The past two years building up Silicon Allee as a blog and community have been, unquestionably, the best of my working life. The people, the technology, the ideas, the sense of togetherness – it’s a privilege to have been involved with it. And now, having been an integral part of the growth here in Germany over that period, we are looking for your support.
I’m proud to announce that Silicon Allee has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo platform to better serve you. We are looking to raise €25,000 to improve and enlarge our editorial coverage, organise bigger and better kickass events, create a comprehensive startup directory and help bridge the gap between universities and innovative young companies.
The last two years have been an enormous amount of fun but they have also been difficult at times. As an organically-grown and independent blog, it has not been easy to do all of the things we would like to do.
We secured a small amount of funding when we went full time with Silicon Allee in order to kick things off. Afterwards, however, we decided not to seek any more investment but rather concentrate on growing our community organically and sustainably together with you.
We still want to do that – and so we are asking for your support in implementing new ideas and strategies on how to expand Silicon Allee’s networking experience.
It’s important to note that this campaign isn’t about asking you to support the day-to-day running of Silicon Allee as it is now; rather, it is about us growing as a community just as Berlin grows as a tech centre and as a city.
You can find all the information about our campaign here, and of course there are some fantastic perks. You can earn yourselves a coffee at our next monthly meet up, a limited edition Silicon Allee t-shirt, or a variety of different event and site sponsorships.
For early donators, there is also the chance to attend an exclusive launch event next week at one of my favourite Berlin bars.
As for the breakfast meet up, it really is a great example both of what we can achieve in terms of bringing the scene together, and of how much fun this job can be. We had another brilliant event on Tuesday morning at Sankt Oberholz during which we premiered our campaign video – thanks to everyone who came along.
And thank you to everyone investing in us and the startup scene. Here’s to another wonderful two years (and beyond)!