This year, if you own a startup and you’re not at iCEE.fest (June 15 & 16), you’ve got no excuses. And that’s because the festival will give a special attention to entrepreneurs who are trying to grow their businesses.
Beside the chance to meet the investors, there will be another great opportunity: to learn from highly qualified professionals with a solid background in growing startups in various domains.
Dario Mazzella, Project Manager, and Andrea DiAnselmo, Vice President, both from META Group, will hold a two day workshop within iCEE.health, the e-Health track inside the festival.
- On Vip 2 stage, 10 startups from Romania, Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands have been selected for the “Lean Startup Academy for 10 European eHealth startups by eHealth Hub“.
- health takes place on the second day of the festival, (June 16) and is the only event in the region dedicated to digital health which brings together all healthcare stakeholders.
Dario will be part of the jury for the “200 Seconds of Fame” pitching competition (Focus Stage 3, June 16) and speak at the beginning of the iCEE.health day, during the “Democratisation of Health” session, held on Focus Stage 2, June 16.
Before the festival, icee.news talked with Dario about the biggest challenges for a health startup today:
In the last 12 months, I’ve seen eHealth clearly rising as one of the most interesting verticals for investors in Europe.
If you are thinking about launching a brand-new eHealth startup, this is the moment: new opportunities are popping out all over Europe.
Nevertheless, entrepreneurs have to face a lot of challenges in this sector to survive.
I just picked up three of the most pressing ones, according to my view:
- Patient acceptance: eHealth startups, to push the adoption of their solution onto the market as elements of usual care, need to stimulate the readiness of patients to embrace the change. Training is key in this process. And their new solutions also need to fit into existing care processes and cultural habits
- Interoperability: It’s essential to ensure full interoperability amongst different systems and devices, to wide spread the adoption of eHealth products and services
- User experience: When it comes to UX in eHealth, this is a very complex issue. On one hand it’s not easy to deal with old and static national health systems, and on the other hand it’s also complex to deal with an ageing population that it’s not so used to adopt digital solutions (in comparison with the new generations).
- Getting ready for “200 Seconds of Fame”, what is that you are looking for in a startup?
In my everyday job, I have to listen to a lot of pitches, or even to train entrepreneurs for pitching. And I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneurs failing at it.
It’s not easy at all to emerge when you are pitching alongside a bunch of awesome entrepreneurs during an event. But for sure there are a lot of things that could be done to improve the result.
Personally, I like to see on the stage hardworking people, who made their homework and practiced a lot before pitching.
What do I mean by ‘homework’?
Being able to master all the key points of your deck, and more than everything show traction, impact, how are you going to affect people and to improve their lives.
Last but not least, a good performance on the stage does matter a lot! You need to catch the attention of the audience in the very first 30 seconds.
- Have you been in Bucharest before? What are you looking for the most?
Strange to say, this is my first time in Bucharest. I travelled almost through all cities in Europe, but never to the capital of Romania.
I am really eager to discover the city. They told me it’s flourishing again.
My personal tour will start from a cliché, the Palace of Parliament, and then I plan to get lost around the city to discover it’s best.
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iCEE.fest – Interactive Central and Eastern Europe Festival – takes place in Bucharest, June 15 & 16, at Grand Cinema & More, Mall Baneasa.
The festival offers a variety of passes and the last iCEE.health Tickets are available at a special price: 75 Euros. Medical students benefit of 50% discount!
