Szabolcs Nagy

A mentor equips startups with the tools, insights, and confidence to pitch effectively, turning intimidating scenarios into opportunities to win investor trust and support.

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🚀 Pausefika news: 38 Unicorns in 2024: Here’s the Full🦄 list and their valuation according to TechCrunch (see: https://lnkd.in/dW4qkigJ ) Aven - $1 billion, Flo Health Inc. - $1 billion, Altana Technologies - $1 billion Chainguard - $1.12 billion, Harvey - $1.5 billion, Saronic Technologies - $1 billion, Huntress - $1.55 billion, xAI - $24 billion, BillionToOne - $1 billion, Altruist - $1.5 billion, WEKA - $1.6 billion, Farcaster - $1 billion, Sigma Computing - $1.5 billion, Humanity Protocol - $1 billion, Cyera- $1.5 billion, Monad Labs - $3 billion, Nexamp - $1.5 billion, Grow Therapy - $1.4 billion, Cognition AI - $2 billion, Xaira Therapeutics - $2.7 billion, Flip - $1.19 billion, io.net- $1 billion, Perplexity - $1.04 billion, Octane® - $1.11 billion, Celestial AI - $1.2 billion, IntraBio Inc - $1 billion, Liquid Death - $1.4 billion, Blink Health - $1.28 billion, NinjaOne - $1.9 billion, Ascend Elements - $1.61 billion, Lambda - $1.5 billion, EigenLayer - $1.1 billion, Figure - $2.6 billion, Together AI - $1.25 billion, Bugcrowd - $1 billion, ElevenLabs - $1 billion, Quantinuum - $5.3 billion and Zūm - $1.3 billion Despite a challenging venture capital landscape, unicorns are still emerging every month in 2024. 📈 From AI to cybersecurity, health tech, and fintech, innovative startups are breaking through the billion-dollar valuation barrier. According to data from Crunchbase, CB Insights, and Pitchblock, notable new unicorns include Elon Musk’s xAI, which has already reached an astounding $24 billion valuation. Other standouts include AI-driven legal platform Harvey, cybersecurity firm Chainguard, and the fertility-tracking app Flo Health. Join management of innovation enthusiasts - like myself - on Pausefika to discuss about unicorns metrics! #startups #unicorns #innovation #venturecapital #AI #cybersecurity #healthtech #fintech #Pausefika

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It’s easier to get divorced than to get rid of bad investors. When we first considered raising investment for Fabric Health, we were intentional about choosing the right partners. The frenzy around raising investment as a startup is understandable. It’s scary and all-consuming. But let’s be clear: the amount you raise isn’t the measure of success. At best, you get great partners, and it’s a true partnership. But too many investors claim to be “value-add” and aren’t. At worst, they’re bullies who will run your company into the ground. You can’t survive bad investors. If the relationship goes sideways, it’s not just the founders who are affected—the entire leadership team can be replaced, leaving the company practically unrecognizable. At Fabric Health, we spend a lot of time bringing on the best people—if someone isn’t a “hell yes,” we don’t hire them. So, choose your investors wisely—they can make or break your company.

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👣 Two major steps towards European Health Assurance ⭐ We are thrilled to support both Doccla and Neko Health expanding their footprint across Europe this week. These two businesses are taking major steps to advance preventative care, critical for the delivery of Health Assurance. At General Catalyst, our European Health Assurance thesis is to build scaled businesses at the intersection of healthcare and technology across geographies. The health aspirations and care needs are the same for consumers and the vulnerabilities of the health systems are similar. However, the build is not easy; each country presents a unique set of challenges—distinct regulatory frameworks, differing care infrastructure, diverse payment models, and legacy technologies – that add complexity. But for the most ambitious, mission-driven European entrepreneurs, complex problems are the greatest opportunities! Born in Sweden, Doccla and Neko were built by Martin Ratz, Dag Larsson, Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne respectively with big visions to scale across borders. While they operate at opposite sides of the acuity spectrum and have different approaches to reimbursement, they share an obsessive focus on building consumer-centric, technology-enhanced platforms that engage people in primary, secondary and tertiary preventive care. Just as most of the successful companies of the last decade have radically changed consumer behaviour, Doccla and Neko are standard bearers in a movement that will fundamentally transform how people approach their health. Since our investment, Doccla has scaled to serve over half of the NHS trusts, reducing emergency department visits by up to 60%. With a £35M Series B funding round, Doccla are primed to bring their virtual hospital solutions to France and Germany, bringing the same hospital-grade care to patients in the comfort of their home as in the UK. Neko has facilitated thousands of full body scans in Sweden and uncovered critical health issues that have spared many individuals. Now, with their expansion into the UK, they are cementing their position as the leading destination in Europe for consumers to gain a comprehensive understanding of their health. At General Catalyst, we are committed to creating, investing, partnering and operating to enhance the resilience of European healthcare. We see tremendous value in catalysing this European movement and invite founders, investors and traditional healthcare leaders from across the continent to join us in the pursuit of Health Assurance. The existing 'sick' care system is in a precarious state and can only be transformed into a more proactive, affordable and accessible one if we work together! Hemant Taneja, Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Paul Kwan, Alexandre Momeni

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💪 Today is Demo Day of Generation H, an initiative for health tech companies supported by Tokarev Foundation Ukraine. Four months ago, Tokarev Foundation Ukraine and SET University launched Generation H, an acceleration program that prepares Ukrainian health tech companies to become investor-ready. But the program is so much more than that. It tackles some of Ukraine's most pressing healthcare challenges, from mental and reproductive health to advanced medical care. For me, it’s not just about innovation. It's about driving meaningful impact for communities impacted by the war and global challenges. As someone deeply invested in health and wellness, I believe that modern healthcare solutions must redefine systems rather than just treat symptoms. Generation H is an example of this. It brings together tech innovators, healthcare professionals, and entrepreneurs. Together, they work and share a commitment to improve people's lives. The journey has been very inspiring. During the Ideathon and Bootcamp phases, I saw how teams turned bold ideas into actionable solutions. Today, at Demo Day, they will present their projects. I can't wait to hear the final pitches from: 📌 Anima — a neuroscientific mental wellness tracker; 📌 eXTRA Vision — an AR solution for neurosurgery; 📌 Ovul — an AI-powered saliva-based fertility tracker 🤝 I'm proud that the initiative received support from the Ministry of health of Ukraine, Microsoft EMEA, and leading venture groups such as Vesna Capital, ZAS Ventures, 1991 Ventures, Angel One, Horizon Capital, Toloka.vc, United Angels Network, UVCA, finance.brussels, Capricorn Partners, Heran Partners, and Investing for Purpose. I invite everyone interested to attend the presentations in person in Kyiv today. To attend, register by following the link below. 📌 https://lnkd.in/dXKZrBir

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And so, important news for those who have a startup in the field of HealthTech, or invest in HealthTech, or work in a corporation with startups or have a professional interest in startups by position: we are launching our laboratory for Healthtech startups with the support of EIT Health. Subscribe to our page and stay tuned. Or write in a personal if you are ready to discuss cooperation #4PM; #4PMVentures; #health; #healthtech; #vc; #venturebuilder; #medicine; #innovation; #healthcare; #digitalhealth; #healthtech; #platforms; #healthdata

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🎉 What an incredible journey! Last week, during the Web Summit , we hosted the EIT Health InnoStars HealthTech Connect event, and it was truly heartwarming to see the entire InnoStars ecosystem come together. Partners, decision-makers, innovators, startups, investors, and thought leaders joined forces to drive the future of healthcare digitalisation. We were privileged to have Liz Ashall-Payne share insights on how ORCHA is pioneering the DTx and DMDs reimbursement framework in the UK, and Antal Kuthy unveil groundbreaking advancements in health data sharing through federated learning models—offering solutions to key challenges in the EHDS initiative. EIT Health InnoStars launched a call to action, urging participants to collaborate and drive the implementation of these two critical European initiatives within our national ecosystem. Together, we’re building the future of healthcare innovation! 💡✨ Learn more about these topics in our white paper, created in collaboration with LabToMarket: 🔗 Digital Health Applications (DiGA) in Portugal: https://lnkd.in/d3CS24XX 🔗European Health Data Space in Portugal: https://lnkd.in/gGsW2Usx Don't miss the highlights of EIT Health InnoStars Health Tech Connect in this short video recap—and be sure to save the date for the next event! A warm thank-you to my incredible partners Universidade de Coimbra Instituto Pedro Nunes Universidade Nova de Lisboa University of Lisbon ULS Santa Maria ULS de Coimbra Biocant Park CoLAB AccelBio @Basinnov Humanized Solutions and team Carolina Sampaio Dinis Inês Matias Inês Antunes Ferreira and Ricardo Vieira-Pires! Special thanks to LabToMarket and navega vale for their support in bringing this amazing event to life. #Ecosystem #Healthcare #innovation #digital #InnoStars #networkingdoneright

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Getting featured in the media as a startup founder is hard but not impossible. On Tuesday, coach and digital health journalist Artur Olesch explained to our teams how. In this post, Artur busts 5 common myths about getting published as a startup founder 👇 1. "I’m a small startup, no one is interested in my solution." 🚫 ✅ Try to find the right media or build your own (blogs or social media presence) by posting consistently about 3x a week. Give yourself time to discover your writing style. It can take over a year to be recognized for what you are doing. 2. "I have a great business strategy and product. The recognition on the market will come." 🚫 ✅ You can have good PR, even without a ready product. Recognition is built, it rarely just happens. 3. "I have to impress by showing that the market is huge." 🚫 Communication is not a pitch. Focus on the story, not the numbers 🔢. Stories about the people you are helping are worth more than the size of the market you are addressing. Be reliable, honest, and transparent. 4. "Communication is the job of the marketing/PR department." 🚫 ✅ Communication is everybody’s job. 5. "We have to communicate with investors and customers." 🚫 ✅ We are moving from an investors-focused to a stakeholders-focused world. You must be able to communicate to a wide range of stakeholders and change your messaging accordingly. Bonus tip 🔝 Make life easy for journalists. Reach out to them in a short message. When they are interested, deliver a short (500 words) and long version (1000 words) of an original article. In your writing, Artur suggests keeping the following in mind: “Start to love verbs, they support narrative thinking. Use white space between phrases, they support speed reading.” What is your advice for founders to spread the word about their innovation? 🤔 #startupadvice #getfeatured #mediapresence

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2024 is coming to its end, and I am writing here about a book from 2022! Still super relevant, with timeless lessons, insights and great stories. I read Sebastian Mallaby's "The Power Law" this year and absolutely loved it. Strongly recommend. Here are my three key takeaways: 👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏽👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻 A small group of people can change the world: 70% of the companies born in Silicon Valley trace their origins back to Fairchild Semiconductors. 🔬🧬 Deep tech is fundamentally different: capital does not equal growth. 💰🔮 Big successes in venture capital are all about uniqueness: the best startups have unique talent and intelligence, and the top-performing funds and firms have unique approaches. Has anyone here read it? Any thoughts, insights or favorite passages? Share below and let me know. Additionally: what is your favorite book about VC?

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Health Tech Investors: Forget Funding, Think Growth! Hey there, VCs and investment gurus!  Are you tired of people asking you for money? We get it. Here's a refreshing idea: 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧! Our Health Tech startup haven in Europe is launching a one-of-a-kind Laboratory designed to supercharge your portfolio companies. Here's how it benefits you (not us, you!): 1. 𝐔𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐬 Ever come across promising early-stage Health Tech projects that just don't quite fit your investment mold?  Send them our way!  Our Laboratory will whip them into shape, making them prime candidates for future investment.  Time and resources saved? Absolutely! ✅ **2. 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬  See some amazing niche startups, but know they'd be unstoppable if combined? We see it too! Our Laboratory excels at forging these dream teams, creating platforms with unbeatable market potential. Getting start-ups ready to the market? Absolutely! ✅ 3. 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐅𝐮𝐞𝐥  Is a portfolio company stuck in slow-motion?  Maybe they need a complete overhaul or are ready to absorb new ventures but lack the know-how.  Our Laboratory can fix both!  We'll diagnose their issues and provide solutions to get them rocketing towards success. Absolutely! ✅ Intrigued?  —— 1. Join our Foresight discussion on June 12th to delve deeper. Then, you can decide how your portfolio companies can benefit from our year-long program (6 months in the Lab, followed by 6 months of ongoing support). Our expert team will analyze each startup's challenges, craft solutions, and most importantly, help them implement those solutions for maximum growth. 2. Or just simply put a plus sign in the comments So we can discuss your situation, your start-ups, your needs, and how we can help you (not asking for a money as everybody else is doing ) Erki Mölder Tuomas Kosonen Tor-Oskar Karlberg Nicolaus v. Schlieffen Stefan Petersson Christian Goergen Denis Czerniuk Amine Benmoussa Magnus Stagsted Daniel Hastik Vi Partners Seroba. Novaterra Impilo Eir Ventures Hadean Ventures ARCHIMED Capital Cell Sciety MIG Capital M Ventures Ysios Capital Inkef Eleven Ventures LSP Invivo Partners Healthy.Capital eevolve 415 Capital Catalpa Ventures Cascara Ventures 4FOX Ventures

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What grabs me most about Cara Health? Their stellar founding team. Their blend of medical, marketing, product, and technical expertise enables a hybrid digital/physical maternity care model validated by real insights. This talented, gritty trio can centralize fragmented solutions. With passion and vision, I believe they will thrive in femtech and make Cara Health a category leader. Impressed. The femtech market has massive potential with expected 11-15% annual growth. However, current maternity care solutions are fragmented, creating huge gaps in support for expecting mothers. 

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Startup founders all over Europe (mostly in the early or idea stages)! 👇 BrightLabs Incubator's registration deadline is one week away (17th of May). If you are up for the challenge and proactive enough the program can help you launch your MVP or iterate a lot on your existing product, it can even test the product-market fit-ness of the project. 🚀 At the end of the program, the best ones get investment opportunities or can leverage resources from grants as well. 💵 It's an awesome program, that can help you launch your idea, or enhance your current project. You get an opportunity to also explore Oradea, a city, which lately is on the highest growth path in Romania. 📈🇷🇴 Don't worry if you're from another country, Make IT in Oradea gets you covered with relocation incentives and also a lot more other incentives, like mentoring, and access to professionals with hands-on tech/design/marketing/business knowledge paid to help you. 💪 For more information check out the website: https://brightlabs.build ✨ Or reach out to Rebeca Avram or David Achim! Hurry up, applications are closing in a week! 📆

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For deep tech companies, if you need help in the below areas....

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Trying to pitch your startup? ᯓ⚾ New fundraising study claims what to do ✅ And what not to do! ⛔ Dropbox DocSend analyzed hundreds of pitch decks in Pre-Seed and Seed Rounds, and have fascinating findings about what works - which echo some of my own startup experiences… “Pre-Seed Fundraising Trends As investors grew more risk-averse due to challenging macro conditions in 2022-23, we found that their overall focus shifted from growth to long-term profitability. VCs spent less time than ever reading founder narratives and rewarded decks whose stories made an early impact. Long-term profitability becomes a top concern Investors gave extra scrutiny to financials, business model, and traction sections. VCs also spent 48% and 25% more time on the business model and traction sections, respectively. Unsuccessful decks received even more scrutiny: investors spent 110% more time on unsuccessful traction slides and 85% more time on unsuccessful business model slides in 2023. Pre-Seed Pitch Deck Analysis Successful pre-seed decks tended to foreground their product and business model sections, placing them near the beginning of the deck (and before the problem and solution sections). Unsuccessful decks placed their product and business model sections near the middle of the deck, often foregrounding their team section instead. Seed Fundraising Trends VCs spent less time reviewing seed decks in 2023 compared to 2022. We found that although staple deck sections like product and business model remain important, investors sharpened their focus on competition and why now? sections that speak directly to the current market environment. Investors evaluate how seed founders can thrive in uncertainty VCs paid heightened attention to how founders speak to current market challenges and how they inform future opportunities. On the one hand, they focused more on deck sections like why now?, which had the third-longest viewing time in 2023. On the other hand, investors also spent 88% more time on the competition section and 33% more time on the traction section. Contacting more investors doesn’t yield better results  Our data shows a weak correlation between the number of investors contacted and the number of meetings held. But it shows an even weaker correlation between the number of investors contacted and the amount of seed funding raised. Reaching out to the right VCs (rather than simply more VCs) will ensure founders work smarter, not harder, during their raise. Seed Pitch Deck Analysis Successful seed decks in 2023 rearranged some of the classic building blocks: instead of foregrounding problem/solution sections, they often inserted the why now? section after an opening company purpose slide. They also tended to place their product and business model sections earlier in the narratives than unsuccessful decks." Thanks to Dropbox DocSend and their DocSend Startup Index - link to full article in comments! #leadership #management #pitch #fundraising

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It was very useful to listen to the pitches of the 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 2024 by AceON Accelerator participants - in order to fully understand what the teams ultimately do. Guys, you create such wonderful USEFUL things! And, of course, get feedback from ZAKA VC team - to move on even faster 🚀 #venture #startups #aceon #preseed

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It is great to see the validation of the femtech category out of Europe with Flo Health Inc.- the recognition of its market size and growth capital of this magnitude from the leading GP General Atlantic. Category leadership is the name of the game in VC/growth as is gaining "unicorn" status. I am so keen to see change: change in diversity at GPs and retention, in the deal funnel/female category and capital allocation parity for females/diversity founders. Female health has been underfunded and under researched and I am 50% of the population that takes medication based on male clinical trial data and have been on my own clinical trial journey for TED (auto-immune diseases are more prevalent in women). Artemis Women's Health Foundation is a great place start to learn more about this topic! In this case we have a "win" for femtech funding, but also some contention. If the CEO had been female, would she have been able to raise this capital? There is still disparity in funding female entrepreneurs and senior leadership due to gender norms and because deal funnels are mostly overseen by males. Would capital parity not enable more innovation in femtech/female health, more female leadership and how is male allyship best constructed to change bias and reduce the pay and wealth gap? More important data on this from Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen://https://lnkd.in/guGihqWh #femtech #startups #VCFunding #europeanwomeninvc #sifted #femalehealth

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"The EU's regulatory stance towards tech companies hampers innovation...GDPR is estimated to have reduced the profits for small tech companies by more than 15%. We are killing our small companies. We are self-defeating." 🎯 Props to Mario Draghi for saying what many of us have been hammering on about for years. This is, god I hope, a real wake-up call to Europe and Europeans. His report didn't hold back. Change is needed. Pro-growth, pro-innovation, pro-entrepreneurship policies are needed. No more bad regulations like GDPR, the EU AI Act, etc. Fwiw, the EU does reach out and listen. Despite my many MANY criticisms over the years of how it handles tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship, EU officials regularly reach out…often in agreement. Reality though is the EU is a complicated, slow moving beast so recommendations often fall into the void of bureaucracy. So while my heart is hoping for change, my head knows it’s unlikely (looking at you first and foremost Germany! 🤨). Reports like this are nice, but it doesn’t equal action. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, real policy shifts occur in the coming months. Come on Europe, let's go!

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Turning a great idea into a market-ready product in healthcare is incredibly challenging.   This is why at VentureBlick we're all about giving healthcare startups the practical support they need to turn those ideas into solutions that really make a difference.   Through the Super Innovator Search competition, and with the incredible support of our partners, JLK Technology and Kalms Consulting, we're helping startups navigate the complex path to commercialisation, bringing them closer to their global goals.   Whether it’s strategic advice, validating tech or connecting innovators to the right people, we’re here to help innovators bring their visions to life.   Swipe left to check out how JLK Technology and Kalms Consulting are making this happen.   Just one week left to apply for the Super Innovator Search: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gEddQ6P7 #HealthcareInnovation #StartupSupport #SuperInnovatorSearch #Commercialisation #InnovationPartners

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