There is a city in Northern Europe that has particular ties to the culture of good sound. We are talking of course about Struer, Denmark, also known as the headquarters of the legendary Bang&Olufsen company and a fresh new accelerator, SoundHub.
Denmark is one of the countries with the highest innovation index in the World and the Danes are relentlessly working to improve even further (when not kicking back with a glass of øl).
With that in mind, the award-winning Nordic Accelerator Accelerace together with B&O and other partners founded SoundHub, an accelerator specifically for sound technology innovations, located in Struer, Denmark.
They are repurposing a very impressive location, completely renovating it during 2018. Originally built as a factory, it spent most of its life to date as a dedicated R&D facility for B&O.
What better place for startups to flourish, exchange ideas and gain access to some of the hard-earned wisdom from industry veterans?
What SoundHub has to do with mix:analog?
Team mix:analog was selected among almost 1,000 competing teams to join SoundHub. The year 2019 marks the first year of their sound-tech program. We are extremely honoured and moved to be given the opportunity to join the inaugural cohort.
I believe the words of Thomas Wiborg Steen, Business Accelerator and Investment Manager from Accelerace perfectly sum up what they are all about:
Startups can’t rely solely on money to succeed in reaching their goals. They also need an array of resources like access to knowledge and test facilities, which is especially important to startups working with physical products. With the new Sound Hub Denmark we are gathering all these resources in one place, where the whole package is made available to startups in our accelerator.
Exactly! A good team of coaches and staff with their combined experience and pooled resources can make a huge impact on the early life of an entrepreneur and his baby project.
So... What Was It Like?
In one word, awesome! All of the SoundHub staff have a profound history with sound technology and are motivated / focussed on generating lasting benefits for the customers. We learned a lot about the emotional impact of products and about the interesting art of finding a fit between Markets and Solutions.
There was also ample opportunity to get to know the Danish character, cuisine and culture, all of it lovingly facilitated by the Struer Municipality (which you should visit!).
This is our first SoundHub visit in a series of at least three that we are really looking forward to in the coming months. This time we got to know each other and already obtained some good advice on serving our customers better and providing more value to our users.
