A pretty interesting day today... The expert panel at Innovation Norway went pretty well I would say. No final answer yet, but my feelings are good!
Innovation Norway is the government’s support program for promising innovative start-ups, and Bipper has received a lot of support and help from them. The first start-up grant was awarded us in February 2008, and so far we have received about half a million dollars. All pure grants. The best cash you can get ;-).
Today we had our final evaluation for the IRD (Industrial Research and Development) support program from where we have applied for about $1 million in support. I huge amount of money, and a result of us partnering up with two industrial partners. One of them being Motorola. The other one is still a secret yet to be reveled....
Me and Olav arrived in the board room at ten to ten this morning to meet the experts, and almost five hours and a few tough questions later we were done. Mostly though, everyone seemed impressed, and the representatives from Innovation Norway told us that they never previously had experienced an IRD project reaching nearly 15.000 hits on Google for their IRD-partnership - before launch! I really can’t believe it myself either...
The only thing they did express worry about was our ability to grow fast enough to meet the market demand. I agree! This is my worry as well. To grow we need more people, and to hire more people we need more cash. More cash before we have income. The plans for funding are ready and the prospects are good - but you can never be sure...
Let’s just keep our fingers crossed for the $1 million grant! Please....
Me and the experts. They did smile more in the
meeting than they do on the photo...
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