Startup Port Campus Pitch 2023: Interview with Nils Neumann

The Startup Port Campus Pitch 2023 has one key rule that sets it apart from many others: No standard pitch with slides. The event, which is part of Female Entrepreneurship Week 2023, challenges its participants to present their start-up idea in a way that most of them have never done before. In the run-up to the event, we spoke to our experienced start-up consultant Nils Neumann about pitch formats and the challenges of founding a company.

The “Startup Port Campus Pitch 2023” is very different from conventional pitch events. What inspired you to put conventional presentation methods in the background and focus on creative, personal presentations?

Conventional foundation and start-up competitions always feel the same in the jury sessions: the finalists present ten to 15 slides and follow an established standard sequence of aspects to be considered when presenting their project or company. We want to break this up and give the teams the opportunity to present their start-up projects in a completely different way.

Both the audience and the jury will decide on the best pitch: How do you see the balance between the expert jury’s opinion and the audience’s direct feedback? Can you give us an insight into how the audience is involved in the process and what influence this can have on the final result?

We would like to involve the audience in the voting. However, we don’t want only the entertainment value of the presentation to be assessed – or for the team that brings the most of its own supporters to the pitch to automatically win. Each of the expert judges will therefore be given ten votes in order to adequately assess the aspects of innovation/customer benefit, market opportunities, team composition and the social impact of the project.

All of the nominated teams are in the early stages and have not yet founded a company. What particular challenges and opportunities do you see for these “young” start-up ideas in the competition?

Some of the nominated teams have probably never presented their projects in front of a larger audience or without slides. This form is therefore probably new territory for some of the participants and therefore a challenge. In a way, the unfamiliar situation mimics the proverbial “elevator pitch”, in which you have to make your idea palatable to someone without prior knowledge, even without the support of slides. In an “elevator”, usually in front of an audience… In this respect, the campus pitch is an opportunity to practise this type of presentation.

The event emphasizes the importance of diversity in the founding teams and encourages women in particular to participate. Why is this focus on diversity so important and how do you plan to promote it in the event?

In our experience over the past twenty years, diversity in a start-up team increases the likelihood of a project’s success. Diversity refers to the different genders of the people involved, the national, cultural and social backgrounds as well as the different educational backgrounds.

The cash prize of 500 euros, sponsored by TEMPOWERK, is certainly an incentive for many young founders. Apart from this prize, what other opportunities and benefits are available to the winning teams in the start-up scene?

Supporters from the Hamburg network will be present at the Campus Pitch, as well as investors and founders who have already successfully completed the process that the applicants are currently going through. All of these people will be on hand to provide the teams with advice and support as they move forward. In addition to this networking component, the award itself is of course also a benefit. If a jury plus an audience have already given my start-up project a positive assessment, it will be easier for other stakeholders in the further start-up process to also review it favorably and grant me funding or other benefits.

Finally, for those who are considering whether they should participate as a team: What advice would you give them and what do you hope all participants, regardless of whether they win or not, take away from this experience?

There are probably dozens of suitable pieces of advice – but since I don’t want to interfere with the teams’ preparation at all, I’ll limit myself to the most important one: Stay authentic and be yourself! The jury and the audience won’t buy anything else anyway 🙂 And I hope that all participants have fun with this somewhat unusual form of pitch – and that they take away a colorful bouquet of new and helpful contacts from the networking that follows the award ceremony.

Link to the event/registration