Well, that was easy. Berlin has claimed a forfeit victory over London in the TWiST startup showdown after the organisers of the British section had to cry off at the last minute. The contest is now set to take place later on this summer.
It spells disappointment for 15 Berlin startups who were hard at work preparing for the pre-contest on Friday evening before the live battle with London, not to mention those who were looking forward to a boisterous party afterwards.
TWiST producer Carolyn Niedzwiecki told Lutz Villalba, one of the Berlin organisers, in a message that his London counterpart Steve Schofield is “not ready to proceed with the meetup on his end… we are committed to only doing multi-city meetups and cannot proceed with a Berlin only event. I’m so sorry that this has to be delayed, but we have no choice.”
Jason Calacanis, the host of the show, then told Lutz: “It sucks that London bailed with such short notice.” He promised to regroup and hold the event in a couple of weeks, however.
In the meantime, Lutz was at pains to emphasize that the news does not change anything with regard to the startup mentoring and pitch rehearsals, which will still take place starting tonight.
And Ahoy! Berlin, where TWiST was due to be held this Friday, will still play host to the scheduled
office hours with Eugene Mizin of VC firm Mangrove Capital (more info at TechBerlin).
Lutz was also keen to put a positive spin on the postponement, insisting that the delay will give everyone in Berlin the chance to put on an even better show.
Mind you, if London’s startups turn out to be similarly disorganised, then our boys have nothing to worry about in any rearranged fixture…