Sure, it is convenient to walk around the festival area, listen to performances that offer new thoughts and perspectives, and enjoy the best music with your friends in the evening. However, in general, beneficial partnerships and world-changing startups are not created this way. Instead, you have to use matchmaking apps, take part in speed dates, and talk to business angels at the end of the day. If some words in the previous sentence were already confusing, you should do some prep work before going to a business festival. And to make your life a bit easier, we have chosen ten essential terms and explained them in plain English.

Matchmaking

It is the opportunity to meet other festival attendees by using the Brella app and scheduling 15-minute rendezvous. You'll start with some chitchat, then introduce your product or service, and maybe later, if everything goes well, even have a cocktail!

Elevator pitch

It's highly likely that these are the most crucial 30–60 seconds of your life! Your goal is to make the most mind-blowing presentation of your idea to investors, partners and clients.

Speed dating

The perfect chance for startups to pitch their idea in a few minutes and even more ideal for investors to get a quick overview of the freshest and coolest business ideas. And don't worry if your first pitch is a bit weak. Soon the bell will ring and you can move on…to the next investor. And who knows, maybe it's a match made in heaven!

Angel investor

These are the kind of investors who are looking to invest in early-stage startups in fields they know a lot about or just like.

Hackathon

A super intense event that usually lasts for a day or two. It brings together people with different backgrounds and various skills whose goal is to solve a problem that is close to their hearts. One of the best examples from Estonia is "Hack the Crisis" which aimed to create solutions to cope with the crisis. And in no time, the Global Hack was happening all over the world.

MVP

Minimum viable product is a basic version of your product that your client can use. This way you can find out if the product has any potential (of course it does!), what are the main strengths and flaws.

Pivot

Pivot marks a sharp turn in the business strategy of a startup to adapt to changes in the industry, customer preferences or some other factor.

Unicorn

Bolt, Playtech, Skype, TransferWise are Estonian unicorns, meaning they are worth over 1 billion US dollars!

Burn (or run) rate

Boot-strapping

Imagine you have a crazy idea you have to execute at any cost. Therefore, you need some money and the safest bet is to start with your loved ones. So, boot-strapping equals asking for money from friends and family.