In the series of six workshops, Israeli experts and seasoned entrepreneurs offer an insight into Israel’s world-leading startup ecosystem: how it works and why it is successful. The 90-minute workshops focus on providing both theoretical and practical knowledge.

The first event is scheduled for 9 June and discusses how to bring an idea from concept to launch. Further topics covered in the coming weeks include team building, business plan development, networking, and also fund-raising which may not only interest startups. Sustainability is increasingly considered by customers when buying a product or service, so the workshops discuss how to capitalize on this trend. Storytelling and other essential marketing and communication techniques will also be dealt with in detail.

The workshops will take place on Tuesdays from 12:00 to 13:00 as Zoom webinars streamed on the Facebook profiles of the Israeli embassies operating in the V4 countries.

In Hungary, the Embassy of Israel has partnered with the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, the Budapest Enterprise Agency and the Startup Campus for the initiative.

“Building a successful startup is an enormous business challenge. It takes much more than a good idea or innovation. It requires deep understanding of the product or service as well as good management skills. In fact, you will also need one more thing. In Israel, one of the secrets and essential ingredients of a successful startup is ‘chutzpa’. I’m sure this will also be covered at the Startup Nation V4 Virtual Startups Bootcamp workshops, implemented in collaboration with our partners in Hungary and the other V4 countries,” said Ambassador Yacov Hadas-Handelsman.

“Today, among other things, Israel is famous for being a country of startup communities which has been steadily producing internationally renowned innovations. That’s why I think it is particularly important that Hungarian startup businesses have the opportunity to learn from the successful entrepreneurs of one of the world’s most dynamic knowledge-based economies and better understand the functioning, value creation capabilities and innovative approach of the Israeli startup ecosystem,” pointed out Katalin Sebők, vice-president for business innovation of the NRDI Office.

“The Budapest Enterprise Agency organised its first foreign startup delegation to Tel-Aviv, the sister city of Budapest. Since then, we have contributed to the debut and professional development of over 200 Hungarian startups worldwide. We are delighted that in a period of pandemic, as a partner of the Embassy of Israel we can help the development of Hungarian startups, thereby strengthening the domestic ecosystem. And without the need to take a flight, as all this happens online,” said Piroska Szalai, Head of the Board of Trustees of the Budapest Enterprise Agency.

“An innovative business must think globally already from the idea stage. Entering the international market is really challenging, so it needs accurate and targeted preparation. We need as many bilateral programmes as possible to facilitate the exchange of such experience and knowledge, and thereby strengthen the growth and success of domestic businesses. We at Startup Campus have been implementing foreign market entry programmes for many years now, in collaboration with our Israeli partners and others, so it was natural for us to join the initiative of the Embassy of Israel,” said Zsolt Kovács, CEO at Startup Campus.

Budapest, 16 June 2020