What should you expect?

The most intense 24 hours of your life! We start with a pitching session where you get 1 minute to present your idea in front of the audience and gain the support of the public! Teams will be organically formed around the most appreciated ideas.

You then have 24 hours to build a minimum viable product and develop your business concept under the close guidance of entrepreneurs, tech specialists and industry leaders. In the end, you pitch again, this time in front of a jury, and the best 26 teams (16 from Bucharest and 10 from Cluj) will enter the pre-acceleration program.

What’s next?

From March to May you will develop your product together with exceptional mentors and guest speakers. You will attend TechTalks, open discussions with experts in different areas, and you will participate in mentoring sessions that will help you turn your idea into a viable startup.

In May you get the chance to showcase your product at the Demo Day where you’ll pitch in front of a jury of investors and accelerators!

Is it for you?

If you’re a student or young professionals (not necessarily with a technical background) and you’re committed to building a disruptive product that can change the world, then Innovation Labs 2.0 is perfect for you!

You can either bring your own idea on the table or join another idea that you like! Moreover, you can come by yourself and meet here your future co-founders, or bring your team!

Your first step as an entrepreneur is Innovation Labs 2.0! In the month of March let’s code till we drop! Places are limited so hurry up and register now at http://2014.innovationlabs.ro/register. Stay up to date on our website http://innovationlabs.ro and Facebook page http://facebook.com/ILabsRo and don’t hesitate to contact us at contact@innovationlabs.ro should there be any further questions!

See you in March at the Innovation Labs Hackathons!

Innovation Labs 2.0 is a project organized by TechLounge with the support of Orange and Microsoft. The partners of the program are IXIA, Intel, Mysis, Universitatea Politehnica Bucureşti, Asociaţia Patronală a Industriei de Software şi Servicii (ANIS), Akcees, Spherik Accelerator and ProvePR.

The visibility of the event is ensured by Adevărul, Cariere, Wall-Street.ro, Forbes România, Zelist Monitor, TPU.ro, România Liberă, Manager Express, EJobs, IQAds, Ziare.com, MarketWatch, Business Woman, Business Cover, Tech Cover, Business24, Gadget Trends, Computer World, PC World, Agora, Electronica Azi, Romanian Startups, Academic Link, Online Student, România Pozitivă, Studentul.info, Today Software Magazine şi Cluj Life.

We are proud to have the support of: Junior Achievement România, Startup Weekend, Business Days, Business Club, AIESEC, BOS România, ASCIG, Incubator107, Softbinator, SISC, DA Afaceri, Student din provincie, Inventeaza.ro, Inspire Business, Geek Meet şi Cluj Hub.

The post Register now for Innovation Labs 2.0 appeared first on InnovationLabs.

We are happy that we got to tell their stories and the story of their Innovation Labs experience.

The first edition of Innovation Labs generated a media coverage of 258 online mentions, adding up to 477.000 impressions, according to Zelist Monitor.

Followed by journalists!

Adevărul Tech team was right behind us on each step we took. They were the first one who met the team, found out their stories and published them on first hand. Here is an article about our first hackathon when they joined us on a 24 hours coding marathon. Following the hackathon, another great story was published by DasCloud.ro

Ideas that maters in Gandul.info

Some of the best Innovation Labs teams were featured in a media campaign ”Fabrica de idei (translated: The Factory of Ideas), run by Gandul.info. Here you can read the article about Seenesthesis, an app that helps the children who lost their visual sense to exercise their tactile memory and learn about the shapes and colors of common objects in the surrounding world. Another story was about Freemble, the team that build an app based on Freecycle philosophy. And also, the story of Wyliodrin, a service that allows programming and controlling development boards directly from a browser was feature in Gandul.info media campaign.

Tech-teams in business magazines

With innovative ideas and a strong business strategy, some teams, mentored in Innovation Labs were ready to hit the stage and pitch their stories to broad audience. Here are some stories published in Ziarul Financiar, Business Magazine and Capital.

Innovation Labs Stories were also features in Romania Libera, daily newspaper and by bloggers such as Victor Kapra and Dan Dragomir.

The post Innovation Labs: in the media in 2013 appeared first on InnovationLabs.

Peste 100 de invitați le-au adresat întrebări și au interacționat cu participanții în cadrul evenimentului de final găzduit de TechHub București – primul spațiu de birouri și evenimente din România dedicat afacerilor IT la început de drum.

4 premii au fost acordate de către un juriu format din: Radu Georgescu – Gecad Group, Todi Pruteanu – Microsoft România, Teodor Ceaușu – IXIA, Alex Marinescu – Electronic Arts, Daniel Dragomir – TechHub, Raluca Georgescu – Allegro Group, Daniel Enache – Media IQ, Diana Olar – Voucherry și Gabriel Iovu – Top HoReCa.

Premiul pentru Best Pitch (cea mai bună prezentare) a fost acordat Freemble (www.freemble.com), o aplicatie Android care te ajuta sa donezi lucrurile pe care nu le mai folosesti celor care au nevoie de ele.

Premiul pentru Best Prototype (cea mai bună implementare a unei idei) a fost câștigat de FeedSpot (http://feedspot.innovationlabs.ro), un nou sistem de fidelizare pentru restaurante, accesibil sub forma unei aplicatii pe telefonul mobil, care doreste sa inlocuiasca cardurile de fidelitate.

FeedSpot a câștigat și Premiul Publicului, obținut în urma unui vot prin sms la care au participat participanții la eveniment.

Premiul pentru Best Business a fost câștigat de Wyliodrin (http://www.facebook.com/wyliodrin), un serviciu ce permite programarea si controlarea placilor de dezvoltare direct din browser. Utilizatorul isi poate scrie, stoca si rula programele. El poate modifica si vizualiza parametrii acestora in timp real, indiferent de unde se afla placuta. Tot ce are nevoie utilizatorul este un browser si o conexiune la Internet.

TechHub București a oferit câștigătorilor premiului 3 luni de abonament de co-working în spațiul din București, timp în care își pot dezvolta prototipul.

Juriul a acordat și un Premiul Special al Juriului pentru Seenesthesis (http://seenesthesis.innovationlabs.ro), o aplicație pentru copii cu deficiențe de vedere prin care aceștia pot învăța și cunoaște obiecte simple din lumea reală folosind telefoane cu touch-screen.

Lista completă a aplicațiilor dezvoltate în program poate fi parcursă și aici: http://www.innovationlabs.ro/blog/innovation-labs-demo-day.html

Innovation Labs Demo Day a fost organizat de TechSoup România și TechLounge, cu sprijinul Microsoft România, și în parteneriat cu: TechHub București, TechAngels, Asociația Națională a Industriei de Software în România -ANIS, Simon Dietrich, Staropramen.

—–

Innovation Labs este un proiect comun al TechSoup România și TechLounge, cu sprijinul Microsoft România.

Alături de proiectul de 3 luni s-au aflat: Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti, How to Web, TechHub Bucuresti, Asociația Națională a Industriei de Software – ANIS, TechAngels, Simon Dietrich, Good Afternoon, IXIA, Adobe Systems Romania, Intel Romania, Electronic Arts Romania, Misys, RevoGames Solutions, Ubisoft, Starbucks, Staropramen, Simplus

Parteneri media: Adevărul, DasCloud, Softbinator.ro

The post (ro) Castigatorii Innovation Labs appeared first on InnovationLabs.

Here are the teams that will amaze you with their pitch:

Auditorium

Auditorium is an audio touristic guide for your Android phone, which can help you discover the story behind a landmark or a sight when you are travelling as a tourist in a city.

Diffusr

A social platform for location based announces, which helps you to comunicate with people around you.
For example:
- If you are downtown and want to go home and want to share a cab, you can “diffuse” it, find someone to share the cab and pay less => More money in the pocket.
- if you live in the dorms and run out of bread in the middle of the night, you can diffuse your problem and someone will give/lend you some bread => Not hungry anymore.
Our motto: Socialise Locally

FeedSpot

FeedSpot represents a new loyalty system for bars and restaurants. It takes the form of a mobile application, easy to use.

At the restaurant, once you receive the bill, you will also receive a QR code. By scanning the code with your FeedSpot app, you will gain a number of points that you can later use to unlock free meals and promotions in the same restaurant. With the app you can also provide feedback for your experience there, see how many points you need to unlock other promotions, see the menus or enjoy the social factor and find out what are the places where your friends like to hang out.

The restaurants receive, in addition to loyal customers, the chance to communicate with them through the app, but also feedback and statistics.

Freemble

Freemble, a location-based Android application coming soon to a smartphone near you, empowers you to donate things that you don’t use anymore to people that actually need them.

With Freemble, you can:
* free your space of things that you bearly use
* save time by giving closer to where you are
* get access to useful and unusual objects
* spread the joy of reusing and recycling

InmeetApp

Find the perfect ice-breaker when you are at a event or otherwise: Connect with Linkedin, and check event guest lists for people you want to meet, sorted by common traits and find the perfect conversation starter for the event day. Be visible for a set, pre-determined period of time to all the professionals attending that event, and successfully make your skills and achievements visible to those around you. Make it easy to make new connections at industry-specific conferences, by searching and sorting through a list of potential clients/business partners/future colleagues, laid out by common industries or traits. Event organisers get a fully integrated experience, with attendees able to register, sign on and interact during the event with each other as well as with speakers and organizers, then comment on key points during the presentations and talks. Organizers are then presented with a thorough breakdown of the event, enabling them to improve the next venture and measure the effectiveness of their chosen business model. The follow-up experience for attendees is also ensured by keeping track of past events, and suggesting future events that match their career profile and previous preferences.

Easy to install and deploy, the application can be marketed by major conferences as the main way of interaction during that event.

NEXTads Romania

With over 25 000 registered users, NEXTads Romania is a semi-targeted communication and advertising service in Social Media.
We have accomplished to develop a strong viral communication network that strengthens the link and organic communication between businesses and their customers, engaging users to interact with them and share their advertising campaigns and promotions to friends, relatives and other circles. Our network currently includes Facebook for concept validations and it is built to support all major Social networks.

Retake

Retake is a platform for learning photography, where you can create a portfolio and gain feedback from more advanced photographers. The feedback you get can contain an edited version of a specific photography, with different cropping, contrast or brightness, that make it look better. You can then retake the same photo to show your progress.

Seenesthesis

Seenesthesis helps the children who lost their visual sense to exercise their tactile memory and learn about the shapes and colors of common objects in the surrounding world.

Toto

Android app for live streaming of video games to a web server, to be watched by fans.

Wyliodrin

Wyliodrin is a service that allows programming and controlling development boards directly from a browser. The user can write, store and run his programs. He can modify and watch the board’s parameters in real tine, no matter where the board is located. All the user needs is a browser and an Internet connection.

Impressed with our work? Let us know if you want to join

(contact – at –  innovationlabs – dot – ro).

The post Innovation Labs Demo Day appeared first on InnovationLabs.

• To understand the other partner’s needs means to be empathic. Also, you must think why you’ve been refused.
• If a contract is not a win-win one for both parts, it will break.

The qualities of a good negotiator:

A negotiator has to have all the other qualities because his employees will do what he is negotiating for.

Listen – this is one of the biggest qualities of a good negotiator. The one how asks the questions is the one who leads the discussion.

 

There are different types of negotiations (not financial related):

• Managerial
• Commercial
• Legal

When negotiating, you have to know when to let go and how much. Also, you have to be empathic when establishing the limits.

• Make the difference between requests and needs
• Be prepared to meet the MAN (money, authorization, need) – you have to know what are the needs of the client (not yours) for knowing what to sell.

Strategies: priorities – you have to estimate what objective is more important for the client

• Usually, the one with the money negotiates the first one
• It is important for you to get to negotiate the second goal

Steps for a business meeting

• Prepare the meeting: find out details about the company and the person will be meeting
• When meeting the partner try to discuss also on a personal level
• Follow-up: the details discuss during the meeting should be respected
• Sometimes when negotiating it’s good to have a Bad guy and a Good guy
• Be careful with the body language – some gestures can be misinterpreted as offensive

The meeting place

• You will feel more relaxed and comfortable if the meeting takes place on a familiar setting.
• You will feel as a subordinate if you accept the partner’s location
• If possible, choose a neutral location
• Timing is important for taking maximum advantages
• Choose a round table – better for the atmosphere and all the participants

What to do when meeting a dominant negotiator?

If you know in front of you is a tough guy, take advantage of this: agree with him but also find a solution for you. You can easely see what’s his goal and how can you fulfill your objectives.

When launching a product you have to study the competition, advantages and disadvantages, potential clients, pricing level, distribution models.

 

Catalin Tatomir is a former CEO of Microsoft Romania (2008). He is currently working for his own consulting company, CCT Consultants.

Photos by Ioana Vasile & Adrian Lulea. Notes for this article Adrian Cristea. Translated and adapted by Madalina Oprisan.

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There were lots of products which were really successful in the beginnings and then disappeared. Take for exemple Aldus, Apollo, Ashton-Tate and Zilong which were really popular before 1990 and Novell which was popular in 2000. But even though these companies have disappeared, the people who were working for them kept on innovating.

Aldus created an application for editing documents and developed the TIF standards. In 1994 they were merged with Adobe. Three founders left Aldus to create the product later know as Microsoft Office Visio.

Ashton-Tate was the first company to realize a database product for PCs. They invented the dBASE product. Meanwhile, Clipper and Fox appeared and they were much more faster. As a result Ashton-Tate disappeared. This was possible also due to the fact that other companies developed database products.

VisiCalc was a row/column financial program. Starting from this they created Lotus 1-2-3 which was ported to the IBM PC.

Newton was the first tablet invented in 1990 and could be used as a notebook. The first smarphone was invented by IBM. Nokia and Blackberry followed.

 

In 1995 Netscape changed the fate of internet. It came with Mosaic made a very successful IPO with an open source product. They offered a free internet navigator tool for sustaining the e-commerce industry.

“So the internet is a group of companies with convergent interests.” said Dan Gârlașu.

Sometimes some new products change the way we do the business causing disruptive innovation. Take for example – smartphones and peer to peer networking which blew the copywrites agreements.

In Romania the first research and education network was RoEduNet. After 1993 small companies launched which were later on merged within bigger companies. Then the pragmatics got involved, the banks and the telecom companies.

“The product can have a shorter or a longer life circle, that’s why the market should be analised. You must study the clients’ profile for being able to pass all the technology adoption life cycles” said Dan Gârlașu, Oracle Sales Director

 

 The technology adoption life cycle

The enthusiasts – the ones who buy the products only to have it when it’s launched.

The visionaries – they see the opportunity to use that product for their interests – creating better pictures or raising money for exemple.

The pragmatics – the early majority (34%) they wait for solid arguments to use that product.

The conservators – the late majority, they accept the products only if it was proved to be useful and presents no risk.

The skeptics – they are not aware they are using the product.

Andreea Coca, Digital Qual Researched at GFK Romania has also joined the discussion and talked about market research which link a product to its users.

Steps for developing and launching a new product:

• Exploration – what we do, how we do it, for who we do this and what’s the context.
• Ideas – identify the benefits and what’s new
• Optimizations

Planning the product release:

• Market goals
• Distribution channels – where is going to be distribute and what are the methods.
• Communication – setting the communication channels
• Implementing
• Monitoring – evaluate what where the good and bad parts.

photo credit: http://infrae.com/presentations/present_OSSWATCH_osmodel/techadoption.jpg

Photos by Ioana Vasile. Notes for this article Adrian Cristea. Translated and adapted by Madalina Oprisan.

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Here are some of the most important ideas shared:

When creating software products you need to have an entrepreneurial spirit to solve the uncertainty. Your software will be part of a system and you’ll have to develop a business model focused on customers.

You need to know who’s your client: markets don’t buy products, clients do. Nevertheless, you have to be the first one to answer the question „Why would anyone buy my product?”. 

The products are influenced by lots of factors like:

• Marketing – who’s my client? How am I going to promote my products? What’s the price?
• Distribution – where am I going to distribute my product? How can I control that?
• Licensing
• Documentation training (part of the product – forum, group discussions)
• Support
• Maintenance
• Customization services
• The development ecosystem – you have to have in mind your future partners who will develop the product

“The product is a clearly defined mix of quality standards” said Bogdan Costinescu

ISO 9126 defines the 6 quality standards: functionality, efficiency, reliability, maintainability, usability, and portability.

A software is created in a certain context and the quality of a product is influenced by internal and external attributes:

• Verification = normal testing
• Validation = the answer from your customer – if what he gets is what he needs.

If you want to create a software decide to follow one idea that is worth being implemented. After that, you have to keep in mind: the cost, the revenue, the market window, capabilities and the alignment to strategy.

„If you launch your product too soon, you ruin the surprise. If you launch too late, you run out of money” said Bogdan Costinescu, adding that one thing is for sure “You don’t want to loose the client’s confidence in your product”.

“The clients are important; if you don’t have clients I don’t know why would you do the product. Pay attention to the first client. The risk is to satisfy just one client.” said Bogdan Costinescu

If you want to create a successful product, use that product for yourself. That’s the best feedback. Moreover, find ways to get feedback from your users. In the end, think of your product as a platform and leave an open space for the possible extensions.

Student Elena Buchir took notes for this text.

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You learn the most from your mistakes. It’s important to always move forward, Monica Ene-Pietrosanu.

Together with Andrei Pitis, they talked, based on their own personal and extensive experience, about mistakes managers make.

Here are some of them:

# Mistake – Find the excuse vs. Get the job done

You have 2 paths to choose from: performance and excuses. If you always find excuses, you won’t do anything. The first rule is to believe it’s possible.

Tip: When discovering a problem, find also the solution. Otherwise, you’re just complaining.

# Mistake – Fail to develop people

The test for a manager is not what he/she can do, but what others can do without she/him. Managers are often afraid that, if they develop people, they will become useless. If people don’t grow, there will be no one to delegate to.

Trap: managers are often problem solvers (ex: When a subordinate approaches them with a problem, they try to solve it)

 “It’s important that my team is better than I am” , said Monica Ene Pietrosanu adding that most often managers take themselves to serious.

# Mistake – Joining the wrong crowd

Pay attention who you represent and what are you in charge of. There is a danger of being perceiving more as a union leader than a manager. Moreover, your team might end up perceiving you as powerless and weak.

Build loyalty

Loyalty is not about agreeing with everything you say, or believing that you’re always right, is about fighting for a common ideal.

# Mistake -Manage everyone the same way

This is not about fairness, it is about style and understanding each individual’s growth and needs (gets inspired by leadership style in US, Germany and UK). In Romania, one of the common mistakes is to treat the cigarette break as a “one-on-one meeting”.

# Mistake – Concentrate on problems rather than objectives

Together with your team, you should focus on a common goal, rather than problems. You need to build an organization where mistakes can be made. Do not accept twice the same mistakes, though.

“Only the ones who do not work, make no mistakes” Monica-Ene Pietrosanu

# Mistake – Be a buddy, not a boss

If you are a manager, try not to bring too much from your personal life into the office. People need a boss, not a buddy.

# Mistake  – Try to manipulate people

Management is the skill of obtaining predetermined objectives through and with the voluntary cooperation of others. People fall in love with theirs ideas, not yours.

Tips for young managers: delegate, do not stay in the comfort zone, adapt your skill set, and improve your time management skills.

5 things for a successful product:

• Create a unique product, at the perfect time, with the proper capital, together with the wright people and the best managers.

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Vladimir Oane, the co-founder of uverVU, is just 30 years old and needed no introduction when talking with students in Politehnica University.

He started coding in 2002 because he wanted to do something else than he was doing in school. “My strategy was: let’s break my head in business, I can afford it, I’m only in my second year of college” said Vladimir.

First, it was Metromind. Then, together with other co-founders, he presented the uberVu idea to SeedCamp and got a funding of 50.000 Euros. Today, 50 people are working for uberVu, they have their biggest office in Bucharest, and their official headquarters is in Boston where they also have their management team.

During their SeedCamp experience they’ve met a lot of people that wanted to help them develop their product and give them feed-back. “We didn’t know how to ask feedback – the problem with meeting 10 smart people is that they will give you 10 different feedbacks and tell you 10 different things, which is not necessarily true and ok for you.”

If it were to have the same amount of money now, he would just focus on delivering the product: “I would really focus, focus on shipping as soon as possible a product and get adopters.”

“Nowadays is really hard to receive seed money with just an idea, you need at least a prototype. After getting the money, you have to prove that you can provide the product and show that you understand your client.”, Vladimir added “Anything that is like – I have 3 customers, I have several endorsements – will definitely help.”

Where can you get funding? Incubators, crowdfunding, family and friend, and VCs, but most importantly potential clients.

Some incubators can connect you with clients, like SeedCamp did for them, but you need to do more than that – “You have to hassle, call clients, learn and understand their needs – it’s not like in the movies… Funding should not be your problem, shipping is” concluded Vladimir.

More ideas to remember from Vladimir Oane:

• Nothing speaks better than a functional product – its unacceptable to do it otherwise.

• You need to ship and to validate that stuff – you need to have something that works.

• Your biggest quality needs to be empathy – empathy towards the client.

• Validate you idea as much as possible, even before writing your first line of code.

• People don’t doubt you can write code, they doubt what you do can solves problems.

Credits: photos by Ioana Vasile, notes by Elena Coman, edited by Madalina Oprisan

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Vlad Stan, the founder of Geekcelerator, talked with the students about business model, start-ups, customer discovery and product market fit, during one session of TechLounge Talks.

Here are some of the most interesting ideas shared with students:

“If you want to make money try to do the things you’re obsessed with. Otherwise, you’ll be your own slave.” said Vlad. Moreover he added that you have to expose yourself to lots of things to find out what’s your obsession, because people with obsession change the world.

He drew a user-friendly framework for an entrepreneur to create a start-up:
• Founder/Market fit – you have to find a reason for doing this
• User – you have to be the user of your own product.
• Facilitator – you bring value and solve a problem but you don’t use the product.
• The best way is to bring value and to use the product that has to solve a problem. So you should wonder if it’s challenging enough for investing your next 10 years into this.

Other important things:
• Identify the client – you have to find out how representative you are for your group of clients. Your first clients will make your product successful.
• You have to identify each problem and try to solve the biggest one. Another important thing is how offer will you product be used?
• Solution – it has to be technical challenging.
• There are 2 ways – local or global success. Important is to work with people who can help you, good and passionate people who can understand the product.
• It’s good to work with people who can complete you (it’s not good to have more than 3 entrepreneurs)
• For most of entrepreneurs, the most important thing is the man. That’s why Vlad Stan would not invest in a prototype without a founder or in a founder without a prototype.

Vlad Stan is an entrepreneur with more than 12 years of experience in IT start-ups. His first project was build together with some friends from Politehnica University, in an apartment. After 8 years they have realized they’ve made the first mobile email app. There were few users and the project failed. Since then he has invested in 11 start-ups: 3 are already dead, 4 are still struggling and 3 of them are really successful.

Credits: photos by Ioana Vasile, notes by Adrian Cristea, edited by Madalina Oprisan from TechSoup Romania

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