Summer is the perfect time for a road trip. How about you combine work with vacation and pitch your startup idea at the biggest European hubs? Yes, you have heard right. The Startup Rally 2013 will host events in nine major cities, from London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, to Prague, Vienna, Munich, Zurich and Paris from 12-30 August. The Rally will be coming to Prague on 19 August, and will take place at Node5. The deadline to register your startup pitch is 9 August. In Vienna, the host will be sektor5, and the date – 21 August. If you want to pitch, do register by 11 August. Find all other important dates here and please note that registration is closed for London and Berlin.
It is up to you how you get to the venue (ideally by car, it’s a rally after all) and you can pitch at one city or all of them. If you are ready to hit the road and the European market, register here.
Building bridges
The organisers behind the Startup Rally are the guys at London-based digital innovation agency Leto. After noticing that the European startup scene has been evolving, they decided to initiate the rally and bring the startups together. “Some cities are much more developed than others and they’re also maturing with different pace,” Marina Hramkova told inventures.eu. “It’s often the case that there can be many startup and tech-related events happening locally, but people outside the community would never know about it.”
With the Startup Rally they “want to create bridges between those communities, let startups exchange their local experiences and enhance the overall European ecosystem.”
So far, Leto has received about 100 applications for various cities. After reviewing, 6-8 startups will be shortlisted for each city. Five startups have committed for the full circuit and will receive extra support. “We help them find accommodation, they get special recognition at each event, and we also print car stickers for them,” Hramkova said.
What’s in it for you?
The selected startups will get to pitch their idea for 10 minutes in front of a jury, followed by a Q&A session. Of course, there will also be an opportunity to mingle and network with local and international industry leaders to increase chances to secure an investment from angels and incubators.
There will be a winning startup in each city, which will get a six-month free hot desk space with Innovation Warehouse and be put on the shortlist for their Pitch Day in London. Plus, all attendees and participants will receive free business cards with their own design from Startup Rally’s partner moo.com.
Although this is the Startup Rally’s first year, the team have already received requests from “local movers and shakers” in Bratislava, Warsaw and Riga. “We just had to limit our circle to start with, so we decided that focusing on nine cities for now is more than sufficient for the first Rally,” Hramkova said.
Don’t forget that if you’re not quite ready to pitch yet, you can always register as a participant for any event by the day it’s happening.
Are you in for an adventure? Ready, set, rally!
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