For a week, the city of Berlin will showcase its startup scene with a pop-up lab in Munich's Maxvorstadt district. The motto of the promotional tour is "Startup meets Grownup." Is the capital looking to connect with Munich's successful companies?
Accompanied by an elaborate marketing choreography, Berlin is opening a pop-up lab in Munich's university district for a week. Life-size mascots, a costumed lion and a Berlin bear, will welcome the invited visitors in front of the rented storefront. The message seems to be: Let's be friends!
Inside, the publicly and privately funded venue presents itself with the usual startup hipness and aims to attract visitors with a maximum Munich connection: The 3D printer BigRep displays a printed BMW motorcycle chassis, and a Berlin representative from the Munich-based company Osram speaks on the podium. Matthias Krinke, founder of the robot developer Pi4_robotics, studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. Added to this is the "Teledisko" integrated into a telephone booth—a creative idea that immediately evokes Berlin.
Friendly visit with an ulterior motive
Representatives of the capital's marketing department emphasize the cooperative nature of their visit to the state capital. Andrea Joras, Managing Director of Berlin Partner, says she is seeking an "eye-to-eye encounter" with Munich. Sarah Tietze-Kamya, Head of Department at Berlin Partner, says in an interview with Munich Startup:
"We are therefore seeking dialogue with Munich to explore where there is even greater potential for cooperation. What other synergies can be leveraged?"
Of course, there are also material interests behind these hugs. Apparently, Munich-based medium-sized and large companies are also meant to support the Berlin startup scene as it matures:
"Of course, Munich has a much larger resource of established large companies. But we hope that Berlin, as the German capital, will now follow suit."
Today’s startups as the medium-sized businesses of the future: That this can succeed is also shown by the Success stories from the Bavarian capitalthat once began as startups. Tietze-Kamya also points to the strong innovative power and the still affordable space in the capital. In return, Munich scores with its well-known locational advantages: The institutes certify Forecast and HWWI the state capital has the best future prospects of all German cities, Deloitte sees Munich as Germany’s number 1 digital location, the EU Commission even ranks it as Europe’s top ICT locationAnd even if the Berlin visit may not speak of competition, but only of cooperation, the following still applies: competition stimulates business.
