1Office had a great opportunity to attend the sTARTUp Day 2022, the most startup-minded business festival, bringing together startups, traditional entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and students.
sTARTu Day 2022 took place in Tartu, Estonia, and consisted of a marvellous stage program, effective matchmaking, hands-on seminars, a demo area full of innovation, and vibrant side events. There were over 180 world-class speakers, 319 startups, 140 investors, and 3900 attendees from 52 different countries all over the world.
The main stage of the sTARTUp Day 2022
Our experience from the event
1Office Sales Director Tõnis participated in the event to meet old friends and partners, but also to get new interesting connections. Now we are sharing some of his impressions and ideas of the event with you:
First Day and Networking with Finns
Generally, the event was tailored to match investors with startups, but often the startups doesn’t have a legal entity registered to even board investments or the entity is registered in a jurisdiction not suitable for investments – therefore we found a lot of common ground with the main target group of the event.
The event was visited by many from neighbouring countries and network events based on the origin of the visitors were held. For example, a great networking event happened on Wednesday in Tartu Raekoda, the municipality building in front of the Kissing Students statue, yes the one with a clock! The event brought together people interested in expanding to Finland as well as Fins who want to invest in Estonia. Tartu Mayor Urmas Klaas in his speech addressed the closeness of Estonians and Finns and that cooperation between us has never been more important.
Second Day and Running Into Good Friends
Thursday morning started with the actual main event at the University of Tartu Sportshall. Although a lot of demo areas were set up and people browsed around the halls, it seemed that most visitors were there to learn. Hence I and a lot of other visitors ended up in Seminars to get knowledge to kickstart the new business season. For example, a leadership training seminar based on military experience was hugely popular and some lucky listeners got to play laser tag in the seminar room to prove the value of Teamwork.
The seminars about practical banking were also very popular. I knew 1Office good partner Payoneer will be doing a presentation, but I had no idea that Leonid, their partnership manager, and a good friend, was there to conduct it. We managed to catch up on several topics and exchanged marketing ideas for the upcoming Q4.
In the evening I was able to get together with some good friends and business partners Solomiia Kots, Rosen Dimov, and Frederico Pirola. We had a nice time exchanging impressions about the festival and strolling around the streets of Tartu. Their friends from Ukraine were also there and I was able to give them a historical tour of Tartu – it seemed they really enjoyed it!
Frederico Pirola, Solomiia Kots, Tõnis Jõgeva, Rosen Dimov, and Ukrainian entrepreneurs from companies BWinW OU, Mirko Solutions LLC, and Devlviv LLC
BWinW OÜ, Mirko Solutions LLC and Devlviv LLC are all web and mobile app development companies. Their main focus is on healthcare, telemedicine, mental well-being, educational platforms, e-commerce, CRM systems, and others. The team consists of 60+ Ukrainian developers.
I also got feedback later from Solomiia, saying that “We constantly visit the startups’ related conferences to become the technical support for innovative ideas. Estonia is the motherland of startups so that was the main reason why we have decided to register the company here and do business. On the sTARTUp day, we got acquainted with new partners, with whom we are already discussing the partnership! The event was well-organized, with plenty of startups who were eager to make an impact on the world and we are proud to be a part of this community.”
Third Day and Conclusions
It was great to see more of the main area of the festival and stroll around the demo area. So many passionate and motivated people talk about their ideas, thoughts, and companies.
The demo area of the sTARTUp Day 2022
Overall, events like sTARTUp Day are a great opportunity to meet up with like-minded people, educate yourself, and find business partners and investors to scale your business. But for service providers like 1Office, I can say it was a perfect chance to meet distant clients and partners face-to-face and find new ideas to improve the value and experience of 1Office services.
I can definitely say that sTARTUp Day in Tartu was the best event this year!
