This week two new initiatives that connect the region to Silicon Valley where announced.
Michael Hoy in Silicon Valley
First out was Invest in Skåne, and their ICT people who announced that they had opened an office in Silicon Valley, and have Michael Hoy as their man on the ground. Michael has a past as project manager at Teknopol, a innovation support organization, and as well as involvement in the startup Nocturnal Vision and the Lunds University Entrepreneurship programme.
“We’re there to meet investors, potential clients, partners and others on a more regular basis. Through that we aim to better be able to help technology companies interested in accessing Silicon Valley companies and VCs. We want to avoid going to Google just to have lunch at their cool canteen. We want to facilitate better and sharper business meetings.” Daniel Kipowski says about the initiative.
Collaboration with Bootstraplabs
The other news this week was from Minc, which announced a collaboration with BootstrapLabs in Silicon Valley. The aim is that startups in the Minc incubator with international ambitions can get active support from mentors and advisers from Bootstraplabs – a possiblity that might be expanded in the future to other startups as well.
“With Minc as partners we expect to be able to help more Swedish and Scandinavian companies to reach a global market from Silicon Valley. Minc has the ability to attract promising international companies to the start-up scene in Malmö and we look forward to working with Minc to find exciting startups with global potential” says Nicolai Wadström, CEO and founder of Bootstrap Labs.
“The partnership with Bootstrap Labs will become a cornerstone for Minc’s strategy to help more companies on the international market. With Silicon Valley mentors for Minc incubator companies, we believe the chances are better that the next Swedish startup success comes from Malmö. Bootstrap Labs is just as Minc in an expansionary phase and I expect that we will have great benefits from a collaboration.” said Minc’s CEO Mårten Öbrink.
Both initiatives should help startups that want to get connections in Silicon Valley or San Fransisco. You can also read more over at Sydsvenskan about the Invest in Skåne initiative.
