On January 27-28 European VCs, mentors and tech entrepreneurs from the US and Europe will flock to Dublin for SVOD Europe conference.
SVOD stands for Silicon Valley Open Doors, and the first event under this brand name was held in 2005 in the United States to rally European and American tech communities. Ten years later, SVOD is being hosted in Dublin, as an acknowledgment of a maturing European startup ecosystem.
During SVOD Europe the organizers hold a Startup Competition, and it is a great opportunity for startups from the CEE region, Israel, and Ireland to pitch to leading investors from Silicon Valley and Western Europe, as well as to find new partners and get feedback from more experienced colleagues. The participation is free, but on invitation only, there are 25 spots. The application deadline is December 1st, check here if your team is eligible to apply.
Denis Dovgopoliy, the executive director of SVOD Europe commented to GoalEurope on the achievements of SVOD “graduates”: “Historically, every second company gets funding after the SVOD conference, and Evernote is one of such success stories.” In Dublin, participants will also have an opportunity to mingle with the representatives of successful startups originating from Eastern Europe: Viewdle (Ukrainian startup bought by Google), Looksery (Ukrainian, bought by SnapChat), InvisibleCRM (Ukraine), Wrike (Russia), Trucker Path (Russia), and other. (Note: these companies are mostly incorporated in the US, but we marked the countries their founders come from).
Key people behind SVOD (Europe edition) are Anna Dvornikova, the founder of SVOD conference in Silicon Valley, Stas Khirman, its Executive Director (both are managing partners at TEC Ventures, a US-based seed fund), and Denis Dovgopoliy, the Executive Director of SVOD Europe and the managing partner of GrowthUP Group, a Ukrainian seed fund and accelerator. The event is also supported by Google European Headquarters.
Let’s hope the SVOD trend will go eastwards 🙂
