Henry and Simon

Hi Everyone. Our weekly digest is out. In 15 minutes you’ll get the most interesting headlines on the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and internationally. 

In this episode, we cover Vocalls who raised over €371,000 and provides an automated assistant with artificial intelligence. We mention Czech startup Lafluence who received funds of €743,000 and focuses on connecting brands with influencers, Instagrammers, bloggers, YouTubers and other content creators. We covered Zynga who made a Turkish unicorn by buying Peak for $1.8B. We´ll speak about OurCrowd, a Jerusalem-based investment platform. And Simon´s favorite "Love to Hate" section features Paddy Cosgrave.

Hi Everyone. Our weekly digest is out. In 15 minutes you’ll get the most interesting headlines on the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and internationally. 

In this episode, we cover Anytime that is expanding to the Czech Republic. We mention Leadspicker, a Czech startup that works as an intelligent search engine for new start-ups. We covered Joe Rogan and his pivot to Spotify. We talk about Wolt´s new fundraising and HERTZ renting some trouble.

Hi Everyone. Our weekly digest is out. In 16 minutes you’ll get the most interesting headlines on the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and internationally. 

In this episode, we cover the new modular scooter from Bolt that is heading to the Czech Republic. We mention the Czech data startup Apify launching "Real Estate WatchDog". We covered Zoom, who bought a startup called Keybase. We present a new success story in the circular economy, Back Market, and also several innovative banking apps N26, Revolut, Chime, Monzo. Our last section is on "Famtech" and the London-based Peanut a social network for women. To close it off, "Love to Hate" presents the case for and against Gary Vaynerchuk.

Welcome to Henry and Simon, episode 8. We're a podcast talking to the most interesting entrepreneurs and creatives in Europe.

Christoph is a Berlin-based pitch doctor, pitch coach, and startup comedian. We've learned valuable ideas on how companies can better shape their message and avoid some of the most common pitfalls. Check this out if you want to improve your startup presentation, or if you wish to get a better idea of how startups work. 

Hi there home-lockups! The 7th episode of Weekly digest is out, today in less than 15 minutes you’ll get compressed news about the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and the rest of Europe!

We spoke about the momentum Fintech companies are still experiencing, also SilverCloud, who develop around 30 different therapy programs and Google's, role in the travel value chain. We mentioned Resistant AI which focuses on detecting and preventing manipulation of artificial intelligence; we covered a new tool from Brno, which should ensure automation and control of translations in mobile applications "Localazy". We speak about BeRider and its remarkable initiative for healthcare workers. Finally our new section "Love to Hate" presents the case for and against Jason Calacanis.

Welcome to Henry and Simon, episode 8. We're a podcast talking to the most interesting entrepreneurs and creatives in Europe.

Today we talk with Rudradeb "Ru" Mitra, the founder and CEO of Omdena a company that solves social problems with artificial intelligence through bottom-up collaboration.

Omdena has been nominated for the BOLD AI Awards and has been a candidate for the 2020 Forbes AI 50 list. It was also recently highlighted on the NASDAQ billboard.

On this podcast you will learn what projects across the world Omdena has been working on. How they build solid ethical AI solutions. How Rudradeb and OMDENA get people for these projects. How he incentivises them when normally the roles are not paid. How he finds talented people. And how he plots his next plans based on "what's the worst that can happen?"

We hope you enjoy the podcast.

Hi there home-lockups! The 6th episode of Weekly digest is out, today in less than 15 minutes you’ll get compressed news about the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and the rest of Europe!

We spoke about gender inequality in the startups' area, new players in the streaming services. We covered Liftago and its package delivery endeavor, Vitadio - your health coaching app. We mentioned a massive acquisition of Gopay, Zoom news, and in the end, we speak a little about new catchup, the Facebook Rooms.

Hi there home-lockups! The 5th episode of Weekly digest is out, today in less than 18 minutes you’ll get compressed news about the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and the rest of Europe!

In this episode, we spoke about micromobility, Booster-board, Lime, Revolt, XTND, Airbnb, cybersecurity and much more...

Hi there home-lockups! The 4th episode of Weekly digest is out, today in less than 15 minutes you’ll get compressed news about the startup and entrepreneur scene in Prague and the rest of Europe!

Czech/Berlin news: 

We spoke about an application called eRouška, which comes from COVID19CZ FB group, the new remote coaching / mentoring service called CoachHub from Berlin that also operates in Czech. We mentioned super-affordable glasses from a Czech company called DOT Glasses that improves the vision for hundreds of thousands of people in third world countries and was recently funded by Tilia Impact Ventures and Nation 1.

The good, the bad and the ugly of European and international start-ups and tech. 

The good: ESCALAR an initiative by the European Commission and EIF to put €300M into European Scale ups with a benefit of €1.2B as VCs and other investors will put in the rest. This is to deal with the challenges scale ups have in the EU versus other regions/countries. (Source: tech.eu)

Sextech boom. Reported by Sifted.eu → Pornhub have seen a 13.7% increase in their traffic and Emjoy has seen a 160% increase in downloads but a lot of that has been for self compassion and Bodies/Boundaries instead of erotic stories and guided masturbation. FERLY has also seen organic downloads up 65% (Source: Sifted.eu) 

The bad: SLUSH, a mainstay of European tech conferences has been cancelled even though the event is in November. This is obviously Covid-19 driven. Mika Huttunen says they will pursue their mission of helping founders in new ways. 

The ugly: In the US more jobs have been lost in 3 weeks than in 18 months during the “Great Recession” of 2007-2009. A study showed that in start-up land 204 start-ups have laid off a staggering 16,229 people during the period. 

Robin from tech.eu reports that European startup investment fell from €6Billion in January to €2Billion in March a fairly awful drop…

THE EXTRA: Please read “Prepare for the ultimate gaslighting” - it’s free on Medium and talks about how we will be targeted like never before so we can reduce the pain of being stuck at home, brands will try and sell us stuff to feel better. The author calls this time the “The Great Pause” and urges people to use this time to really reflect on their lives. (while acknowledging the obvious tragedy that Covid-19 creates). 

https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0

Welcome to Henry and Simon episode 7. We're a podcast talking to the most interesting entrepreneurs, and creatives in Prague. Today we talk with Artur Sychov the founder of the VR world Somnium Space.

We learned about the origin of Somnium Space and the potential of VR social media, blockchains and alternative currencies. 

Enjoy the podcast.