Comercial Bank, Continental, are just two corporations that use indexAR technology. Even we launched for the first time in Silicon Valley, InnovX Multiverse powered by indexAR, an AR solution that multiplies the exhibition space by technology, using the Microsoft Azure platform on tablets and Microsoft HoloLens terminals.

Prepi: If we talk about globalization, nobody can represent it better than the Prepi team. With the three co-founders now divided between Bucharest, London, and San Francisco, no one would have thought that this EdTech's mathematics solution would resurrect from its ashes. But like the Phoenix bird, cultural diversity, telecommunication technology, exposure to different academic and social environments, determined the three co-founders to re-design the AND of their business and give it a global character, mathematics being, end of the day, a universal language. According to Alex Bulintis, present at Startup Grind, we are expecting soon the launch of the new version PREPI2 adapted to the global market, which will include all the knowledge accumulated in Silicon Valley.

iziBAC: Fast but sure, Raluca and Adrian Stratulat are the alumni who had the most consistent growth dynamics within the InnovX Xelerator. Completing each-others both in the entrepreneurial and business life, the two are a power couple that seems to have found the perfect formula for developing an EdTech business from national to European and now Global reach. After attracting a business angel investment, winning the Seal of Excellence at the European Commission's most competitive Innovation Development Research Program - Horizon 2020, SME Instrument, winner of the 2nd place in the Europe-Asia Connect Conference organized by Startup Grind in partnership with Google for Startups, nominated for Women in Tech category globally, Raluca did not sit for the entire Silicon Valley conference and used every second to schedule meetings with potential partners and discuss with investors and potential clients. Don't be fooled by her angelic figure, Raluca is one of the most powerful young entrepreneurs I have met at InnovX.

Credo: Winner of the Seal of Excellence granted by the European Commission, for its cyber-security solution and finalist of the Europe-Asia Connect Conference organized by Startup Grind in partnership with Google for Startups, Andrei Ene is one of InnovX's youngest entrepreneurs who accompanied us to Silicon Valley. Armed with all the zeal and knowledge of Generation Z, Andrei knew how to speculate on any opportunity that arose during the conference and where they left off, provoking them as a true hustler. No wonder you could see him pitching on the stage dedicated to Scaleup or talking with Geoff Ralston, President Y Combinator, entering the stages exclusively dedicated to VCs and Speakers (raising our concern as an X Generation representative??). With a state-of-the-art technology solution, an expanding team and developing partnerships, CREDO is likely to have the fastest development following participation in the Silicon Valley Global Startup Grind Conference, and it's no surprise as all of us need CREDO when it comes to the management of passwords used on technological devices. Anyone who has ever locked their phone knows what it's all about.

In 2019, InnovX had as main partner Banca Comerciala Romana, BCR covering all the scholarships of the 25 companies within InnovX, it is great when corporates support innovative startups grow.

We also thank the companies and business angels who made the InnovX Alumni delegation in Silicon Valley possible and chose to remain discrete, we need more of you guys to help to raise unicorns from Central and Eastern Europe!

We'll be back with InnovX BCR Scaleups soon

Dani & Diana from InnovX