Collaboration is a key word for startups – making best use of the possibilities which exist for working with, and learning from, others is a great way to get ahead. That’s one of the benefits of entering a startup contest like EIT ICT Labs’ Idea Challenge – but what do startups actually get out of it?
Tok.tv is a second screen startup from Italy (albeit with a San Francisco office) focused on sport. It is also one of the companies nominated for a gong at the EIT Entrepreneurship Awards later this year.
In short, Tok.tv allow friends to actually talk – not text, but speak – while watching TV. Its products include the TOK Baseball, TOK Football and Juventus Live apps.
Co-founder Emanuela Zaccone was one of the team who were in Berlin this past week to pitch at an EIT startup event. So what does she think about collaborating with them?
Here’s what she said… on startups:
I think startups can really innovate the market because they are agile; agile also in managing processes. So they are really fast to innovate. In this sense they can really play an interesting role in the market, as long as they are well-connected to big companies, which means exchanging information exchanging competences and at least working together.
… on the Idea Challenge:
A competition like this one from EIT ICT Labs really makes a lot of sense for startups because a startup is not just made by what you produce or your service or your team. It is also made by what you can communicate and tell to other people and make them interested, and so try also to develop more with feedback coming from very experienced people.
So being here [at EIT] means also using their reputation, knowing how to exploit it to reach a wider audience than the one you had before and of course, having the possibility to make new contacts that hopefully could become also business contacts. So I guess it’s great to be in a startup competition.
… on EIT ICT Labs:
EIT ICT Labs is a very interesting place to be and to collaborate [with]. For startups this means having the possibility to exploit a network which is really all around Europe. Getting in touch with other realities, knowing people from different businesses and different action lines which are the core of EIT activities, is a huge thing for startups. Moreover, you can also get in touch with researchers. These two things, both the networking side and the research side, are very important for a startup’s development.
So EIT ICT Labs can really help startups to develop their business model, develop their product, develop their service, and especially gives them a wider visibility to possible investor or people in general interested in your startup.
You still have time to enter the first part of the Idea Challenge. For more information on the topic areas, click here and here.