The kick-off event of the STARTPLATZ Accelerator Program took place on February 5th and 6th in Cologne. On the first day the event started with an introduction and welcome, where we were informed about the next steps and the program of these two days. Afterwards we got together in a typical “Speed-dating” position and got to know the other start-ups. The routine of exchange and writing a One Sentence Pitch for the other start-up was always the same. Obviously we had a little advantage, because of our manpower. Besides we got to know many very interesting ideas and were surprised about the know-how of the others.

After the lunch break we had to check a few formalities, but afterwards we were all asked to pitch our idea in front of the others in three minutes. During this pitch-time there was an investment game, were we all should distribute our fictional money to the other start-ups. In the end the results got presented: “Who got the most money?”. Solaregy was positioned on the 4th grade of the 21 start-ups in batch #18, what means that we were quite convincing with our pitch. In the end of the day it was pizza time. While eating there was time to get to know all people around STARTPLATZ. We already knew that we can learn a lot from the others and that’s not because of our age, but more because of the great community, open mindedness and internationality at STARTPLATZ. In this batch start-ups from Brasilia, America, Russia, etc. are represented. In addition we met Martha again, who we got to know at the kick-off event of the changes.Award 2019.

On Wednesday our day in Cologne started with a speech about lean-canvas and the workshop for this day. Afterward we were asked to fill out our own lean-canvas. It is always good to write down the idea again and again and to think about potential problems. Finally we were allowed to keep the lean-canvas; now we can change our idea or add information whenever we want.

All in all the kick-off event was great and we are looking forward to what we will learn next at STARTPLATZ in the further month.

source picture: STARTPLATZ