On Thursday, May 11, numerous students, startup enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs flocked to LMU Munich for Leading Entrepreneurs, the evening event of the LMU EC, where the last batch of the accelerator introduces itself and the new startup generation presents itself in short pitches.
As is tradition, the evening kicked off with a keynote speech by the director of the Entrepreneurship Center, Andy Goldstein. In his usual captivating style, he tried to impress upon the audience the importance of realizing their ideas and visions. And not sometime in the future, but right here and now: "Time is parallel" could be read in large letters on the screen, followed by the typical startup credo: "Just do it!"
Afterwards, Florian Rickert and Natalie Kho from LMU EC hosted the evening and introduced the startups of the winter batch. They mastered their pitches with flying colors, which was also praised by keynote speaker Konstantin Mehl (Foodora, Kaia).
Impending insolvency – rescue – world premiere!
Among other things, a startup celebrated a world premiere on the stage in the large auditorium: VENDL presented their prototype for a wheat beer to go to the audience. While the baptism of fire was somewhat over-the-top, the founders were equally delighted, having revealed in their pitch that they had recently been on the verge of bankruptcy. A story of failure and resurrection that was surely instructive and inspiring for many in attendance.
The same applies to the keynote speech by the aforementioned Konstantin Mehl, who impressively shared his learnings and experiences as a founder, focusing particularly on the topic of "hiring." The speaker prompted laughter from the audience with several anecdotes. Here, too, most of the talk revolved around falling down and the hurdles of entrepreneurship.
Finally, before the networking session in the atrium, the new startups from LMU EC were briefly given the opportunity to make their first impressions on the audience and present their ideas. It will be interesting to see what some of them come up with in the coming months, and we look forward to seeing the results when it's time again for the Leading Entrepreneurs award.
