This year, the city of Munich is once again hosting five innovative young companies at South By South West, or SXSW 2020 for short. What do the startups expect from the innovation festival in Austin, Texas? We asked two of the companies, Sushi Bikes and Innospot, what they expect.
As already 2019 and 2018 There was travel funding from the Culture and Creative Industries Competence Team so that five young companies from Munich's culture and creative industries could travel to SXSW 2020. Selected are Sushi Bikes, Innospot, Gute Zeit Film, Kugel und Knicke and Le Hof Media.
What Joko Winterscheidt is doing during SXSW 2020
Also Sushi Bikes, the e-bike startup of Joko Winterscheidt and Andy Weinzierl, is visiting SXSW 2020. On the one hand, the USA is an interesting market. On the other hand, the team hopes In addition to exciting contacts and experiences, there is even more. Founder Andy Weinzierl counts on:
"First: Inspiration! Because SXSW brings together the most creative visionaries: We want to learn what's possible. Second: Attention! So many visitors from different nations with diverse target groups: Everyone should hear about Sushi Bikes. Third: Fun! We want to approach the day differently: It's time for the first sushi rides in the sun."
And of course we want to know: Is Joko coming along too?
“No, but someone has to run the shop at home,”
says Weinzierl. And finally, we're curious to see what Sushi Bikes plans to bring back from Austin. Weinzierl explains:
"Since we're traveling with carry-on luggage, we have to leave the whiskey and Tex-Mex sauce to the Texans. But we leave room for plenty of motivation and new ideas."
Inspiration, network, venture capital, …
And what do others who have been to SXSW several times say? You'll have the motivation anyway, and inspiration is sure to be on offer at SXSW 2020, as we saw. Jürgen Enninger, head of the competence team and a participant at SXSW for years, confirms:
"The startups can expect inspiration, international networking, exciting discussions, and venture capital opportunities. We are very much looking forward to once again bringing an outstanding delegation from Germany's creative capital to the fore on various stages in Austin!"
SXSW 2020 as a springboard
Also for the Munich startup Innospot SXSW 2020 is intended to be a springboard for international growth. The AI startup specializes in global startup scouting for companies, accelerators, and VC firms. It uses artificial intelligence (AI)-based search and crawler technology for this purpose. Daniel Buschmann, co-founder and managing director, says:
"Our current customers are largely based in Germany. In the future, we also want to increasingly support companies from abroad in their innovation efforts."
Events like the Web Summit have already successfully expanded the network in Europe, the founder explains. In addition to connecting with potential new customers, Buschmann expects even more from SXSW:
“Diving into a new startup ecosystem is an immense opportunity for us to learn new methods that can successfully foster innovation.”
