International exposure for Cornish start-ups

Launchpad start-ups Amutri and Beta100, along with MSc Entrepreneurship student and The Sustain Ability Project founder Chloe Lingard, took the opportunity to connect with the Portuguese start-up network in a recent trip to Lisbon.

MSc Entrepreneurship lecturer Stewart Noakes, who led the trip, explained: “A huge part of the journey to achieving product market fit is getting lots of feedback and hearing from customers and interested stakeholders. As part of that process, we’ve enhanced the Launchpad experience this year to include online demo nights and targeted visits to Portugal, where selected start-ups have had the opportunity to try out their narratives and float what they are doing in international waters.”

The visit to global entrepreneurial network Canopy Community and United Lisbon Education Hub allowed the early-stage start-ups to connect with potential customers and investors as well as receiving invaluable feedback on their ventures.

Stewart added: “A huge catalyst for the timing of the trip was an opportunity to get involved with some open innovation events with visiting US universities, where our teams got a chance to showcase what they were doing in front of executive MBA students from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Central Florida. These cohorts then reflected on how our start-ups would fit within a more US context.

“I was able to pull together a schedule that brought the start-up founders into contact with communities like the British Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Idea Spaces, investors such as Semeia Ventures and Innoenergy, trusted advisors like Taxlibris and XVMC Advogados and accelerator/ incubators such as Demium, TagusPark, Algarve TechHub and Lispolis.

“It was truly inspiring to see how each of the founders prepared themselves and conveyed their story authentically while listening to the local context and feedback. The founders got some amazing insights into how Portuguese and American founders think, do, and decide. Even the hardest of feedback can grow both the person and founder.”

The next Portugal trip is planned for November’s Web Summit conference in Lisbon, where several of our start-ups will have the opportunity to test their mettle on a global stage and build up on the advice, coaching, mentoring and academic support that they’ve received during their time at Launchpad.

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