Startups and industry experts checked in at the eco hotel Guldsmeden Bryggen, enjoyed a light breakfast in the cozy atmosphere before we kicked off the program for the two following days.
10 startups with very diverse backgrounds were lodged at the hotel for two days in March. The startups came to expand their network, and potentially their business within the 4th largest industry in Denmark – tourism.
To support the startups and get a deeper understanding of the tourism industry, 7 industry experts participated and gave some valuable insights into the challenges of the tourism industry. Thanks to industry experts: Lars Schmidtsdorff from Gastrominoen, Peter Møller Laursen from Dansk Kyst- og Naturturisme, Jakob Ipland from Wonderful Copenhagen, Jørgen Christensen, previous General Manager of Small Danish Hotels, Jimmi Stæhr-Petersen, advisor and owner of Gastro Consulting, Marianne Arvedsen from Coor and Emilie Wammen from Hub for Innovation in Tourism. And thank you to experts Anne-Sofie Hattesen from MeetDenmark, Ole Østergaard from Scale Your Comms and Anne-Marie Hall from Amazing Hall, who gave a workshop on storytelling.
The ‘Hack Your Business Plan’ event facilitated connections between knowledge-based and university startups and the tourism industry, represented by several experienced industry experts. Connections that hold great potential to benefit both the Danish tourism industry and the startups, who came with an open mind to expand their markets by hacking their own business plans. We saw that the industry holds a lot of potential because of the size of the market, the need for sustainable solutions and challenges such as lack of workers.
The main workshop was facilitated by Simon Ringive, Head of Projects from Venture Cup Denmark, who introduced the participants to the Market Opportunity Navigator. This tool offers a structured process for the startups to identify potential markets for innovation within the tourism industry, thereby helping them to hack their businesses.
Lenka Marcanova from Beanless: “I connected on linkedin with both startups and experts, and we are going to catch up later on. Both in turns of the development of my startup, but also potential partnerships, and I was also connected with someone who can help me out with production and enter new markets.”
The tourism industry, like many others, are longing for sustainable and digital solutions. This was part of the challenges that startups learned about when they presented their businesses towards experts from different parts of the tourism industry.
Jimmi Stæhr-Petersen from Gastro Consulting: “I think we can benefit from working more together. There are a lot of interesting synergies between the university-world and the tourism industry that we could cultivate much more than we do today.”
Morten Ugelvig Andersen, CEO of Venture Cup Denmark: “Our goal with this initiative has been to help the startups find product market fit in a new industry. I’ve therefore been very happy to see the eagerness with which the startups were able to grasp and adapt to the tourism industry. The format has shown that by building bridges between startups and industry, the majority of participating startups are able to pivot their business models when offered insights into new markets. The success of this format therefore holds great promise for developing a new methodology of introducing early startups to new markets and industries.”
If you are also interested in the opportunities within the tourism industry, you are welcome to contact Hub for Innovation in Tourism.
Stay updated on similar events for both students, startups and experts at https://linktr.ee/venturecup
