For the past month or so I've gotten to know my teams via email and Skype. A consistent thread that ties each of them together is their passion and belief that their product is truly a benefit to society. My role it to give them an 'American' take on business, its idiosyncrasies, complexities and variance from the European market. Along with that, offering editing of English grammar with the bend toward American English grammar. My teams are very fluent in English but not native speakers. As I struggle with my own grasp of Polish grammar, making me sound like an american speaking Polish, true is the same for the reverse. To sell your product these companies have to sound international and in the american market, more american.
So who am I fortunately to be graced with. Let's start with LGM Innovation http://lgm.io/
This team of Justyna and Pawel are breaking ground with increasing the energy output of electric motors. They have discovered the ability to increase the efficiency and performance of electric motors. They first discovered on the simplest of all machines...a bicycle! They simply were seeking to increase the output of the light on the front of the bicycle which is utilizing the energy converted from the spinning of the bike wheels. What they discovered was the ability to greatly increase the light's output. This technology can be applied to almost any electric generator for engines. It is ideally suited for Hybrid cars, planes, trains and conventional automobiles. The other sustainable benefit is that it exponentially increases the generators capacity while using the same energy. To gain greater output and efficiency using little energy use is a sustainable idea. LGM truly are "energizing tomorrow"!
Next up Silencions! http://silencions.com/pl/ Our world truly is bombarded by noise of all kinds at all levels. Silencions is marketing a product which is aiming to reduce harmful and distracting noise. Their product is an insulation for the built environment. Lightweight and portable, it can be used in fixed or temporary structures to reduce not only the decibels but also the vibration of machines. The sustainable aspect of their system will help better the quality of human life. As a LEED and WELL AP, Acoustic Performance is key to healthy building environment that I design. With too much noise, concentration levels go down, performance suffers. In industrial environments the noise and vibration is detrimental to not only living but inanimate structures too. When Silencions hits the market we will "enjoy the silence".
Borys and Krszystof of Husar Labs are working on two product platforms but their focus is on the Lerta Appliance Monitoring Device. This app is dedicated to residential users. Via a monitor located in the home, this smart device will monitor all equipment and appliance use in the home for instance, refrigerators, washing machines, stereos, tvs, etc. It then can detect and predict high energy usage and regulate it. Unlike the American devises which simply allow you to remotely control your appliances in the house, this product is deliberately designed to help the home owner save on electric and fuel costs by minimizing usage at peak periods and utilizing off peak periods for greater energy savings.
Dziesięć.. so what's this all about? Ten? Two weeks ago while on a trip to visit family and friends in Poland, I got the invitation to meet my teams in person. What was only to be a networking night of meet the mentors grew into an invitation to attend their practice pitches during a workshop weekend. Run by the MIT Enterprise Forum Poland, Magdalena Jablonski and Boguslawa Skowronski also spoke about the goal of this competition and the 'winners' chance to go to Cambridge and participate as finalists in Start Up Boot Camp. The winners who will be announced in January will arrive later in 2018 to participate in a greater Start Up event that includes Mass Challenge. All 25 start ups got their chance to pitch their product but in 60 seconds. Some made it right on the mark, but not all. This is the process. If you can condense your sales pitch to 60 seconds, you've truly understood the purpose of the workshop and sharpened your message. Coming up on Monday December 4th back in Warsaw 10 start ups out of the group of 25 will be allowed to pitch their product in a 5 minute presentation. This (extended) pitch will allow them to delve deeper into the sales pitch and prep them for trade shows and other public presentation where you have more than 60 seconds. These three start ups I am mentoring are in the top ten! They are confident and have a great product to sell. Let's hope to see them in Cambridge next year!
Many thanks to my colleagues at the MIT Enterprise Forum: Magdalena Jablonska, and Board members Boguslawa Skowronski, Krzysztof Gawrysiak, Joanna Misiewicz, Lukasz Owczarek and the lovely lady who helped me through networking night registration at Campus Warsaw!
Updates 1 December 2017
