Voices of the Industry: How start-ups are shaping the future of the sports industry

Start-ups are a ray of hope, they are hope-bearers in a business that constantly has to reinvent itself.

And in the case of health care, we always look to invest and also support start-ups that will be changing the next 10 to 20 years in Europe. So our motto is to make European lives better.

It stands out that seven of the first ten brands of the world's most valuable brands are in the memory field of garages, where someone once screwed something together. All these big companies, whether Google or Apple or Amazon, started as start-ups and now belong to the ten largest and most valuable companies in the world.

Last year I was here at ISPO and there is a start-up area which is getting bigger and bigger. It is very important as it has been mentioned before: the industry needs startups as a driving force to keep it going.

Being present at ISPO helped us meet new potential business partners and GoPro customers from all areas of the sports world. The ISPO Brandnew Village was a great starting point! "It was a great and exciting experience, and I was able to share my thoughts and experiences with other start-ups.

Winning ISPO Brandnew has consistently brought us a lot of brand awareness. The first time in 2010, we went in with a prototype, looking for manufacturers and distribution partners, which we found here.

Participating in the ISPO Brandnew finals significantly helped raise awareness of our brand. We received many attractive inquiries. [...] It really helped build a certain level of trust with the target audience.

Winning ISPO Brandnew has brought us several advantages, such as new customers, business contacts, and a lot of great press.