EIT Digital, Mind the Bridge and Startup Europe are co-organising the 2017 edition of Startup Europe comes to Silicon Valley (SEC2SV) - the premier programme for future European startup unicorns to engage with key US industry players. This is the second in a series of articles highlighting the successes of scaleups that participated in previous years.
There are many reasons to attend Startup Europe Comes to Silicon Valley (SEC2SV). Some might be related to the commercial side of the event: some of the previous participants have <link newsroom news article sec2sv-for-some-its-all-about-getting-that-us-state-of-mind>found potential investors interested in supporting them financially. For others, like Italian scaleup Mosaicoon, which attended SEC2SV in 2015, it was more a matter of having the chance to participate in real hands-on training.
Mosaicoon, headquartered in Sicily, is a tech company whose proprietary platform enables companies to access an array of video content, immediately available to be branded and distributed with guaranteed performances. The videos are created by a global network of creators who can submit and monetize their video productions by selling, thanks to the Mosaicoon platform, to the brands. The model is somehow reminiscent of that of Airbnb and the likes. Mosaicoon liken themselves to a "human creativity engine", breaking the rules of the traditional video production process.
Founded in 2010, the scaleup has been working with over 130 top brands, including 10 featured in the Top 100 Fortune Global Ranking Brands and has more than 100 employees working from its eight offices.
"We applied to SEC2SV because we believed that it was a good opportunity to show our model to top tech companies and investors," the CEO and founder Ugo Parodi Giusino says, "It opened a window for us on how the big players in this sector operate, and gave us opportunities for visibility and top-level networking. We've been to AirBnb, visited Andreessen Horowitz, maybe the best investment fund in the world. We've been to Silicon Valley Bank and met Tim Draper. We got in touch with the best of the best."
Mosaicoon also appreciated the opportunity to share experiences and insights with other European scaleup companies, and explore the potential for EU companies within new markets, like the US. But most of all, what really struck the founder, was the full immersion into the greatest technology hub currently operating in the US and perhaps the world.
"This was one of the few events that allowed us to have a real on-the-job training experience. It helped us better understand how to introduce ourselves to a highly skilled audience and exposed us to best practices and case histories from which to draw inspiration," Parodi says.
Would they do it again? Would they recommend it to other tech companies?
"Sure, we'd definitely do that. Our advice would be not to miss the chance to get fully immersed in the Silicon Valley environment and widen your perspective on the startup world. It's really mind-opening."
There's still time to apply for SEC2SV 2017. Get your applications in by May 31 - for more information see here.
