Startup Coffee Meetup: Are you brewing the right coffee?

American writer and content creator, Sean Blanda calls meetups - the Swiss Army Knife of networking. And rightly so! It is an interesting way of meeting new people, exchange learnings, inspire through experiences and lay a strong foundation of long partnerships. Coffee meetups prove especially valuable when you are in the early stages of navigating your startup. However, if you think meeting strangers and talking about your idea can be daunting, you should definitely be a part of our next Startup Coffee Meetup! Who knows! This could be your entry point to a thriving ecosystem in Skåne.

Together with our partner Goto10 Malmö, Startup Coffee Meetup is a journey where we intend to bring together founders, investors, ideators and dreamers who thrive on their ambition and passion. Something that we see in Skåne is an influx of emerging tech startups that are constantly evolving with their products and services which are globally competitive. In order to be globally competitive, as a startup ecosystem, we need to continue attracting global talent which is a pressing challenge at the moment.

But times are changing and so will the skill gap. In fact, our recent Startup Coffee Meetup witnessed a great combination of local meets global talents. With an enterprising spirit and innovation-oriented mindset, these talents restored the idea of Skåne becoming one of the fastest growing innovation hubs in the world. After all, we are talking about an outstanding tech community set off on a journey to change the world.

We were pleasantly surprised and excited to have our constant cheerleader and board member, Karsten Deppert who interacted with the rest of the talented crew and had encouraging anecdotes to share given his galaxy of achievements. Karsten is an extremely passionate entrepreneur and the force behind Mindpark, a flourishing co-working space in Helsingborg and Malmö. He is also the founder of Contentor, a company that helps e-commerce companies translate texts and provides digital communication services. Taking his entrepreneurial streak ahead, Karsten also is the founder of Sweden´s first e-commerce park - E-commerce Park of Sweden. He, himself is on a mission to transform Helsingborg as a vibrant hub for the tech community and the ecosystem.

We are confident that with superheroes like Kasrten, the future of the startup ecosystem in southern Sweden is bright and forever growing.

The existence of the capital flow gap especially in early-stage funding to female founders is not new to the region. Amidst the disturbing decline of female entrepreneurship, it is often encouraging and inspiring to see early-stage female founders participating in the meetup. However, with the winds changing in the direction of innovation, opportunities are abundant. Through our gender inclusive initiatives, we would encourage more female founders and angels to become part of our Startup Coffee Meetups.

Zara Shirazi is a brand designer and her passion is bringing brands to life! She is the co-founder and Project Manager at Shirāz and Dāryān, a creative design and photo studio. Zara has experience handling projects across international markets. Some of the brands that Zara has worked on include IKEA, Harper Collins, Lila Valadan, etc.

Aurora Kroon  is the creative lead and Founder of Regenerative MInds  that aims to help organizations work with planet earth. Aurora brings together marginalized voices and adds new perspectives to the root problems and challenges facing human nature. She helps organizations apply the regenerative design theory to their business model.

It is always good to have founders attending Startup Coffee Meetup as the learnings are essential for early-stage founders or aspiring entrepreneurs. This time, we were  joined by Chris Cooper  who is Founder and Director of Innovation  at NeoMatrix Ltd. His company has developed smart tracking technology that uses earth's natural senses to track navigation through intelligent AI. Wow! Are we impressed!!

Working towards a sustainable tomorrow, the company is putting great efforts in solving traffic congestion, controlling air pollution and climate change. Applauding the participation of female founders and early entrepreneurs, Chris came in full support of a gender inclusive ecosystem.

We are equally happy to acknowledge that our meetups have given global talents a platform to share their experiences from working outside of Sweden.

Ashish Chitale is Founder and CEO at Praesagus RTPO. He brings with over a decade long experience in the oil and gas technology space. New to the country and the entrepreneurial vibe of Malmö has caught his attention. Through networking forums like Startup Coffee Meetup, Ashish is willing to extend his oil and gas industry experience to startups based in the region. According to Ashish, the meetup has helped him connect with the community faster than he expected.

Another global talent that interacted during the meetup was a former industrial designer graduate from Lund University, Akshay Patil. Came to Sweden for his passion in designing and with the idea of exploring Scandinavian designs. Akshay is on the lookout for opportunities that would allow him to be creative in his passion for industrial design. He has collaborated with IKEA and designed products that cater to the taste of the local IKEA customers. You can look at his designs here

Joining the  inspirational crew was Leo Mwaura, Outbound Logistics Engineer at Volvo Cars. Talking about his startup Scandinavian Green Conversion , he shared his thoughts on efforts towards a  sustainable world. According to him, deficits in energy and surpluses in waste are two major challenges. But through proven technology in a new combination, there is a solution that is both environmentally and commercially sustainable and very profitable.

Through Startup Coffee Meetup, we have experienced a great level of satisfaction to see early stage and existing founders get involved directly with the community. Within the early stages of any business, it is easy to ignore networking events amidst the chaos of setting up your foundation. But please remember that networking can actually help you set off the ground. Make time for networking meetups where you get a chance to share your business idea and action plan.

With the global technology shift happening in the Nordics, Skåne is one of the fastest growing tech communities with the rise of new and exciting tech startups on the horizon. Despite the pandemic and economic slowdown, digitalization was the ultimate winner that helmed the economic growth and success of the ecosystem. In an ecosystem which is also shifting its focus towards impact startups, foodtech and agtech startups, it can get daunting to keep up with the pace. It is about finding the right pathways to turn ideas into reality.

Startup Coffee Meetup is an endeavor and one of the paths for you to make connections and build long-lasting partnerships. That is why, we asked you if you were brewing the right coffee? Drop a mail at verica@skanestartups.com for any queries or information. We hope to see you every other Tuesday at Goto 10 Malmö, 8:30 am.