When

Thursday, August 17, 2017 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM PDT
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Where

Innovation Center Denmark 
200 Page Mill Road
Suite 100
Palo Alto, CA 94306  

 
Driving Directions 

Contact

Charlotte Danielsson 
Silicon Vikings 
 
charlotte.danielsson@siliconvikings.com 
 

Nordic Startup Journeys: The Intersection of the Nordics & Silicon Valley--And ScaleIt Pitching Session

FREE EVENT!

 

Please join us for two-part event at Innovation Center Denmark (ICD): (1) A discussion with two “early stage” Nordic entrepreneurs who are in Silicon Valley this summer; and (2) A pitching event with participants from ICD’s Acceleration Program, SCALEit. In the first part of the program, Søren Juul Jørgensen, Executive Director of Innovation Center Denmark, and Eilif Trondsen, Chair of Silicon Vikings SIG on Entrepreneurship and Learning, will have a discussion about their startup journeys and recent Silicon Valley experience with Endre Elvestad, the Founder of the Norwegian startup SignLab Ai, and with David Kofoed Wind, the CEO and Co-Founder of the Danish startup, Peergrade. Endre is currently participating in the Global Solutions Program of Singularity University and David and his colleagues are part of the acceleration program at Y Cominator.

After this discussion and a brief break, a pitching session with companies from the current cohort of ICD’s SCALEit program will take place. Stay put for more detail about the companies that will be pitching.

In our conversation with Endre and David, Søren and I expect to cover a number of issues and topics, including the following:

  • Their visions, motivations and experiences so far in their entrepreneurial journeys
  • How they see the current Nordic startup environments—especially in Norway and Denmark—and how they differ from what they see in Silicon Valley
  • What are the opportunities and challenges they see ahead as they plan to scale their operations—and how do they expect to deal with the staff geographical location issues
  • What have their experiences been so far in the programs they are currently participating in at Singularity University and Y Combinator?

We will also give you a chance to ask Endre and David questions, so come prepared to engage with our panelists. All our sessions are highly interactive, informative and fun, so come and join what should be a great and interesting event.

Brief Bios of Panelists and Moderators:

David Kofoed Wind.  David is Co-Founder and CEO of Peergrade and a PhD-student at The Technical University of Denmark. Peergrade helps teachers teach critical thinking to students through student-to-student feedback. David does research on machine learning, data science and learning analytics. He and his Peergrade colleagues are currently participating in the Y Combinator acceleration program.

Endre Elvestad. Founder of SignLab, a global platform for teaching parents of deaf children sign language. Former member of the Member of the Norwegian National Commission on Use of New Technologies in Higher Education. Master in CS with a focus on the intersection between AI, VR and human learning. Currently participating in the Global Solutions Program of Singularity University (SU). Also participated in the first cohort of SU’s Copenhagen program the spring of 2017.

Søren Juul Jørgensen. Søren is the Executive Director of the Innovation Center Denmark (ICD), a bridge between research institutions, companies and capital in Denmark and Silicon Valley. ICD accelerates the entry of Danish companies into Silicon Valley; facilitates research cooperation and provides inspiration to help drive innovation in Denmark. Søren is Board Member of Nordic Innovation House and an External Examiner at Aarhus University and Associated Professor at University of Copenhagen.

Eilif Trondsen. Eilif—a transplanted Norwegian who has spent his whole professional life in Silicon Valley—has led and participated in a number of syndicated research programs and numerous consulting projects during his 35 years at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) and Strategic Business Insights (a spin-out from SRI, located on the Menlo Park campus of SRI). Eilif has also been Adjunct Professor of Economics at a number of Bay Area universities. Most of his work has focused on eCommerce, Learning, Innovation, and Virtual Technologies, and in recent years much of his work has focused on the Nordic region, especially Finland and Norway, including projects for Tekes and the Norwegian Research Council, and two projects funded by Nordic Innovation. He is currently the project leader of a new Nordic Innovation project awarded to Silicon Vikings, which will build a Nordic EdTech Network. He has been a Board member of Silicon Vikings for the last 5 years, and have been the Chair of the Special Interest Group on Entrepreneurship and Learning since its beginning

  

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