Berlin Meetup #233

Friday

Feb172012

Friday, February 17, 2012 at 02:26PM

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This Week in Startups went live to Germany this week for the first ever TWiST Berlin Meeetup! Five killer companies pitched Jason and Tyler and covered an amazing range of products and services, from toy deliver to keyboard shortcuts. All were worthy, but who came out on top? Watch and find out!

0:00-1:00 Welcome to the first TWiST Berlin meetup!
1:00-2:00 Today, we’re excited to bring you the next in our global meetup series that includes London, Paris, Seoul, South Africa and Chile.
4:30-7:00 We’re excited to announce a new sponsor today: LiquidWeb! Everyone go to thisweekin.com/liquidweb to get $100 in free hosting.
7:00-10:00 Radek, are you there? What’s going on in Berlin?
10:00-12:00 What’s the tech scene like there?
11:00-12:00 Jan Mechtel pitches KeyRocket, the keyboard shortcut learning system. Check it out at veodin.com.
12:00-14:15 Great pitch, thank you Jan.
14:15-14:45 Tyler: I think the pitch was quite good, but I felt like you could have provided some data points about time saved using shortcuts.
14:45-16:00 Jason gives the presentation a 7.5 and Tyler gives it an 8.
16:00-16:30 Tyler: This product was made for you, Jason. Who is your target user?
16:30-17:00 Jason gives the product a 9 and Tyler gives it an 8.
17:00-18:00 Next up is Hermann Frank pitching Fashionism, the location aware fashion discovery app. Go to http://fashioni.sm to see more.
18:00-19:00 Tyler: Sorry, this wasn’t a good pitch. I give it a 5.
19:00-19:45 Jason gives the pitch a 6.
19:45-21:45 Tyler and Jason give examples of how to reword the pitch.
21:45-22:45 Hermann, is this a website or an app?
22:45-23:15 Jason: I could see my wife really using this. I give the business a 9.
23:15-24:30 Is there a map view?
24:30-25:30 Tyler also gives the business a 9 or 9.5.
25:30-27:30 Thank you to Sourcebits for sponsoring the show. Everyone thank @Sourcebits!
27:30-30:00 Shermin Vohmgir pitches Cinovu, a community that is like Soundcloud for independent films. Go to www.cinovu.com to see more.
30:00-30:45 Jason: The pitch has high on concept but low on exact details. I give both the pitch and business a 6. We need specifics.
30:45-32:15 Tyler, what is your take on it?
32:15-33:30 Shermin: I disagree, I think that filmmakers don’t wait for funding to make their films.
33:30-35:00 Can’t filmmakers just put their film up on YouTube?
35:00-36:30 Tyler rewords the pitch.
36:30-38:30 Jason: There are some clever features and I think it’s a good looking website.
38:30-39:15 How much do I get for $5?
39:15-40:45 When is the website going to launch?
40:45-41:00 Jason gives the videos a 10, the pitch a 6 and the business an 8. Tyler gives the pitch a 6 and the business an 8.
41:30-44:00 Phillipp Mayer pitches SquadMail, a free app for email collaboration. Go to squadmail.com to see more.
44:00-46:15 Tyler: I don’t understand exactly what it does.
46:15-47:00 If I reply or delete an email, does it do that across the board, in everyone’s mail?
47:00-48:30 Jason gives the pitch a 7 and business a 7.5. Tyler gives the pitch a 6.
48:30-49:00 What’s the payment structure?
49:00-51:00 Discussion of the evil Samwer brothers.
52:30-54:00 Last up, we’re going to hear from MeineSpielzeugKiste (translation: MyToyBox). Pitching the online toy subscription service is Florian Spathelf. Go to http://meinespielzeugkiste.de to check it out.
54:00-55:15 Jason gives the pitch an 8.5 and the business a 9.5 and says that it’s a great idea.
55:15-56:00 A tip for startups: always have a hidden “whale” level for people who want to pay more money for better service or more/higher end goods.
56:00-58:30 Tyler gives the pitch an 8.5/9 and the business a 9.
58:30-1:02:00 Jason and Tyler review the pitches to pick a winner.
1:02:00-1:04:30 Jason’s top three are KeyRocket, MyToyBox and Fashionism. Tyler’s top three are KeyRocket, MyToyBox and SquadMail.
1:04:30-1:05:15 And the winners are... Jason chooses KeyRocket and Tyler chooses ToyBox so it’s a tie!
1:05:15-1:05:30 All five companies will get a free table and five free tickets to the LAUNCH Festival!
1:05:30-1:07:00 The winners make their acceptance speeches.
1:07:00-1:08:00 Radek, you did a spectacular job and I’m thrilled with the quality of the companies.
1:08:00-1:08:30- Long live German innovation, thanks everyone!

Special thanks to the sponsors in Berlin who helped make this meetup possible:

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FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
Radek: @radekrybs
LiquidWeb: @liquidweb
Sourcebits: @sourcebits

Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Program!

Executive Producers

Producers

Associate Producers

Brad Pineau
Kat Ganesan
Nicholas Christian
Mau Frontier
Kyle Braatz
Serena Ehrlich
JD
Alex Lotoczko
James Kennedy
Benoit Curdy
Asher Nevins
Mike Kaltschnee
William Doom
David Lee
Jake Kerber
Sarp Coskun
Giuseppe Taibi
Tyrone Rubin
Keno Vigil
Paul Peters
Jamal Waring
Nick Ostroff
Alex Binkley
John MP Knox
Bryan McCormick
Marcos Trinidad
Allen Cordrey
Daniel Mich
Joshua Rosen
Grant Carlile
James Smith
Christopher Rill
Elliot Myhre
Nihon Giga
Nathan Gielis
Greg Meadows

Supporters

Ryan Hoover
Michael Cranston
Josiah Thomas
João Fernandes
Petrus Theron
Michael Wild
Dale Emmons
Tim de Jardine
Alejandro Vasquez
Milan Babuskov
Chris Rowe
Nelson Melo
James Dawson
Toddy Mladenov
Daniel Torres
Chris Macke
Piotr Zuralski
Armand Konan
Brian Vogel
Paul D
Jennifer Sun
David Kolb
Sue Marrone
Eugene Granovksy
Will Blackton
Ryan Dodds
Brett Arp
Jason Cresswell
Edwin Orange
Daniel Bradley
Shawn Daniel
Priidu Kull
Patrick Desroches
Alex Lam
Paul Secor
Ryan Urabe
Madhu R.
Paul Ardeleanu
Ian Thomas
Edwin Orange
Sarp Coskun
Manny Alarcon
Charlie Osmond
Christopher Smitley
Roshan H.
Barcy Cordrey
Brett Arp
Hello24 Ltd.
Ian Gerstel
Taphon Maddison
John Bradley
Luigi Armogida
Dave Ferrara
Janus Lindau
Chris Mancil
TR Ludwig
Giles Thomas
Jason Cartwright
Michael Del Borrello
Joshua Rosen
David Karlberg
Marcus Schappi