Program, topics, speakers
Lobby area
13:00 – 14:15
Pre-organized 1-on1 meetings with investors (15 mins)
for those startups whose pitch deck raised interest among the investors. Meeting schedule will be individually arranged with the respective startups before the event.
13:00 – 14:15
Ask the lawyer – 1-on-1 legal advisory slots with Bird & Bird
IP rights, NDA, VC fundraising deal terms, etc. – address your questions and get your answers directly from one of the largest global law firms Bird & Bird!
We offer 15 mins meeting slots with the legal experts for startups sharing pitch decks in priority. Regardless you share a pitch deck, please indicate during your registration if you are interested, you will be contacted for further arrangements if free slots remain.
13:00 – 21:30
Networking opportunity
Investors and scaling stage
14:20 – 14:30
Greetings and Opening
Lénárd Horgos, partner – Absolvo
Gergely Tóth, founder – HR Fest
14:30 – 15:05
Keynote speech: What I have learned about scaleup challenges in the last 25 years as investor
Marcin Hejka, co-founder of OTB Ventures, previously served as Vice President at Intel Capital, responsible for EMEA and India, being member of the global investment committee, has seen many successes and failures. Invested personally in 40 companies, out of 4 became unicorns…and 1 decacorn – worth more than USD 10 billion. With his new fund, OTB, he keeps on delivering the rising stars of the future.
15:05 – 15:40
Growth and market entry via acquisitions – the investor and CEO reveal their secret
How you make decision between organic model and acquisitions? What do you select: market or target? Challenges of integration. The investor reveals why this strategy is accepted and financed. Is that a viable growth strategy for CEE scaleups? What are the cases the fund wants to finance?
Jenő Nieder CFA, deputy CEO – PortfoLion VC
József Szigetvári, managing director – Szállás.hu
15:40 – 16:05
How to scale your engineering team and build your leadership team after Series A
Ákos Kapui, VP of engineering – Shapr3D
Zsolt Weiszbart, partner – DayOne Capital
16:05 – 16:30
Expansion in the CEE region: our journey so far in Poland, Austria, Slovakia and Romania
Why CEE? Own office and team or local partners? How did the investors accept such CEE-strategy? Our lessons learned with these markets, acquiring 150+ enterprise customers and 700+ projects delivered.
Fireside chat with: Sándor Zsoldos – founder and CEO- IPR-Insights
Moderated by Iván Gyurácz Németh, partner – Absolvo

16:30 – 17:05
How should the current investor support the next fundraising round?
As a founder – what should you expect from them? Putting together the business plan, participating in the round, making the intros? Will the investors have sufficient time for a fully marketed round? Best practices and case studies from active investors / startup builders
Péter Balogh, tech angel investor, co-CEO – Baconsult
Antal Károlyi, president – Hungarian Business Angel Network
Enikő Deák, deputy investment director – Hiventures
Moderated by Dénes Csiszár, serial entrepreneur, startup builder
17:05 – 17:30
Allpacka roller coaster: lessons learned growing from 100k orders to 1 million orders/year
Challenges when scaling regionally a business in the B2C and B2B segments.
Fireside chat with: Colin Snead, co-founder and CEO – Allpacka, Fürgefutár.hu
Moderated by Zoltán Tóth, partner – Euroventures
17:30 – 18:00
Break, networking, snacks served
18:00 – 18:30
The true story of relocating to Silicon Valley – my startup Spartan Race
Relocating with family, experiencing new business culture and customer attitude. Forget what you read in blogs: how fundraising works in Silicon Valley – backed by prestigious international VCs.
18:30 – 20:00
VC introduction and fireside chat about international and CEE investments, challenges of scaling beyond CEE
Topics including:
– 2020 VC challenges: more and more US VC scouting or even opening offices in Europe and especially CEE. How this changes (or not) the positioning of “local” VCs?
– A VC always stands behind the founders, in good and bad times. How VCs manage unexpected issues? Should they be friendly or tough? Strict but fair? When will they lose confidence / trust in a CEO?
– What else a VC brings to the table – beyond money? Is smart money real? How can the founders assess the VCs?
- Marcin Hejka, co-founder, general partner – OTB Ventures
- Roger Blott, founding partner – Fil Rouge Capital
- Ruben Knitter, investment associate – Capital300
Moderated by
Lénárd Horgos, partner – Absolvo
István Simon, founder, CEO – Prefixbox
Including Q&A
20:00 – 21:30
Networking
Founders and teams – HR stage
Powered by:
15:05 – 15:20
Greetings and Opening
András Vicsek, co-founder, CEO – Maven7
Gergely Tóth, founder – HR Fest
Lénárd Horgos, partner – Absolvo
15:20 – 16:00
Startup Culture – How to utilize one of your greatest assets
What is actually startup culture and how it helps you with your daily challenges like finding, motivating and keeping the right employees.
Péter Balogh, tech angel investor, co-CEO – Baconsult
László Hradszki, member of the board of directors – Hiventures
Péter Balázsik, president of the board, co-founder – Talentuno
Tamás Tompa, head of education – Codecool
Moderated by Zoltán Várdy, business development advisor, angel investor
16:00 – 16:15
Based on a true story
Listen and learn from the stories of a VC. Own experiences with founders and teams, about HR and hiring.
Fireside chat with: Julien Coustaury, founding partner – Fil Rouge Capital
Moderated by Antal Károlyi, president – Hungarian Business Angel Network
16:15 – 16:30
Hatching the secret of good company culture
Culture eats strategy for breakfast- how to create a culture that supports best your scale-up company.
10 most important actions recommended by the expert.
16:30 – 17:00
You want to hire the best talents… but with limited budget. Scaleup HR challenges answered by the expert, the VC investor and the legal pro!
Short and long term incentives; ESOP – who should get it? How individual development is supported?
Levente Zsembery, chairman of HVCA in 2014-2018, CEO – X-Ventures
Levente Torma, partner – B&T Tax Solutions
Péter Batiz, team lead – IseeQ
Moderated by Pál Szabó, partner – Bird & Bird
Language: Hungarian!
17:00 – 17:15
Playing to win: 6 core pillars for building a thriving company culture
The Innonic way: How we scaled talent management, built a team of more than 100 and grew multiple startups from 0 to 1M+ USD ARR in less than 3 years
17:15 – 17:50
Startups & Corporations – Types of connections
How and why are corporations partnering with startups? Which forms of partnership did these corporations choose and why? How can you get in touch with them?
György Dede, manager – Start it @K&H startup incubator
Gréta Németh-Harmati, Employer Branding Lead – Unilever Magyarország
Zsolt Winkler, Head of Digital Product D&D – Telenor
Moderated by Barbara Verő, co-founder, CEO – Future Proof Consulting
17:50 – 18:05
Reversed pitch
Roles are switched! Company representatives are pitching this time, to tell how and why they want to get connected with startups.
Zsuzsanna Makara, startup partner development manager – Microsoft
István Márton, CEO – Smart Future Lab by MVM
György Dede, manager – Start it @K&H startup incubator
18:05 – 18:30
Networking, snacks served
Videos
How should the current investor support the next fundraising round?
As a founder – what should you expect from them? Putting together the business plan, participating in the round, making the intros? Will the investors have sufficient time for a fully marketed round? Best practices and case studies from active investors / startup builders, Balogh Peter, tech angel, co-CEO of Baconsult, Antal Károlyi, president of HunBan and Enikő Deák, deputy investment director of Hiventures.
Avatao.com: Relocating to Silicon Valley – a startup Spartan Race
Avatao.com, aimed to accelerate its global scaling, closed a late seed fundraising round in 2019 with such high prestige international VCs like Speedinvest and 500 Startups. One of the important stages in its global scaling is definitely the one of building business in the US. Relocating with family, experiencing new business culture, mentality and customer attitude in the front line of global competition of tech talents.
Forget what you read in blogs; founder of Avatao.com, Márk Félegyházi shares his first hand experience about his “Spartan Race” in the first year in the Silicon Valley.
Which investor should a startup choose?
One question, one straight-to-the point answer in 1 min: Which investor should a startup choose? Quick interview with Marcin Hejka, co-founder, general partner of OTB Ventures, ex-VP of Intel Capital.
What should you consider when selecting the right investor?
What do you need for scaling in the CEE region?
„Focus on revenues, scale, scale, scale!”– advised Julien Coustaury, founding partner of Fil Rouge Capital for startups / scaleups aspiring to become a CEE regional player during our last international scaleup event The Scaleup Fest. What else you need for scaling in the CEE region?
Quick interview with Julien in 1,5 mins.
Founder advice on regional scaling
Allpacka (Fürgefutár) offering parcel delivery service raised funding from Euroventures 5 years ago and scaled to a true regional player, grown business from 100k to 1 million annual orders.
Here we go with the some thoughts and advice to consider from founder Colin Snead for startups trying to enter new markets in CEE.
Why and how important is the current investor to support the next fundraising round? What current investors do and don’t do, who is doing the “heavy lifting” in this process?
A brief summary from Antal Károlyi, President of Hungarian Business Angel Network.