In October of 2019, we rocked the tenth edition of Wolves Summit. We saw 400 startups and scaleups pitch their disruption to 200 investors, amidst 1,500 participants at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. This was an edition of the Wolves Summit with strong themes on the digital economy, innovations in the CEE market, and the digital economy – including increasing access to it. If you weren’t there, there are four big things you missed out on. But, we’ve got your back. Sit back, relax, and let us get you all caught up (so you’ll be ready for Wolves Summit 11th edition!).
The Four Big Things You Missed at 10th Wolves Summit
1. Pynk won the Great Pitch Contest
A standard event at Wolves Summit is The Great Pitch Competition. It’s a challenge for Startups that participate in the Summit. At each edition, we give 40-50 tech disruptors the chance to present their ideas and solutions to investors, corporations and other attendees in a seven-minute pitch. It’s all about exposure, opportunity, and best of all, fun! In the past, winners have included the Naga Group, ShelfWise, CardioCube and Crassula. In October 2019, Pynk moved through the 3 stages of the competition to take out the top spot.
Pynk’s People Powered Investment offers a ‘Crowd Wisdom' system that combines their crowd, experts and A.I. to make smarter investment decisions. CEO Seth Ward said, “Looking at this from the point of view of the fund-raising startup, Wolves Summit is the perfect place. Time is an extremely valuable resource, and presenting your idea during 1:1 meetings is the most effective way to raise funds.”
Ready to take the top spot of the Great Pitch Contest at the 11th edition of Wolves Summit? To enter the competition, when you apply to join Wolves Summit as a startup, check the box to be considered in the Great Pitch Contest. 
2. The Future is Diverse and Inclusive
There is no shortage of research supporting the idea that more diverse teams have ore ideas, and of those ideas, more of them are creative. Diverse teams deliver better CX since they better reflect and understand the communities and consumers they serve. Beyond ticking the box on diversity, however, it’s critical that our diverse teams carry equal weight in decision-making – this is the inclusion part of the diversity-and-inclusion conversation. When the whole team feel equally able to contribute, the sense of psychological safety it creates, in turn, generates high-performance teams.
The importance of creating diverse-and-inclusive futures was a conversation we had throughout the 10th Wolves Summit. In 2019, the Wolves summit team worked with BalansPL and Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit, to support equality initiatives, since these pay dividends (in more ways than one) for all.
3. Collaboration is King
Following on from our diversity and inclusion note, let’s talk collaboration. The more ideas on the table, the more skillsets in the meeting, the better the outcomes. Makes sense. Startups are famously resource-poor, trying to be jacks-of-all-trade, learning on the go. At Wolves Summit 10th Edition, we talked a lot about collaboration. And during 2863 1:1 meetings, we helped make that collaboration happen. Collaboration happens as a result of networking at Wolves Summit, between companies, between startups and investors, and between entrepreneurs and big international companies.
At the 10th Edition of Wolves Summit, Ruthy Kaidar, Chief Startups Lead and SW Partners Technological Lead, CEE at Microsoft, brought some hard-earned insight on collaboration to our attendees as part of her keynote. Ruthy is an executive with over 20 year’s experience in medical devices, telcos, software and VC industries. She’s also a vocal advocate for #womenintech, as a co-manager of Yazamiyot – Women Entrepreneurs.
Ruthy’s keynote on AI + How Microsoft Loves Startups inspired our crowd to think more about collaboration and partnerships. She told us, at Microsoft, “we see startups as partners.” Big tech companies like Microsoft have the ability to collaborate resources with and help market-ready entrepreneurs benefit through their go-to-market channels, sales channels, channel distributors and partners. The benefits of these collaborations work for both sides. While startups get the resources and big-corporate expertise they used to dream of, big tech companies get inspiration and innovation in-house from the startups. They get new solutions for the consumers, and it keeps them at the vanguard of new tech.
4. We Mustn’t Fear Failure
At 10th Wolves Summit, Thomas Veeman, co-founder of B2B HR Partner Conversari Global and Swiss Community Mexico, talked failure. In his keynote, ‘Embracing Failure and the Need for Community,’ we learned that finding product-market-fit means first passing through dozens of product-market-no-fits.
In his keynote at 10th Wolves summit, Thomas Veeman broke down some of the critical factors for start-up ecosystems to be communities that nourish and support our best rising talent. These were themes Thomas built on in his two hands-on workshops, on building relationships of trust between startup founders and investors, and on how to build cultures of innovation and intrapreneurship in the CEE region.
The Cure for 10th Wolves Summit FOMO? The 11th Wolves Summit, 2020!
There you have it: now you know about the informative and inspirational takeaways you missed at 10th Wolves Summit. If that sneaking fear-of-missing-out regret is upon you, never fear! Ensure you’re part of the learning, the action, and the networking at Wolves Summit 11th Edition in March 2020.
We look forward to seeing you at 11th Wolves Summit in March 2020, as we continue to do what we do best, supporting and building the startup ecosystem in the CEE region and beyond! For more information, hit us up here.
