Despite the bitter cold and early rise, an attentive audience showed up this morning to Rockstart Answers – an opportunity for five startups to pitch one burning business question to a crowd of like minded people. Organised by Dutch accelerator Rockstart, the event was designed to raise its profile in a new town and scout out the scenery.
The format of the session saw each startup pitch for three minutes and lay out their inquiry, after which they fielded questions for three minutes while the audience wrote down their tips. The crowd showed a particular interest in one startup, Moto Bicycles, which manufactures performance pedals.
Also present were resmio, the online restaurant booking service, Fabbeo, a 3D printing directory, Epiclist, a social network for achieving goals, and Gigmit, a marketplace for artists to meet music promoters.
It was a good alternative to the usual Q&A format – which can sometimes drag on – allowing the audience to investigate which startups they found interesting while keeping the pitches snappy.
Rockstart also hopes to bring other startup services to Berlin. It is currently developing an academy for entrepreneurs, as well as Spaces, an initiative to bring co-working hubs to inner-cities across Europe.
Alex Overtoom of Rockstart said: “We are actually looking further east so we can take a green field approach – we went to Lithuania a few months ago for instance with Answers, and Romania looks interesting. There are many parties already active in Berlin, but it is at the forefront and therefore the right place to be as well.”
Yasha Tarani, founder of resmio, was pleased with the event. “Peer knowledge and advice helps me see things more realistically, while writing everything down means I won’t forget anything.”
Indeed, the collective wisdom of the crowd ensured each startup will have plenty of bedside reading.