2016 Startup Night & HandsOn TV Startup Tour in Berlin

There are only a few days to go until this year's startup night in Berlin, one of the biggest startup events in Europe. On Saturday, September 3rd more than 200 startups will gather in the halls of Deutsche Telekom, the Microsoft Atrium and the DRIVE. Volkswagen Group Forum for conferences, workshops, live pitches and investor-speed-datings. „Meet Investors. Meet Corporates. Scale your Business. Be International“ is the topic. We chose a special man to talk to beforehand.

 Picture: startupnight.de

One of the highlights at this year's startup night is very likely to be found at 19.00 on the stage of Deutsche Telekom, where Rodrigo Barros, a former TV host, entrepreneur and startup-enthusiast from Brazil hosts a live pitch for his HandsOn TV Startup-Tour. 8 startups are going to compete over a trip to Silicon Valley. Who ever expects the same old pitch-setup will be surprised. Rodrigo is not a big fan of conventions. Last year Setting was one of the two winners and went to the finals in Paris. Which, in Johnathan's words, was “quite an experience”. “Good time, good fun, good to connect with people”, he recalls. But let's not spoil anything. Here's what Rodrigo has got to say about his Startup-Tour.

SETTING: How did the Startup Tour begin?

RODRIGO BARROS: I started the event in Silicon Valley. There, most of the startup competitions that I went to were four minutes, five minutes pitching and two minutes of question and answer. So I was like - I’m gonna reverse that! I’m going to do 90 seconds, in those 90 seconds you have to get the attention from the audience and from the judges, and four minutes Q&A.

SETTING: Why that?

RODRIGO BARROS: Because it's more interesting!

SETTING: There will be 8 startups competing at the HandsOn TV event at the startup night. What's in for the winner?

RODRIGO BARROS: If they win they go to Paris. And if they win in Paris they go to Silicon Valley. Accommodation, air fares and so on will be paid for. But they're not going to go there for vacation! They will have a great agenda. Meeting a lot of great people - investors, venture capitalists, companies as Google or Facebook or Netflix. But not visiting those companies. This is not a fucking tour! This is a real agenda. They’re going to learn! At Google they will learn how to target their audience better, they will learn how to create a community, how to tell a story, how to engage with the community and then, when they go to Netflix, they are going to talk about performance. They are going to talk about how to use the data that the company is consuming, metrics, so it’s really a hard work agenda.

SETTING: How can a startup win?

RODRIGO BARROS: It needs to be good!

SETTING: What is good?

RODRIGO BARROS: Good is having a great product that fits into a big market and really solves an important problem. And it needs to be simple. Being simple is really important.

SETTING: Why is simplicity important?

RODRIGO BARROS: People try to say very complex things just to fake themselves as smart people. That’s the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make in Europe. They try to be too complex. Just to show off as smart people. That’s the most stupid thing. Because the simpler you are, the more scalability you can get.

SETTING: Which tips do you have for startups who want to participate in the HandsOn Tour?

RODRIGO BARROS: 1st, keep it simple! 2nd, don’t waste time looking for something that will be important in a year's time. That’s really important! You guys are always looking to get some resources that you will need in two years. And you know what happens? You’ll never get there! You got that? Hands-on shit! 3rd, if you’re not selling your goal, if you’re not selling the purpose and your company, your product to people who are working with you - you’re not gonna raise any shit. So if you’re not able to bring people together to work with you in your company before you raise money, you are not going to raise money. People often misunderstand this. They think oh, I need money to have a team and I need a team to have a product and I need a product to have users. No! You’re wrong! You need a very very great idea, which you are able to sell and you need people who are going to help you build it. First place. Then you have a prototype, you test it with your audience and then you’re going to find some users. And only then you will find some investors. That’s it. If you are not able to do it - sorry.

SETTING: What kind of attitude does a startup need to win?

RODRIGO BARROS: Enthusiasm! I’ve never seen a pessimist succeed. No one. No one! Sometimes I see people that think if you’re a little pessimist and you like to criticise things, this will make you look smart. For me you look stupid. I'm not gonna give you money at all.

SETTING: What else makes a good entrepreneur?

RODRIGO BARROS: Vision. An entrepreneur for me has a vision. He or she sees what most of the people don’t see. An because they see, they have so much passion and enthusiasm that they can share with others and even though others were not able to see it before, they start seeing it.

SETTING: On the Startup Tour stage there are gaming startups, biotech startups, real estate startups - is there a reason for this broad range

RODRIGO BARROS: I think that this diversity helps the companies to evolve themselves. Because when Biotech people only talk with biotech people they get a little crazy. And the same things happens with real estate companies that only talk real estate business.

SETTING: So there's little competition amongst the finalists to be expected?

RODRIGO BARROS: It’s not about competing with each other, it is about competing with yourself. You have to be better than yourself. You don’t have to be better than the person on your side, because they are competing in a different market. Just be better than yourself and go for it!

 

About HandsOn TV Startup Tour:

Mission:
“To connect and accelerate entrepreneurial ecosystems and the startups from all around the world with the Silicon Valley Mindset.”

Minimum requirements to participate:
Under 3 years old and under 2M$ in funding

Next Stops:
Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, London, Cascais, Stockholm and Paris for the Finals

Fund:
There are 1,25M$ in the pot. How this fund is going to be distributed amongst the finalists will only be decide in the last round. International investors select the best startups. Who ever wins, goes to Silicon Valley.