The beginning of the week turned into a lovely occasion for an sweet piece of entrepreneurial luxury in ABLE – The national finals of Get In The Ring. For a second consecutive year ABLE gathered talented teams with exceptional business concepts which transformed the stage into a great source of glamorous, energizing ecstasy. The event opposed 8 startups in direct fight for a place in the regional final of Eastern European amongst which the teams of Melissa Climate, Phantom Login, Yatoto, eMEDY, Clumsy Ox, Stepsss, Jobiome and Arthesis. All together they turned the podium into a treasury containing innovative approaches and visions, ideas, covering a wide range of technologies and markets – from health solutions to everyday intelligent “optimizations”. In front of over 100 people in the overcrowded room at Hilton hotel together with the three-member jury consisting of Hristo Tenchev (CEO and founder of XS-Software), Vladi Roussev (founder of Wizcom / Sciant) and Walter Rivera (Portfolio Manager of the Austrian venture capital company Fiedler Capita) teams provided an exceptional aesthetic and innovative delight that fascinated the members of the jury to a such extent that they were on the verge of sending at least 2 teams to the regional. Alas, the regulation is regulation and ultimately, only one of the teams had the occasion for standing Sam – the fresh and exceptionally energetic team of Stepsss. Their idea is based on the development of versatile high-tech shoe insoles with built-in sensors that transfer data wirelessly to the smartphone of the user, (supplemented by an online database), then being processed and ensuring the monitoring of the running, including detailed statistics and optimization solutions for improving the technique of movement in order to transform this sport in a painless pleasure for many people who often face injuries due to improper technique of movement. Apart from the first place and the right to participate in the regional final, Stepsss received two additional awards from the jury – a start-up training program provided by Softlayer Catalyst and business valuation, kindly provided by the company Equidam. Nevertheless, “The Ring” did not obey the principle of total domination (courtesy of the jury), rewarding also the team of Melissa Climate, which fascinated the audience with its idea for energy efficient remote control of air conditioning systems thanks to a dedicated mobile smartphone application combined with universal hardware recognizing conditioners from all trades and models, allowing remote programming of functions of every air conditioner also capable of storing different sets of modes, as well as providing a wide array of energy optimization proposals. Runners-up received a prize from Remark Consulting. Thus, the aftermath of the titanic entrepreneurial clash on a national level is Stepsss, who will defend our national honor during the regional final for Eastern Europe on November 17 in Sofia, hosted again be ABLE. Let’s wish success to our representatives and hopefully enjoy an even more spectacular battle next month.
