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Viking Bus hits the road to Le Web!

Dette indlæg er første del af en serie, hvor vi har en eksternblogger med i Startupbussen, der i dag kører fra København, forbi Aarhus og mange andere byer inden den lander i Paris. Indlægget er på engelsk, det håber vi går, over til bloggeren. I am out!

Today it’s the day. Friday 30th November and Startup Bus Europe is officially on. 5 buses depart today from 5 European cities for a three-day crazy ride to Le Web in Paris; buses from Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Oxford and the wildcard city selected through the social media poll, Copenhagen.

I am already at the capital of the Danes watching 19 geeky Vikings boarding in the Startup Bus of the North: the Viking Bus. 19 programmers, designers and entrepreneurs from all across Europe and beyond have 3 days to build a startup on the road from scratch.

The descent of the Vikings will start from Copenhagen, go through Aarhus, cross the water to Germany and then Hamburg, Cologne and final destination Paris. On board people will pitch, teams will be formed around business ideas and will work feverishly to build working prototypes. The ‘buspreneurs’ from all 5 five buses will finally meet in Paris for the final competition. The finalists will pitch against each other and the winners will join the 16 finalists of Le Web global startup competition to pitch in front of entrepreneurs, corporates and investors from all around the world.

The route
And because it’s the journey that gives meaning to the destination, let’s see what’s in the menu.
First stop: Aarhus, Denmark’s other major city, we are going to work and pitch (it’s all about pitching , isn’t it!) at Startupcity. Then the long journey begins. We are heading to Hamburg. On Saturday we drive to Cologne. But we don’t drive straight there. The plan is to make stops and have a chat with local entrepreneurs or pitch people on the street our ideas. Sunday will just see us working in Cologne all day. There we are going to meet the German bus and have the semifinals: Copenhagen vs Berlin! Host of the semi-final event will be Clusterhaus, one of the largest centres for start-ups in the German tech scene.

After the semifinals, it’s time to finally hit Paris. There, on Monday morning will be a wildcard competition, where the teams that did not go on from the semifinal can pitch again and win a seat to the final, which is held in the afternoon. After the finals we’ll have an big closing party to celebrate our three-day epic trip on the road.

Get involved

Online
You can expect regular posts on what’s happening on the bus, the people involved, and all the Viking activities at the startup cities. You can follow the story at Trendsonline, and the blogs of Startup Bus Europe and Rockstart Accelerator.
On Twitter find what’s been told about us with hashtags #eb12 and #stbus or talk to us directly @startupbus.

But apart from what will be happening aboard, a lot will happen on land. The bus will stop at 4 hot startup cities on the road to Paris. The teams will meet startups and local entrepreneurs and get to know the culture and what’s up-and-coming in the local startup communities. Don’t miss the live streaming from our on land activities at: www.streammyevent.nl/startupbus. Hang on here for more information on the time schedule.

Offline
Do you live in Cologne or you happen to be there this weekend? Join us for the Startup Bus Europe semifinals on Sundayat 4pm at Clusterhaus. There is going to be pitches, heated conversation, lots of sharing from the trip and good beer (we are in Germany after all). We will make sure you will have loads of fun.

We are planning a series of blogposts dedicated to the startup communities of the cities we will visit. We are looking for news and insights from people who know what’s happening there and and we need your help. Are you an entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Aarhus, Hamburg, Cologne or Paris? Do you know which are the most promising start-ups, the hottest meetups and co-working spaces? What are the investment opportunities, the incubators, accelerators or other supportive structures for entrepreneurs? How is it being an entrepreneur in your city?

Share your insights below on the comments or send us an email at eleftheria@rockstart.com

Join the ride and stay tuned!

Eleftheria Karyoti

Eleftheria is a blogger at Rockstart Accelerator in Amsterdam
eleftheria@rockstart.com
Twitter: @rockstartaccel

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