"Food & Crowdfunding" – A great combination, because food is always a good idea, even with crowdfunding. Therefore, the 5th IHK Crowdfunding Night on February 16th was all about good taste. The IHK Crowdfunding Night took place in cooperation with the Food Entrepreneurs Club at MUCCA (Creative Quarter). Around 150 guests gathered on Tuesday evening to learn more about crowdfunding.
Linette Heimrich, Crowdfunding Advisor of Munich Chamber of Commerce and Industry led the evening and spoke to two founders who have completed a successful crowdfunding campaign.
From niche to success: OHNE and The intolerant Isi
Hannah Sartin, founder of OHNE The packaging-free supermarket. She had enough of the packaging madness, so she changed her lifestyle to zero waste and decided to create a packaging-free shopping alternative for Munich.
The idea for WITHOUT was born. More than 900 people supported the packaging-free supermarket, which opens its doors on February 20th, via crowdfunding. Following the funding of "Original Unverpackt" from Berlin, similar projects for packaging-free stores have now been financed across Germany through the crowd. Although Hannah is not from the food industry but rather from the advertising industry, she was gripped by the ambition to open her own store. In a conversation with Linette Heimrich, she revealed to the crowd that she tried out a lot of things to find the right "marketing mix" for her campaign. She also explained that a crowdfunding campaign takes up an enormous amount of time - social media in particular is complex to plan and coordinate. Despite the hard work, she also has positive things to report: through the campaign, Hannah met many people and was able to convince them of her concept.
The second founder on stage, The intolerant Isi, combined with her food truck specializing in food intolerances, a trend and niche. Founder Isabella Hener, who herself has various food intolerances, used the crowd to finance her food truck and raise awareness for her project.
In addition to her truck, Isabella has recently also Pop-Up Café in Munich and would like to use the crowdfunding a second time to finance a permanent location for her café. Her advice for all future crowdfunders is to definitely shoot a professional campaign video to best inform the target audience about the project.
After the talk, three different platforms were allowed to pitch for the audience’s attention as “market criers.” Levin Brunner from CONDA, Alka Celic from place2help and Tino Kreßner from startnextAfterwards, visitors could speak to the platform representatives in person in the platform corner and ask their questions.
The networking at the Crowdfunding Night offered a lot of opportunities. Giesinger Bräu (which is currently running a crowdinvesting campaign on CONDA represented) and the startup Eistüt for refreshments. Guests could also try various products from “Intolerant Isi” In addition to the culinary delights, participants could also ask questions and gather information at the various information stands. IHK Startup Unit was represented with a stand and answered questions about the topic Founding and internationalization, the community “food&up” informed about its new website and Munich Startup was also there and presented the portal to the guests.
Tip: For all those who were unable to attend the event – münchen.tv was there and filmed a short report and, among other things, interviewed the two founders Hannah and Isi.
Photos: IHK Munich / Goran Gajanin
