There’s winning at a startup competition and then there’s really winning at a startup competition – with €200,000 worth of prizes, the second hy! Berlin event is getting serious. And Silicon Allee has teamed up with the organisers to offer our readers three FREE tickets to the event on Saturday January 19 – see details below.
The event is the brainchild of Aydogan Ali Schosswald and Hans Raffauf at Berlin42 with support from Deutsche Telekom’s hub:raum accelerator, and we caught up with Aydo to find out what exactly they were hoping to see happen.
Up for grabs at the RADIALSYSTEMV venue will be two suitcases containing €15,000 and mentoring worth the same, two inclusive tickets to Silicon Valley for winning CEOs, startup packs and PR workshops and social media newsrooms from Piabo.
Participants will include Om Malik, founder of GigaOm, EDventure founder Esther Dyson and YouTube’s Jawed Karim. Startups can apply for two different competitions: For those wanting to present a product idea or prototype, and for those ready to launch a new product, version or significant feature. You have until Friday January 11 to apply.
SILICON ALLEE: What are you expecting to see at the event?
AYDO ALI SCHOSSWALD: We hope to enable a lot of upcoming European entrepreneurs by giving them the opportunity to present in front of press, investors and the startup community. If all goes well, people will have a great time, enjoy the show and make many valuable connections. I think that Berlin has lots to offer to the international tech circuit and we try to do our bit.
SA: What do you hope will be different from the first event?
AAS: Our event in October was really a kick-off to get started, try a few things out, make mistakes and learn. This time the stakes are higher and we are hoping that startups will get even more out of this, since we will have many more international investors as well as much more relevant press present. Obviously, we always want to do bigger and better and I think we’re putting something together that Berlin is going to like. Also, I believe that with all those prizes, startups will benefit even more from this event than last time.
SA: What sort of theme do you think will emerge?
AAS: Last time we saw a good mix of companies. We had startups from media, education, fashion and other industries and had quite a good mix of B2C, B2B and Business to Developer. This time, I hope, we will see more international startups and hopefully some really interesting launches. Since the application phase is still running and applications are coming in by the minute, it’s hard to guess who the finalists will be.
SA: What will help this event stand out from all the others which Berlin now plays host to?
AAS: Startups who have participated in the past and applicants this year tell us that they like the idea of having a big dedicated stage with a relevant international audience. We didn’t try to pull in big names to speak, but to increase the relevance of the participants providing a great deal of value to the pitching startups. We always want to ensure that the spotlight is on the entrepreneurs. There are many cool events out there, but when you are an entrepreneur in Berlin, Stockholm or Paris you know how hard it is to get the attention of investors and media. We are trying to help with this and provide startups with an opportunity to get the attention and leverage they really deserve.
SA: What are you personally most looking forward to?
AAS: I’m really looking forward to the vegan catering. I have heard that our designers are mostly looking forward to the open bar though!
If you want to win a FREE ticket to the hy! Berlin event including entry, food and drink and an after party, email us at team at siliconallee.com by 4pm on Monday January 14 – remember to include your name and an email address where we can reach you.