Pitching event on entrepreneurship of the future

A pitching event organized at the Swedish Residence on 22 September created a platform for discussing Swedish experiences in innovation and entrepreneurship through startups. Two Swedish officials and four Swedish startup entrepreneurs shared their policies, ideas and journeys to a targeted Greek audience.

Ambassador Charlotte Wrangberg pointed out that an open and global mindset, gender equality, education and cooperation are contributing to the high level of successful startups in Sweden.

Erik Åstedt from the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation underlined the importance of platforms for networking and sharing of knowledge, to create a well-functioning ecosystem for growth.

The startup developer Mikael Winblad, clarified the startup recipe to dare to try and to learn from the mistakes and move on, to “fail fast”. Charlotta Tönsgård from “MinDoktor” pinpointed what the startups need to succeed: “A fair and transparent playground to act in”.

App makers Linus Lundberg and Alex Burkhead from “Triloapps”, showed how their educational school-apps are making it possible to mix having fun and learning, highlighting “motivation drives education”. Daphne Jaeschke, from “Simris Alg”, said that the startups in Sweden benefit from “the global mentality and the can-do -mentality”.

The widespread goodwill towards social entrepreneurs is useful, according to the startups. Tim de Haas from “Better Shelter” exemplified the cooperation; the Better Shelter houses for refugee camps are made with screws developed from Volvo and delivered in typical flat IKEA packages, easy to set up.

The transfer of knowledge from Sweden will hopefully contribute to the further development of an environment for entrepreneurship in Greece where startups act as innovative forces.

Text: Rasmus Göthberg
Photo: Rasmus Göthberg, Sofia Keramida