South Summit 2019- Shaking up the Southern Startup Ecosystem
Putting Southern Europe on the Startup Ecosystem Map
I first met Maria Benjumea, founder of SouthSummit a few years ago, when I moderated a panel with her at AngelSummit Europe. Boy is she a feisty speaker, full of energy and not afraid to speak her mind!
She started SouthSummit in 2012, to help entrepreneurs gather and boost the tough Spanish economy of the time. “ we created a platform to help showcase the best startup talent and creativity from the South to the rest of the world, where handshakes and introductions are quickly transformed into deals on the table.” A few years later in 2015, I had the pleasure of speaking there for the first time, in their new home at La Nave on the outskirts of Madrid, and was honoured to be invited back again this year for the 2019 edition.
South Summit is special. It’s big enough to be interesting and to attract some big name speakers, investors, government officials and startups to attend and surprisingly enough, most of the sessions are in English (Spain is not renowned for having a super level of English — am half Spanish myself, so allow myself to say it out loud :). The event is very well run, with lots of plenary and side session panels and talks. Plus you get to have tapas and walk through beautiful Madrid too!
Come for the Tech, stay for the Tapas and Tinto!
The atmosphere is very different to other tech and startup conferences I go to, in a good way. Probably because the Spanish really know how to make you feel welcome and know how to work and play hard. It’s refreshing to see the mark that Maria and SouthSummit have made on the Spanish and Southern European ecosystem now. With over 1000+ investors, 3,800 startups and 2.8Billion €+ raised by their startup competition finalists over the year, this startup event is really making a difference. It was a very humanly rich experience, where I focused on building relationships in the international funding ecosystem, to help our women entrepreneurs at Global Invest Her.
If it’s tech innovation and inspiration you are looking for, you’ve come to the right place, with just the right mix of corporates, investors and startups on stage and at the networking events. It’s truly inspiring to see some of Spain’s legacy public corporations such as Telefonica and Renfe share how they openly support innovation and entrepreneurship in Spain.
Meeting Investors
Most tech events organise evening events or add-ons for investors to meet among themselves and sometimes meet startups. I was delighted to be invited to an early morning investor breakfast a short morning stroll away, just before another day at South Summit began. I really enjoyed this more intimate setting, where were able to meet over breakfast in a relaxed, quiet setting before the hustle and bustle of the day ahead. It was great to meet Javier Ulecia, one of the founding partners of the first VC fund in Spain, Bullnet Capital, who invests in Spanish high-tech startups. Over a leisurely coffee, I asked him about how he helped start the Spanish VC industry many years ago. That kind of atmosphere is truly unique.
How to build a more inclusive workplace — in the funding ecosystem
I also had the opportunity to be on a panel moderated by Antoinia Norman, CEO of the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in South Africa, together with Laura Connell, Principal at Balderton, Caroline Ramade from 50 in Tech and Cyril Pierre de Geyer from Rocket School.
We all shared our thoughts about ‘The Next Big Thing — the Underlying challenges in achieving an inclusive workplace’ and what needs to change to have more diversity in the funding and startup ecosystem. (Take a look at the video below to catch the full conversation).
And to top off the event, I was invited to judge one of the streams of the Pitch competition (check out the winners here).
3 tips to get the most out of SouthSummit
- plan your days (talks and events you’ll be attending) and leave room for serendipity
- make sure you catch some of the events organised in parallel in the mornings and evenings, especially those in central Madrid. Soak up and enjoy the Spanish evening temperatures.
- Use the event app or linked in QR code, so you can really keep your connections going afterwards, and not spend hours typing in contact details from ruffled business cards.
Save the date: October 6–8th 2020
I plan on being there again next year and look forward to seeing you all there too. So save the date, and enjoy the 2x1 tickets on sale now! (I am not an affiliate, just a big fan!).
Thank you Maria Benjumea and the whole SouthSummit team for all that you do to put the Spanish and southern European countries on the entrepreneurial map. Thanks also for the wonderful speaker events on the sidelines and impeccable logistics coordination. In the words of that famous Austrian… I’ll be back!
