28/06/2022 – Tokeportal’s own content

In our previous interview Szabó Barnabás introduced himself.

Now Eszter Szabó (economist, Associate Professor (BGE), angel investor student, mentor) answers our questions and tells his opinion about startups and the ecosystem.

Our focus is on innovative female entrepreneurs but we also welcome women as founders or leaders. We promote co-development because it mobilises a dormant force in the economy. Participation and co-development is an advantage.

It has been repeated ad infinitum that the strengths of this region are its IT professionals. Huge companies, such as EPAM Systems, have been created on the basis of this recognition. There is much to learn about management, sales and marketing in a region that spans Central and Eastern Europe. They are vital if you want to market your company internationally. You should take advantage of senior managers from large international companies operating here, who know global markets , practices and can share them with newcomers. I worked in government relations and communications for twenty years for the Fortune 50 company in an entire region. Who knows better what it’s like to build an innovative company globally. But not just to build it, to win it. I think there is a huge untapped opportunity here.

I am a business angel investor in training. I’ve had a few investments, I’ve had three exits, one of which was a good one. Women/Business/Angels teaches business angel investing and pushes the topic in front of decision makers in the region. A key issue for the innovation ecosystem is to mobilize a lot of women and create a co-educational culture in collaboration with men. Why is the economy only using one half of them as a source of innovation? Women need to want and know and then be helped to enter this market.

As the founding president of the Women/Women/Angels Association, we want to help as many women as possible through the gate of fear and lack of knowledge. We have learned from Barbara Vero, who is also a mentor at Tokeportal, that it is too big a leap to become an angel investor in a business once you have worked in a big company, where the risk of failure is high but the rewards can be significant. It is conceivable that a good sequence might be mentor followed by a business angel investor.

Progress is continuous. It is not generated by the state. That is a big mistake. It is the players and those who keep coming in that need to build the ecosystem. Always the locals and only the locals. Of course the state has a role to play in this. But only to a limited extent. I’m not a fan of rabble-rousing self-criticism of our relations. The Tokeportal is an ingenious solution, I hope more and more good businesses are added to their portfolio faster and faster! I also invest through Tokeportal.

Csongor Bias and Startup Hungary are a phenomenon in the Hungarian ecosystem and it’s great that they are working. The article is great. It tells what is and what could be. Funding is very important, but knowledge sharing is even more important in my opinion. We don’t need field mentors, but experienced ones with a global vision and commitment. Capital should be used for value-added training and not smoked. Startups need to keep this in mind. The investor is risking the money he/she has not spent on anything else to build their company, their idea.

(https://forbes.hu/uzlet/startupjelentes-startup-hungary-2022/)

Examples from abroad show how local “capital portals” can stimulate the building of a local ecosystem. I hope Tokeportal will make huge strides in this direction!

If you want to know more about Eszter, visit her mentorprofile.