A few days after the announcement of the TOP40 teams, they gathered at Mektory for some useful tips and know-how about all the relevant subjects for startups—crowdfunding, intellectual property protection, how to validate a product/service, what to keep in mind when making a webpage, and how Swedbank and Science Park Tehnopol can help the teams.
Starting this round, all Prototron winners get 6 months of free web hosting and e-mail service from Veebimajutus.ee, plus all their know-how on how to make a really good web page. How, why, and what—Marko Toom from Veebimajutus.ee made it all clear.
Software development
Taavet Tamm from Singelton said they are following a simple narrative: software is about making machines work for humans. It is important to understand whether you need custom software for your business and figure out what and how to build it based on your business needs and goals.
Five steps to working software:
1) Understand your user flow
2) Prototype & create user stories
3) Get the estimates for budgeting
4) Prioritise & decide
5) Build.
Finances
The core message of Vahur Vallistu from Swedbank was – there has never ever been more money for startups on the market, as there is right now. Use it!
Jelena Žovnikova from Fundwise gave a closer look how crowdfunding works for tech startups.
Startup community
Triin Ilves from Tehnopol gave inspiring overview of Estonian startup scene in numbers.
550 startups, 4300 new jobs created, startups paid €35M in employment taxes year 2017, raised over €880M in the last 10 years. Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol helps startups and growing companies by providing modern business and science environment. Tehnopol Startup Incubator invests up to 10 000€ worth of expertise to a start-up company in one year to attract seed round investment or reach the export markets.
IP questions
Intellectual property, investment contracts and other legal issues is the work-field of Toomas Seppel from Hedman Lift. He spoke about, what is intellectual property in terms of startups. It´s copyright, trademark, industrial design, inventions (patent, utility model) but also a trade secrets. How to protect your idea and work in early stages etc.
Thank you, Vahur Vallistu from Swedbank Eestis, Marko Toom from Veebimajutus.ee, Taavet Tamm from Singleton, Toomas Seppel from Law Firm Hedman Partners, Yelena Žovnikova from Fundwise and Triin Ilves from Tehnopol!
