Smart V4 Strategies

South Poland Cleantech Cluster participates in a newly started Visegrad project together with partners – Czech Smart City Cluster, Slovak Smart City Cluster and Digitalis Jolet nonprofit from Hungary. The project “Smart V4 Strategies” was awarded financing support from the Visegrad Fund.

The aim of the project is to connect relevant partners in the given area of SMART strategies and prepare procedures for classification of SMART strategies in V4 countries into one complex database portal. The project offers V4 partners international cooperation in unifying SMART strategies to GreenDeal/SDG rules. The vision is to strengthen the unity and effectiveness in implementation of SMART strategies in all V4 countries.
More about the project

South Poland Cleantech Cluster

is the initiator of the krk UrbanHub project - a sustainable CEE (Central- and Eastern European) urbanization hub
krakowurbanhub is a partner in the urbanhub europe consortium of European cities consisting of BLOXHUB in Copenhagen, KIRAHub in Helsinki, Munich Urban Colab, FACTORY Hammerbrooklyn Hamburg, FAKTORY Berlin, Urban Resilience Hub Barcelona
krk UrbanHub is a national and international meeting place that engages people in architecture, design and sustainable urban development. This is done through exhibitions, debates, events, business development and new partnerships.
krk UrbaHhub is an ecosystem for creating cities of the future, and at the same time a space to share ideas, skills and strategies for designing buildings and urban development based on a people-centered approach and high standards of sustainable development, and a membership-based community combining urban development, architecture, design, design, construction, circular economy and digitization.
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South Poland Cleantech Cluster

SPCleantech is co-founder of European Alliance for Cross- Industrial Circular Economy Investments (ICEI Alliance) consisting of European clusters and universities. During 2020-2021 there have been held meetings to prepare the establishment of the European Alliance for Cross- Industrial Circular Economy Investments, hosted by the Circular Economy Centre at Digipolis, Kemi, Finland.

The ICEI Alliance has for ambition to make Europe the global industrial circular economy platform to accelerate the deployment of world-class circular economy solutions to industry. It acts as a pipeline of business-led circular economy investment projects. Alliance members support businesses with the structuring of their investment cases as well as with accessing funding and financing streams.
More information on ICEI Alliance

SPCleantech as Pre-Accelarator Point for Polish start-ups organized on 14.11.2016 the fifth workshop “Pitch your business to investors and customers” of the series of 6 workshops and 2 conferences. The aim of the workshop was to provide experiences of Polish and Scandinavian mentors to Polish start-ups and coaches. SPCleantech is working with a group of experienced mentors from Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

You’re going to have to convince other people – A LOT of other people – that your startup is worth buying from, working for, and funding. And as the founder or cofounder, you’re going to have to do this yourself.

As the founder, you’re naturally the best salesperson for your startup. It doesn’t matter if you’re an engineer, a developer, a hacker, designer, or academic – this is your company, your passion, and even if you don’t have any sales or speaking experience, you’re still the best person to present your startup to the world.

Every company begins with a story. However, all good stories have one basic element: they’re about people, not things. You, your team, your customer, and your journey is the story – not your product.

Investors invest in people, not companies, and they generally invest in people they like, trust, and who they believe are capable – in that order. Always keep that in mind and frame your conversation in a way that immediately shows how you’re prepared to benefit them, not the other way around. The best business deals are win-win situations for both sides. Investors are also incredibly busy people and wasting their time is the easiest way to get a “NO” answer. Before you meet with an investor, spend time preparing. You only have one chance to make a first impression, so get it right!

You have a story to tell about your startup. Now, you need a way to tell it and someone to tell it to – preferably someone who will give you money to continue your story. To tell your story, you need a pitch: your business model as spoken to an investor.

In our workshop we have showed how to do it. We told how to tell your startup’s story, we explained what a pitch is, how to present your startup to different audiences, and what different types of pitches you will need to present. However, all of these things involve one basic activity – talking to people about your startup.

“You can tell a story in a sentence; you can tell a story in a paragraph; and you can tell a story in a 20-minute pitch. Startups need to do all three.” – Pitching Hacks

Presenting your business

  • The founder is the best salesperson and spokesperson for their startup
  • Practice presenting and speaking in public often before meeting investors
  • Every startup has a story and it’s your job to tell yours
  • You have to learn to talk about your startup in many different ways
  • Every startup needs a high concept pitch, an elevator pitch, and a pitch deck
  • A pitch deck is a presentation of 10-15 slides that describes your vision, team, and business model
  • Learn to tailor your presentation to address different audiences
  • Always consider the goals of your audience and what they want to hear
  • Research an investor before the meeting, and come prepared
  • Get out there and pitch!

Our mentors: Niels Mengel (DK) and Janusz Kahl

CV-Niels Mengel.dk