Now that the London faction of TWiST don’t have to worry about England’s performance in Euro 2012 anymore, they are finally ready for the Berlin vs. London pitch showdown they had to postpone a few weeks back.
This Friday at the Ahoy! co-working space 15 of Berlin’s best startup teams will be given a minute to pitch to a jury, with the best three then going up against London in the live show which will be hosted by TWiST’s Jason Calacanis.
The event was previously scheduled to take place on June 8, but London’s producer Steve Schofield cancelled at the last minute because the London teams were not ready to go ahead with the show. Jason Calacanis told TWiST Berlin organizer Lutz Villalba: “It sucks that London bailed with such short notice,” but promised to regroup and reschedule the event.
While it was certainly disappointing for the 15 startups who had prepared pitches, all of the scheduled training and mentor sessions went ahead as planned. Lutz saw the postponement as somewhat of a blessing because it gave the teams even more time to prepare.
The event will run as previously organized, with the 15 startups from Berlin pitching between 7-9pm to a jury consisting of the Factory’s Simon Schäfer, Mangrove Capital’s Eugene Mizin and Silicon Allee’s David Knight. The best three will then go up against London’s top three in a live battle at 9pm. An overall winner will be declared and then Ahoy! will play host to the afterparty featuring music by DJ Daddy Hemingway and plenty of free beer.
Tickets to the original event will remain valid for Friday’s show, and more tickets have been made available for purchase here.