HopLocal helps Hungarian companies to build a stronger team culture

Tehnopol is part of the Northbound Scaleups (NBSCALE) project, which helps companies expand into new markets. Until May 3rd, startups have the opportunity to apply for the NBSCALE program, which includes international trainings and mentoring sessions, as well as market mapping for their businesses.

As part of the project, Parmeet Sawhney and Julia Reimann, co-founders of the Estonian startup HopLocal, which promotes a culture of organizing team events, visited Budapest. They met with potential partners to expand their activities towards Hungary. Julia Reimann provided an overview of the visit.

How did the meetings go? What were your expectations going in, and did everything proceed as planned?

“Our meetings went very well. We met the top 10 brands in various sectors like restaurants, escape rooms, Arts & Craft, etc. They all liked our business and believed in our vision. They agreed to collaborate with HopLocal, and we will have them on board this week.”

Why did you choose Hungary as the target country for this visit?

“There were several reasons for that. Firstly, Hungary is a part of our go-to-market strategy as our existing top client and a few potential clients we have identified have a presence in Budapest. Secondly, from a business perspective, Hungary is famous for its complex business operations management and enormous operational bureaucracy in employee benefits management. That’s precisely the solution HopLocal offers – we make operations easy for companies. At the same time, Hungary is a developing country with a positive trend of improving its operations procedures and making it more attractive for international businesses.”

Are there any competitors in the Hungarian market offering similar products or services? What sets you apart from them?

“According to our research and feedback from our partners there, we don’t have a direct competitor in Hungary. Although many venues have their packages for team activities, they do not mainly target corporations, and no one is offering culture-building possibilities as we do.”

Will you have to adapt your product when entering the Hungarian market, and if so, how?

“In the future, we plan to have localization for Hungary by adding the Hungarian language to the platform and customer support. Also, we are planning to have a sales representative there.”

What are the company’s near-term plans for expansion, both domestically and internationally?

“Our near-future plans are to onboard all the partners we met in Budapest onto our platform; to acquire 2 more big corporate clients as users in both Estonia and Hungary; to secure monthly subscriptions from our top 3 clients in both markets; to achieve a monthly sales milestone of 35K euros; and to close the first round of investment.”

Northbound Scaleups (NBSCALE) is a joint project between Tehnopol, Turku Science Park (Finland), and Movexum (Sweden), aimed at helping companies expand into new markets. If you’re interested in applying for the program, you can find more information here.