On Thursday 7 February 2019, I attended the New Business Summit in The Hague. It was held at the Zuid Holland Provincehuis, an amazing building that I’ve walked by several times but never been inside….until now!
Hosted by the World Startup Factory, this interesting event brought together startups, stakeholders and investors. Aditya Putta did a great job of organising and keeping the event running smoothly.
This event showcased 10 really cool startup businesses:
- Veggihap
- AccessHub
- Sensorgarage
- Precious Plastic
- Lululox
- Start.Sloar
- Sharefox
- Cittamap
- ModelMe3D
- Avnu
One of my favourite parts of the event was where all 10 companies had the chance to deliver a 30 second pitch:
Though I don’t understand all of the industries they are in, I find it really fascinating to listen to the types of new businesses that are starting and the problems they are aiming to solve, such as privacy and security online, food wastage, overuse of plastic and traffic. These also align with the UN Sustainability Goals.
The kick-off was by Mathijs Koper, founder of the World Startup Factory. This is a wonderful organisation, based in The Hague. I’ve taken my students to visit before and love what they do in terms of supporting startups and scaleups.
There was a welcome speech by Arnoud Molenaar, Chief Resilience Officer Rotterdam.
Regional Minister for Economic Affairs, Adri Bom-Lemstra also gave a speech.
Several breakout sessions offered a deeper dive into various topics. I attended one about a new idea that may launch in The Hague soon – An International Centre for Entrepreneurship. This session was run by Gerrit Jan van het Veen from Dutch Coast, supported by Olga Wielders from The Hague Tech – another awesome organisation that has recently started here in our city.
Other breakout sessions discussed things like:
- Breaking down the corporate immune system (Outside Inc. & B Lab Europe)
- A breakthrough in funding impact innovation (We Share Ventures)
- Startup in Residence Managers Meetup (Netherlands Enterprise Agency)
- Startup solutions for Smart Industry (iTanks and World Startup Factory)
It’s always hard to choose breakout sessions and miss out on things! However I enjoyed the session I did attend and it was great to get a glimpse of all the startups listed above in their 30 second pitches. Attendees then had the chance to hear more at afternoon sessions.
Unfortunately I needed to leave early so I missed the networking drinks/stands and the afternoon speeches:
- Lessons learned dealing with scale-up pitfalls, Michiel Mensink, Founder & CEO of Exasun
- Wrap up by Bert Oosthout (Executive Director We Share Ventures), Tom Jonker (Innovation manager Provincie of Zuid Holland) and Mathijs Koper (Founder World Startup Factory)
I make some great connections in the time I was there though, and loved the spirit of support for startups and scaleups in The Hague. I learned quite a few interesting things to share with my students and clients.
For more information:
World Startup Factory New Business Summit
For my own photos/video from the event:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/84VHzN291scdKgjZ6
Renee 🙂
Zestee 