Startup Safary #2

It’s definitely no longer a secret that within the past years Leipzig developed from the underdog to one of the most exciting cities in Eastern Germany. A major role played André Nikolski and Marco Weicholdt from the Basislager Coworking Space. They regularly organize events connecting the scene and awaking attention beyond the borders of the city. On the 11th and 12th of May, the Startup Safary took place already for the third time. It’s a two-day rallye for interested founders and investors with different locations in the entire city.

The timetable is on and on Thursday morning we are beginning with the Kick-off at the glass dome of the Leipziger Volkszeitung. After a short welcome of Leipzig’s mayor Burkhart Jung the first ten pitches are introduced. Next to the local Startup’s, five international teams present themselves in five minute slots. Afterwards the audience decides for the winner presenting the best pitch. While Jens and Lucas from Fluxbag are celebrating their victory, we take a deeper look on their invention. One breath of air is enough to fill Fluxbag an innovative air pump with air. After this first step you can easily inflate whatever you want. Quite handy! But why decided Jens and Lucas to come to Leipzig? 

Quite close on the grounds of the old cotton factory, we are visiting the Spin Lab. Where once a hundred of spin wheels produced cotton, there is now only a huge hall but with at least the same importance. A substantial mixture of consultation, networks, infrastructure and Vitamin B is provided for the Startups. Among all others we get to know Christiane Seitz and Tiffany La from the Start-up Wundercurves, a search engine for Oversize-Fashion. “We consciously decided to found our company in Leipzig. The network is closely linked and just great. As there often arise similar problems we always have a counterpart, somebody who can give us a good advice”, explain the women about their work at the Spin Lab.

A short glimpse on our watches reminds us that our plans might have been a bit too ambitious. The Business Speed Date will start in five minutes. But whatever, we are not on wellness vacations we are on a safari. Not as quick as in the morning we are cycling back from the West to the South where the Speed Dating of the Digital Media Women already started. The room is quite crowed so that some more tables and chairs have to be organized to get space for everyone. Instead of two flirty singles, two interested founders are sitting in front of each other and get two minutes of time to get to know the counterpart. Next to interesting and inspiring talks, the Digital Media Women explain that they organize this kind of events quite frequently to connect women of that scene. But what about the men? Of course, they are also totally welcome.

Subsequently Kathrin Franke Co-Founder of the Data Information Intelligence GmbH and Dr. Marc Struhalla Founder and Manager of c-LEcta GmbH provide an insight into the beginnings of their companies. Their advices for Start-ups: Looking for a good mentor, relying on networks and once in a while taking the unconventional paths. Dr. Marc Struhalla knows what he is talking about. He found his business-angel in a newspaper advertising.

To conclude the evening a lot of attendees of the Startup Safary meet up again at the bar Elsterartig and summarize their feedback together. Leipzig’s young entrepreneurs had fun even without camouflage and binoculars by exchanging experiences and during networking within the urban jungle. Everyone gained exciting impressions and with a little luck one or the other might detected a potential investor in the thicket.