Marion Koppitz, CEO of the agency i-pointing, together with Lukas Koppitz, Managing Director of Startup-Relation, has created a new event series in Munich: Reversed Pitching with startups, similar to PowerPoint karaoke, specifically tailored to founders. The event will take place on February 22nd for the sixth time. We spoke with Marion about the event series.
Marion, how did you come up with the idea for the event?
Quite simply, i-pointing has had a presence in the capital since 2016. Our Creative Director visited the Berlin office, and we googled whether there was an interesting evening event in the area. We came across PowerPoint Karaoke. She spontaneously attended and was enthusiastic about the idea.
“Fun with content”
Since we didn't want to hold a purely evening cultural event in our office, but were also interested in content, we talked to Lukas about how we could make the idea a bit more professional, but still have fun with it.
This led to reverse pitching with startups. We liked the idea of being able to support young companies or founders while also bringing some fresh air into our space.
The typical mistakes
What presentation mistakes do startups make most often?
The new mistakes are the same old ones: Too much, too much detail, and too small print—that seems to be the trend these days. Most people don't prepare presentations with a target group in mind—you have to prepare differently for investors than for end customers, for example.
And which startups have already pitched to you?
A colorful mix. We had chips and fruit, software and hardware, sports and holidays. Among them were, for example, the Munich coffee roastery, Rysta, Social Bee, Vectorflow, Flyla, Higgs, Prelovee, Urbo, Weview, Loadfox, Fruit2go or User lane.
What was the funniest incident at one of your events?
Each event was special, and all had humorous elements. I personally loved the open stage performance by Tom Müller, one of the organizers of Silicon Drinkabout – very, very spontaneous and very, very funny.
And what was the best result?
Our event has arrived in Munich, it has been and continues to be copied, and we are receiving very positive feedback from many. And it will live on with Gerd at smart village, the new host of the event series.
Thank you, Marion, for the insights and the interview!
If you are curious and want to have a fun evening, next Thursday, 22 February, the Reversed pitching with startups takes place again.
