report Berlin, pitch events

1. Deliu Erion
Jordy Verbeurgt
2IBM02
Report: Pitch event
Introduction
During our study trip in Berlin, there was also a pitch event in “Axel Springer Plug and Play
Accelerator” programmed on 22/04/2016. Those were all pitches of start-ups who were
already trained for months by an accelerator and were exercising for their final pitch in front
of real investors. For students of International Business Management, I believe this was one
of the most interesting event, regarding our background.
What is an accelerator?
First of all, accelerators are fixed-term, cohort-based programs which help firms grow by
providing guidance and mentorship. Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator runs 100-day
acceleration programs. They partner with the start-ups and provide them with a place to
work, access to their global network, daily opportunities and 25,000 Euro funding. In return
they ask to hold 5% of start-ups company.
Most interesting pitch
The most attractive pitch was of “Get A Camp”. His idea was, launching a similar platform as
“Airbnb”, but now camps instead of hotels. People with camps on events and so one, could
offer their camps on his booking platform and the interested people could compare prices
and services and then book. By using his booking platform, campsite businesses would save
time and money with their cloud software. We really believe that this idea could be a gap in
the market. There is a huge opportunity for this company because of the rising demand for
camps. Nevertheless, they will need to do a lot of advertising campaigns to reach the
untapped market. This is obviously difficult if you do not have the necessary budget, but if
the investors see the same opportunities as we saw in this company, then we don’t think
this will be a problem.