Young entrepreneurs present ideas for apps, marketing, and more

Last Wednesday, another Demos, Pitches, and Drinks (DPD) event was held at the High Tech Campus, an informal gathering featuring pitches from startups, innovators, and inspiring professionals. With more than 100 registrations, the 114th edition was packed. The event attracted young entrepreneurs, including those who designed an app for sharing meals.

Bert-Jan Woertman (Braventure) and Jesper Beerens (High Tech Campus) presented noteworthy events and developments from the Eindhoven area. This was followed by 11 pitches from startups, builders, and students seeking sponsorships or collaborations with Brainport Eindhoven. Afterwards, there was an opportunity to exchange contacts.

Much of the news from Eindhoven was positive, but there were also warnings. One article reported that about 80% of startups fail at launch, and sometimes even before they start, due to a lack of funding or customers. “Companies need to look for evidence that they are addressing a real customer problem earlier in the process,” according to the article presented by Marc Maas.

The pitches and the people

For the pitches, the enthusiastic entrepreneurs were given three minutes to present their ideas and share their wishes with the group. This usually resulted in a collaboration request, with one exception: a request for funding.

The pitches varied widely, from marketing and software start-up Preframer to Bakkie, an app where people can indicate that they would like to share a meal with others or enjoy cooking for others. The Fontys student group team ICM 2B was also there. They presented the G&A Foundation.

The G&A Foundation works with startups. Startups that register with them can share their stories with other startups to help them start a business. To gather even more information, they want to conduct polls, question and answer sessions, and (online) conversations with start-ups via Instagram because, as one of the presenters said, ‘network makes the dream work’.

Another startup, Trust Colours, presented a model that can indicate a person's personality and whether their character aligns with a specific company. The startup was founded because the innovators observed that trust between consumers and producers is a major problem today. By understanding personality, companies can more easily reach specific target groups.

Join the next DPD

The next Drinks, Pitches & Demos, a special student edition, will take place on March 4th. Co-organised with Kickoff EHV, Round One Ventures, and BOOST, it will be at the Eindhoven University of Technology.