How great companies and Venture Capital were born. Report on our Budapest Ventured event.

At the end of November 2011 we held Budapest Ventured, a cinema and discussion night, simultaneously at BME and Corvinus University. We screened Something Ventured, the ultimate movie about how Silicon Valley and venture capital were born, and how venture capitalists can boost businesses that change the world: just think about Apple, Cisco or Genentech. After the movie two dozens of successful regional startup entrepreneurs joined the interactive discussion with more than 130 students.

The campaign started with an interview series by our organisation team at both universities. We visited student associations and asked students what they generally think about entrepreneurs. The outcome was astonishing.

Almost all university newsletters joined to spread the word, we have received over 200 registrations. Several associations are already involved in entrepreneurship some way, as the following examples illustrate:

• a Student Innovation Center will be opened at BME led by Donat Dekanyi
• Spin Off Club led by Peter Szirmai and Gergo Freész, who regularly organise business plan competitions for students
• Simonyi College, Attila Kiss as president who are committed to spread the E Virus and organise several events.

Every time you see this movie you can always notice new sides of the stories. For example, even Steve Jobs could not make it happen without the help of Arthur Rock, who is the inventor of the term “venture capital” and without his partners who brought in connections to leading invesment funds. People and investors in the ‘60s in the US were as sceptic about venture startups as not so long ago here in Budapest, too. In the US the first company officially fueled by venture capital was Fairchild Semiconductors, founded by the legendary engineering team, “the traitorous eight”. Even for them it was hard to find the initial capital. Out of three dozens of potential investors no one was willing to give them funding. Finally Arthur connected them with Sherman Fairchild who himself was also an inventor and entrepreneur, so he made the first move and invested the first million to launch the semiconductor business. This is the company from where the term ‘Silicon Valley’ is originally coming! All the members of the tremendous eight started their own businesses later on, for instance Intel.

While Peter was presenting inspiring stories to economics students at Corvinus, David was entertaining engineering minds with anecdotes at BME. They introduced the entrepreneurial stars of Budapest to the audience: these pioneers had a very similar experience to  what their American predecessors had in the movie. Founder of Prezi, Adam is a great example: he was working on his zooming program for 8 years before he started the company with his partners; or Gyula, who is a lawyer by profession, but developed an online streaming service, UStream with his team. The idea conquered the US and is becoming increasingly popular in the CEE region, too. Or finally here is Sherry, who has Pakistani origins. He does not speak Hungarian at all, however, he has found a Groupon business in Budapest, Kuponvilag, and the company has just celebrated the anniversary of its market leadership position! They all struggled in the first and probably the most difficult phase of a company’s life, when everything was uncertain, existence was doubtful and they were happy for each customer that showed interest in their products or services.

The audience seemed to be enjoying the exercise as they rated the event at an overall 6.1 on a scale of 7. They have sent us encouraging feedback like:

“It was very inspiring. It was amazing hearing the first man who invented the VC word, how did the Tremendous Eight took the initiative to build up something from the ground.”

“The guests that attended were not only high profile but gave me some fantastic advice that I will keep with me on my journey as an entrepreneur.”

“I think the film clearly pointed out the best examples of venture capital use in history. “

“It was really motivating and unique, because if I read about these companies, I always read about the inventors and engineers, and not the people who are more relevant for me, the people who invested.”

“The organisation was good, thank you very much for the wine, I enjoyed it. I was able to use the networking session to collect some really promising contacts.“

“It was perfectly organized ! Everyone was very helpful. Thanks For Everything !!! You’re the best ! ”

Student associations, Spin Off Club, BEST Budapest and Simonyi College have joined the organisation and helped us make the event a great success. Gratitude goes to the Hungarian Venture Capital Association (HVCA) too, who supported our event.

We will screen the film in Prague next! Come and join us.