Scaleups @ Startup Grind Global Conference 2020 in Silicon Valley

The Startup Grind Global Conference of 2020 was a hit. The 10th anniversary of the largest independent community of entrepreneurs world-wide came with some impressive numbers: 3 days with 2406 minutes of content, 10.000 attendees, 303 Startups from 96 countries.

The conference took place in several spots around the main stage of the Fox Theatre: the San Mateo County Historical hosted the Accelerate Program, several cinema scenes hosted the newly introduces workshop stages (VC Stage, Marketing Stage, Product Design Stage) and three different tents (Google for Startups, Chase Ink & MailChimp) hosted the exhibition of the 300+ startups, 100 of them being Y-Combinator Companies!

Derek Andersen, the founder of Startup Grind remained true to its beliefs: Startup Grind is not about flashy effects and bright screens, Startup Grind is about the entrepreneurial community, about the people behind the companies. Founders came as they are, and the fireside chats focused on their life as on their businesses. A lot of insights, a lot of revelatory ideas, and a degree of sincerity that you won’t find in other conferences. Derek’s way of organizing conferences is a perfect reflection of himself: cool, casual, sincere with a real interest in helping others. The three main values that are driving Startup Grind remained the same during the years, and ensured the success and continuous development of this movement:

? We believe in making friends, not contacts.

? We believe in giving, not taking.

? We believe in helping others before helping yourself.

And no wonder that topics like work-life balance, diversity, inclusion, have been discussed all around the 3 full days of the conference. At Startup Grind, the person was the focus of the event, and there you could find a diversity of entrepreneurs, investors from all around the world. There were no barriers to communication or to creating possible partnerships. The center of Redwood City was an inclusive and open community for talented people all around the world.

First day @ Startup Grind:

8:00 AM - Bitter Amusement:

Regardless of the origins of the founders, companies still have to function under different jurisdictions, and on the world’s economic scene, countries of residence for different juridical persons put a label on the company of the founders, regardless of his/ her potential and talent. And this is somehow correct as companies must play under the specific national rules with different degrees of protection for investors for example, or business relationships. While coming with a delegation of companies from Romania, I was bitterly amused to see that at the beginning, when still arranging the booths, visitors were attracted to the one company having dual residencies and displaying the flag of a more developed country. 

Countries branding is an interesting thing, and I was always wondering in the last years, whose responsibility is to create it or improve it. At InnovX we’ve started to confront this issue, not by hiding our origin or staying in our small market, but by starting to compete on the world scene, participating in international contests and going at Global conferences. This is an initiative that requires a lot of resources and talented people both on the sides of the Companies representing Romania as on the one supporting such initiatives. At InnovX we are happy to have found a credible and reliable partner that ensured all necessary resources: Banca Comerciala Romana – BCR. And to answer the question about countries’ brand responsibility, I found it bared by Ionut Stanimir, a guy dedicated to changing the perception of the world towards our country and imposing Romania as a genuine Tech Nation. Of course, alongside Ionut stays a generation of young talented people genuinely interested in having a say on the world stage from equal to equal: Ana Cretu, Bogdan Speteanu, are just some of BCR Team members that work day and night towards this objective.

10:00 AM – Hard Work & Dedication:

While entrepreneurs started to come to their booths, countries' logos, started to become irrelevant. Their energy, talent, and intelligence filled the tents and started to attract the attention of more and more visitors. It is clear that improving one’s country brand depends on the hard work of our entrepreneurs and their companies, and I am proud of presenting you five Romanian scaleups that have been selected among hundreds of companies from the world to exhibit at the Startup Grind Global Conference in Silicon Valley, as part of the InnovX - BCR Romanian delegation:

1. Allevo: is a technology company addressing the multiple challenges that financials’ legacy systems face in our days. By first improving banks' performances, Allevo positioned itself as a reliable service provider delivering great solutions with a team of professionals that have good knowledge of old networks and continuously acquiring and implementing the new technologies. Allevo is the perfect example of a successful family business and I genuinely hope it will remain the same, as Ioana Guiman and her brother, proved to be able to face the hard challenge of business succession from their father; time proved that both exceeded the expectations of their business partners and clients. Ioana likes to continuously challenge herself, and her participation at Startup Grind was a demonstration of professionalism: armed with all the qualities of a charismatic entrepreneur, Ioana interacted with clients and potential partners in a manner that enchanted us all. Her positivity and optimism is the result of the confidence in her hard work and of the strength demonstrated in the last years of entrepreneurship. Ioana’s ambitions are worth her legacy, as she started to scale Allevo, targeting new verticals, new clients segments (SMEs) and new markets in Europe, Africa, and who knows where next? In Silicon Valley, Allevo launched its new scalable product that automatizes financial processes for SMEs, offering them the business experience that was until now available only for large corporations. Alongside Sorina Bera and Mihai Radu Guiman, Ioana demonstrated that through dedication and hard work, great products can target international markets.

2. DocProcess: is a company that develops digital solutions in the cloud that efficiencies acquisition, logistic and accountancy processes and automatizes business processes and the exchange of documents between ecosystems of partners. It help companies do business by avoiding the use of paper, phones, emails, or any other analog process. A family business, DocProcess wanted to raise awareness internationally, and the trio that came in Silicon Valley demonstrated to be a functional team of complementary competencies and skills delivering the expected results. Raised in France, with studies in the UK at UCL and Warwick University, Sophie Apolozan knows about globalization and disruption, her presence in Silicon Valley is something natural, she is a citizen of the world that knows that DocProcess can only be an international business. Armed with charm, intelligence and all the skills learned at UCL or Stanford, Monica Dumitriu’ s pitch at Startup Grind was an excellent communication lesson, her role as Marketing Director positioning her as a reliable executive member of the company. Last but not least, Dragos Petre, intrigued and amazed us all through his involvement in interacting with clients and partners all day long at the booth. None would ever guess that Dragos is Partner at the Private Equity firm that recently invested in DocProcess. Dragos is a rare find in the CEE investment realm proving, that Morphosis Capital' s motto is not just a headline but a reality: “We don’t just sit on the sidelines, we get in the trenches with you, because we’re the kind of people that really know what it takes to run a business.”

3. iFactor: Alongside Manuel Costescu, former JP Morgan investment Banker, Cosmin Curticapean founded iFactor, a state of the art fintech marketplace. Oxford graduate in Fintech, he also studied AI in Fintech at the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship in London. Cosmin is dedicated to improving the access to finance of SMEs in CEE and worldwide. iFactor is a marketplace for financial solutions where investors as other financial institutions can enter to finance entrepreneurship. In Silicon Valley, their team rocked the stage doing business the American way. With style and class, iFactor' s founder knows how to make contacts with top stakeholders in the investment and financial industry, so don’t be amazed if you will find him taking dinner with top executives of international banks or Venture Capital Funds. Fintech Aficionado, Cosmin is also dedicated to helping the fintech ecosystem in Romania, being involved in the Fintech Association, Business Angels Network and organizing the AI in Fintech Hackaton. Mihai Grosu, Chief Technology Officer, the brain behind iFactor architecture presented the platform like nobody else to the clients coming to their booth at Startup Grind, acquiring many leads and adding scaling opportunities for the FinTech solution. The team wouldn't have been complete without the exploding energy of Alin Vlad Badilita, Growth Manager, that couldn’t help himself but interact with all clients passing the booth. “It’s no longer B2B or B2C, it’s Human 2 Human. Relationships are the cornerstone of today’s success” Alin says, and we might all agree that this is also what makes iFactor successful.

4. Setrio: After 15 years of software development with huge results in the pharma industry in Romania, Setrio came to Silicon Valley to launch the SetrioChain software product dedicated to improving the adherence of patients to medical treatments. The solution that uses the blockchain technology will follow the medical path of a patient, avoiding the disease or symptoms to come back due to inefficient treatment. Setrio is estimated to help save over 125 billion euro just in the European Union, bringing huge benefits to the health systems that will adhere to the solution, now try to do the math for the global market! Their presence in Silicon Valley, was overwhelming, under the attentive eyes of Marius Ciuperca, General Manager and Andrian Pavel, Executive Director, with a team of seven experts, Setrio was everywhere: pitching to clients, meeting investors, establishing partnerships, attending speeches and parties alike. The team effort was evident, with the best-equipped booth, Marian Banica, Lucian Preda, Silviu Covaci and consultant Dan Mocanu missed none of the visitors passing through their booth at Silicon Valley. With a strong background in tech but with a natural talent in words, Radu Atanasescu, Setrio Marketing Director is leading the way towards internationalization, knowing how to shock and get the interest of the audience while pitching on Startup Grind Stage or acquire feedback and leads in the interaction with other peers. Setrio is proof that the key to a successful business is a strong and committed team, and Setrio has what it takes to conquer the international market.

5. AlphaBlock: An AI company that builds investment management solutions for pension funds, family offices, and hedge funds is now building an ecosystem to boost the distribution of cross-domain intelligent algorithmic processes by offering them an innovative smart contract technology which is zero-knowledge, low cost, secure and works across multiple domains like cybersecurity, advertising, telecom, and retail. The company’s vision is the fusion between the Internet and blockchain in order to become an integrated marketplace. Simply put, a company’s data and processes can be listed, validated and become intelligent through the AI processes developed by the AlphaBlock team. Chapeau to all of them: Mukul Pal, Andrei Nagy, Dacian Jurj, Mike de Melo, and the rest of the team, you guys rock! At Startup Grind Silicon Valley, AlphaBlock demonstrated that it is time to give back to the InnovX BCR community and hosted many of the Alumni that beneficiated of its involvement: iziBAC, CREDO, indexAR, Msing with Trauma, PREPI have been in Silicon Valley through its involvement and the generosity of many other partners that decided to remain anonymous.

6:00 PM – There is hope:

After a full day at the Startup Grind Global Conference in Silicon Valley, we are more than sure we are on the right path. Only with dedication, involvement and hard work, we will be able to change the perception of the world upon us. And with the involvement of those forming the InnovX BCR Delegation: Allevo, AlphaBlock, DocProcess, iFactor, Setrio, iziBAC, PREPI, indexAR, MSing with Trauma, CREDO, we feel confident. The quote from Doc Brown (Back in the Future movie) came in my mind: “Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one”. Thank you Simion Ursache from UiPath for remembering me that! 

8:00 PM – Celebrate success:

A balance between work and party:)) : what else could we do after a full day of work? The parties accompanying the Startup Grind Global Conference are an amazing way to interact more personally with this great community of amazing entrepreneurs. No surprise Startup Grind is one of the most appreciated conferences in Silicon Valley!

I cannot end without saying that none of these experiences would have reached you if it wasn't for the extraordinary press coverage and videos made by Vlad Andriescu and his team from Startup.ro. Vlad was a great folk to hang around with and we are grateful that he was alongside InnovX BCR Alumni during the Startup Grind Conference!

Do you want to be the next Entrepreneur representing InnovX at the Startup Grind Conferences? Register your free invitation to our next InnovX BCR Day powered by Microsoft, and climb your way to the top!