The themes of failure and defeat dominated the opening speeches at Bits & Pretzels 2017. Guest star Stefan Raab and the hosts of the founders' festival recounted the detours they had to take. Oscar winner Kevin Spacey provided the biggest surprise of the day.
Andreas Bruckschlögl and Bernd Storm, two of the three organizers of the startup fair, reported at the beginning of Munich's prestigious event that they had already driven a company into the ground. And despite all the subsequent success, Bernd Storm said in retrospect on Sunday morning:
“It was the first defeat in my life and it sucked.”
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The three hosts agreed that defeat should not lead to the end of the founder's career, but rather is part of the rocky road to the top. Fittingly, the mantra of the third host Felix Haas:
“Be bold!”
in German roughly: Have courage!
As in previous years, Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Ilse Aigner also took the stage. She praised the innovative power of startups, Bavaria as a business location, and the Founders' Festival itself:
“Bits & Pretzels is a true future forum that we can be proud of.”
Bits & Pretzels brings Raab back on stage
Then the Cologne comedian took over: Stefan Raab During his public comeback, he appeared as cheerful as in his prime. He poked fun at typical startup talk ("Most people talk about how awesome they are"), shared anecdotes of his own failure (the bank refused him an 80,000 DM loan for music production equipment), and how, as a result, he invented crowdfunding (Raab wanted to borrow 5,000 DM from each of his friends, but this also failed).
Between his stories, the self-proclaimed King Lustig played old advertising jingles that he had composed for local shops, businesses and Teewurst in the early days of his career.
Finally, Raab successfully bridged the gap to the topic of entrepreneurship and imparted some wisdom to the audience: Long-term success, according to Raab, is hard work and one must therefore be persistent above all else; experience, on the other hand, is overrated because:
“The front is where nobody knows their way around.”
Furthermore, Raab revealed with a wink, the real world runs exactly the opposite way to the three-day Bits & Pretzels trade fair: While at the Munich Founders Festival two-thirds (Sunday and Monday) are spent working and one-third (Tuesday in the Schottenhamel tent) are spent drinking, in real life it is exactly the other way around.
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Also goalkeeper titan Oliver Kahn appeared on Sunday: Kahn presented his startup Goalplay and demands “operational balls” from entrepreneurs; tomorrow Philipp Lahm will follow with his investment Fanmiles.
Kevin Spacey becomes fourth Bits & Pretzels partner
Kevin Spacey stand last year in Raab's place and kicked off Bits & Pretzels with his speech. This year, the Hollywood star returned to the startup fair, but this time in a new role: Spacey led a panel discussion with Rolf Schrömgens and Lukasz Gadowski, the founders of Trivago and Delivery Hero. Shortly before closing time, the news of the day: Kevin Spacey is joining Bits & Pretzels as the fourth event organizer! What specific roles Spacey will take on at Bits & Pretzels remains to be seen.
Click here for our report on the second Bits & Pretzels day.
