adVENTURE 2 winner teaches us to love running

The top three winning projects in adVENTURE 2:

1. Spoteee (http://www.spoteee.cz)
2. Celebrio (www.celebriosoftware.com )
3. BuddyBet (www.buddybet.com )

The first-place winner in the adVENTURE 2 competition was the Spoteee project, which offers runners in fitness centres attractive projections shot using advanced camera technology. “The project is rightly and completely focused on the trend of healthy living, exercise and the necessity to relax. The idea to project on screens in fitness centre video clips simulating running in the countryside and in the city fulfils all of these attributes. In addition, the project is not limited in terms of language and can thus be expanded to other markets without the necessity of localisation. Spoteee is already in operation in several fitness studios in Brno, which proves its viability. After a long time, this is a project that was conceived based on actual demand. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for it,” says Margareta Křížová, member of the adVENTURE 2 jury.

Second place in the adVENTURE 2 competition was taken by the Celebrio project, a multiplatform computer system for seniors that makes it possible for those with minimal or no experience to use a computer or tablet. “In the case of the Celebrio project, the jury unanimously concurred that it should win an award. This is a project that focuses on a very interesting segment and responds appropriately to the needs of people who do not have the possibility to work with ordinary applications and programs, though they want or need to have access to modern technologies. In our opinion, this can be more than just an interesting business and the team has already achieved very interesting results without the necessity of financial investments. We believe that the project and its main protagonists have a good foundation for successful growth and further development of their activities in the international environment,” says Tomáš Kozubek, adVENTURE 2 juror, describing the advantages of the project. Celebrio functions on the basis of a combination of web, server, cloud and native technologies and has already won other awards in the Czech Republic and abroad.

BuddyBet, a system supporting the advantages of a social network with online betting, was named the third best project in this year’s adVENTURE competition. Thanks to BuddyBet, real friends and communities can challenge each other to place bets via a range of tools, from a website and application to recorded voice messages. The initial public version should be launched in September 2013. “The BuddyBet project can be an inspiration and example for other local projects due not only to its very high level of professionalism, but also due to the fact that it does not have only global ambition, but rather it has been uncompromisingly targeted at foreign markets from the very beginning. The esteem shown for this project and the reason for optimism are also due to the strong list of initial angel investors,” says juror Jan Všianský of 42 Angels, summarising the project’s advantages.

The jury awarded a special prize to the PhoneCopy.com project (www.phonecopy.com), which made a repeat appearance in adVENTURE, having been a finalist in the first edition of the competition. The project’s representative, Jiří Berger, presented his project’s development since last year and the unprecedented progress captivated not only all participants, but also the jury.

Of the 35 projects entered in the competition, nine were chosen for the adVENTURE 2 final. With their business plans, the finalists focused on various areas of human endeavour, ranging from road safety and fighting obesity to easily making restaurant reservations. The objective of the competition is to stimulate the creation of business concepts with potential for success on the market and to provide the originators of the projects with the expert support needed to achieve their dreams: “The aim is not only to recognise only the best projects, but also to provide other, especially beginning entrepreneurs with inspiration and motivation for their work. The extraordinary recognition of a successful project from the previous edition of the adVENTURE competition, which did not win an award last year, is proof of this. We will be very pleased if we see that more projects from this year’s event are successfully implemented,” says Margareta Křížová, adding: “The adVENTURE competition is a pleasant opportunity for people to present their ideas, receive feedback, talk with others who have already tried it and have made progress in their business. It is always very pleasing to see people who think of ways to be successful and to self-sufficient. They don’t have to be immediately successful; just having the courage to try is success in itself.”

The organisers of the adVENTURE competition are the Association for Foreign Investment and the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic. The AFI is a non-governmental non-profit organisation comprising a group of renowned Czech and multinational firms operating on the Czech market. Its purpose is to support foreign direct investment, development of the Czech business environment and Czech exports, and cooperation between firms and the research sphere. The American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic is one of the biggest and most active domestic chambers of commerce. It strives incessantly to improve the business environment and initiates activities aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the Czech economy. The chamber’s membership base comprises more than 400 companies of various sizes and nationalities.

The partners of the adVENTURE project are Deloitte, DC Vision, CEAG, Tarpan Partners, 42Angels, Hewlett Packard, NWD Legal, Hudson, Media Education, Czech ICT Alliance, the Seed Fund of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, CzechAccelerator, Czech Startups and Node 5. The media partners are the TyInternety.cz online portal,  Studenta.cz student lifestyle portal and Aiesec.

More information is available on the website at http://www.spolupraceroku.cz/adventure .