The study visit portion of the CONNECT project has finally closed with the most recent event in Riga, Latvia. Anthology Management was fortunate to participate as a partner in three of these visits, as well as organizing our own week-long event in Sofia, BG.
Anthology Management is incorporated in beautiful Sofia, Bulgaria, where we had the pleasure of organizing the second study visit for the CONNECT Erasmus+ project. Hosting this event gave us the chance to showcase some of the amazing startup activity and resources happening in this central Balkan country.
Our base for the visit was in Soho Holistic CoWorking Space, a dynamic and friendly environment full of freelancers and small startups in the creative industries. Our first day featured an extensive presentation from Soho Founder and Director Luba Hristova, who shared her professional journey in becoming a successful entrepreneur and community-builder in the thriving Bulgarian ecosystem. Luba’s inspiring story proves that students and creative professionals who can incorporate entrepreneurial thinking and training into their work are able to build truly innovative and successful businesses, not necessarily centered around technology.
In the afternoon, we got the chance to hear from the founders of two different startups, Worddio (EdTech/Vocabulary) and Metabio (MedTech) about the challenges and rewards of founding, building, and running a high-tech startup. After hearing from them, all participants know for a fact that startups are not for the faint of heart!
Day 2 started with a visit from Elena Nikoleva, Community Director at the CEOAngels Club, a very successful Angel Investment group begun in Sofia. Elena began with her own experience as a successful entrepreneur. She offered us a unique perspective on moving from the Founder of her own company to raising money for it, growing it, and then leaving it behind to begin something new. Then, she walked us through the basics of Angel Investing, with specific examples about how an Angel Investor thinks, what they are looking for, and how they can help a startup they invest in.
We also had several workshops to build upon the content of the online acceleration course, including problem solving, communication & value propositions, budgeting and ecosystem mapping. Later in the day we heard from our associate Yannis Skoulikaris, a former director of the European Patent Office and founder of PatentMind Netherlands, about the basics of patenting an idea or product.
ERASMUS+ CONNECT PROJECT: “Connecting universities-industry through smart entrepreneurial cooperation and competitive intelligence of students in Moldova, Georgia and Armenia ”617393-EPP-1-2020-1-MD-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP”
#Network of Smart Caffe #Moldova State University #State Agrarian University of Moldova #Alecu Russo Balti State University #Technical University of Moldova #Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts #Brusov State University #Vanadzor State University after H.Tumanyan #Ilia state university #Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University
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