Developers are in-demand employees — and startups are exciting employers. The conference daho.am tried to bring developers and founders together yesterday.
In midsummer sunshine, the daho.am organizer invited Stylight Yesterday, Backstage—otherwise known as an alternative nightlife spot—answered the call of the Munich fashion startup. Several hundred software and hardware developers, startups, and scene players followed the call.
In three different tracks, speakers discussed challenges for developers, startup topics and reported on “disruptions”, i.e. innovations such as the WARR HyperloopThe prototype was also on display on the grounds and could be admired live. Essentially, the conference served two different target groups: the startup scene on the one hand, and developers on the other. daho.am thus simply delivered on its slogan: "Bringing developers and startups together."
The chronic developer shortage is what has driven many startup founders into the backstage. Many are specifically looking for reinforcements on the technical side. For example, Sven von Alemann, Co-Founder and CEO of the LegalTech startup rfrnz:
"I'm looking for inspiration and contact with developers, maybe even a hands-on CTO who's interested in a super innovative LegalTech startup."
When asked for an interim conclusion, von Alemann was satisfied:
"I like the family atmosphere at daho.am. Here I meet and expand my network."
Invisible Deep Tech
The Backstage event venue is also popular with other visitors from the Munich startup scene. Amadeo Gaigl, Co-founder of Bohemian, on the grounds of the Friedenheimer Bridge:
"It's a really cool atmosphere here. The venue is great."
Some impressions from daho.am 17:
Bohème co-founder Vincenzo Di Salvo was on site. However, the startup wasn't looking for personnel support, but rather:
"Most important to us are interesting new contacts. We also want to take away learnings from the tech scene."
One might not immediately suspect that a startup that provides editorial media in specific locations has sophisticated technical requirements. Gaigl therefore clarifies:
"What our users don't see directly: Our location-based services are deep tech. We've developed complex algorithms for them."
In general, the various speakers give the less technically savvy startup audience an idea of the technical problems and challenges that exist in the background. Both the entrepreneur and the end user are often unaware of these issues. One such case: Marco Kaiser, CTO at Zeit Online, reports how the election of Donald Trump on November 8th of last year, which came as a surprise to many, led to the news website crashing in the early hours of November 9th. A frustrating experience: The editorial team had been preparing for the event for months and were working at full speed, readers were waiting for the journalistic content — but the technology didn't work. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned from this: At its best, technology remains invisible.
Founder in the boxing ring
The organizers housed the startup area in a large hall next to the backstage area. Startups and ecosystem players presented themselves at booths, startup topics were discussed on a dedicated stage, and a boxing ring stood in the middle of the hall. In this ring, startups engaged in a pitch battle of a somewhat different kind. Founders Fight ClubTwo founders pitched against each other in the ring, looking for their opponents' weak points. The audience then chose the winner. Unfortunately, the enjoyable format suffered somewhat from the poor acoustics in the arena.
Impressions from the startup area:
Not least due to its strong tech focus, daho.am was able to clearly distinguish itself from typical networking events: Non-techies certainly heard about many problems for the first time, and developers were introduced to the startup scene. A great offering in this niche—we're looking forward to the next daho.am.
