‘Why do investors put their money into a startup?’ Many startup founders would love to know the answer to the question. The second Startup Summit organized by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, held in Warsaw on 3-4.12 at the National Stadium, touched upon various topics such as upcoming trends, marketing and sales, scaling up and going global, but also on the relationship between startups and investors. Startups could learn at investing workshops but also learn from experience by attending one of the individual sessions with investors and funds. The conference opened with a speech of Cristiano Carlutti, an Italian angel investor, who revealed during his talk why he invests in one startup and not the other.
First and foremost, he invests in people and their abilities: it is relevant to him whether they are persistent, eager to solve problems and making things happen. What is especially interesting is that he sees great potential in the cultural background of an entrepreneur. Talking to mostly Polish entrepreneurs in Warsaw he brought back to life the king Kazimierz Wielki, the astronomer Mikolaj Kopernik and the chemist Maria Sklodowska-Curie showing us that Polish people have been capable of bringing innovation not only to Poland, but also to the world.
Certainly, the idea itself is important, taking into consideration the possibility to enter the market and scaling up. He finds simplicity the ultimate sophistication so he is looking for resilient people with simple ideas that solve intricate problems.
Moreover, he sees data as the new currency, if used and analyzed wisely, opening great opportunities to entrepreneurs. He is a visionary passionate about new technologies, new possibilities of data collection and its usage. Electrification, telematics, internet of things and autonomous cars are the buzz words he finds to be important in the nearest future.
Those points explain well why he recently invested in JIVR bike company started by a Polish man, which produces electric, chainless, foldable bikes equipped with beacons. The company will bring up to life a new type of a connected vehicle to be used in big cities, such as London, where its design came to life. As you can see he invests in data-driven solutions because he understands that ‘Data is the new currency’.
