For this purpose the competition “Startup Cycling Pitch 2017” was organized in which the 19 most innovative teams competed against one another to convince the jury of their business idea. The jury included the following members: Stephan Geiger (BOC), Ursula Kloé (New Mobility Experts), Dirk Kurek (Komenda), Ulrike Saade (Velokonzept), Julia Schäfer (BMVI), Konrad Weyhmann (Lange) and Dirk Zedler (lnstitut für Fahrradtechnik und -Sicherheit). On the occasion of the anniversary campaign “200 years of bicycle – made in Germany” the German Federal Ministry of Transport and digital Infrastructure (BMVI) supported the competition to promote innovative business ideas around the bicycle as well as the networking of the cycle industry.
The participants of the conference as well as the jury obtained a differentiated picture of the startup scene: It is remarkable in general to what extent young developers are inspired by the bicycle and how wide the range of ideas actually is. As a matter of fact, not every solution presented during this conference will make it to series production. Some of them embark upon an idea which will remain without success on the market and fail due to technical problems in realisation. This is where technology pro Dirk Zedler kept a close eye on. There was a wide range of promising solutions offered to the jury and the public. Everyone of the 19 applicants had the opportunity to present their solution within a three minute long pitch, before the attendants of the conference could question the applicants individually during the “Meet the Startups” agenda.
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Author: Michael Bollschweiler
