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Startup SAFARI is coming to Berlin for it’s ninth edition already. This year, there’s a new team with four creative heads from PIRATE behind it. Meet Lisa, Lukas, Lilith and Dirk!

LISA

How did you get into the startup world? That happened rather accidentally. I just came back from a trip to Guatemala when PIRATE called and asked if I have time.

What is your daily job so far? As Head of SAFARI Berlin at PIRATE, I make sure, everything goes smoothly. That everyone knows what to do, that we do not forget any task and that all results are brought together.

What was the weirdest question you got asked at your job? How to enlarge and color a cell in Excel.

If you would host a session, what would be your favourite thing to do? Pool and beer session.

What is the biggest challenge for you? This Survey.

What do you like about startup lifestyle? I like that I can have my hands in every single task that comes with the events. I find it boring, especially like it is in large companies, if you only control people and no longer have any relation to the product itself.

Which role do you have in the team? Usually I’m the organizing queen, but this time I’m looking forward to having the bird’s-eye view

LUKE

How did you get into the startup world? I used to work for 4 years in a middle-sized company in the metal industry, but recognized in the end of 2015 that I have to change my work environment rapidly. So I decided to switch from a Mittelstand to the startup-environment.

What is your daily job so far? I’m doing sales and coordinate partnerships for different products at PIRATE; one is Startup SAFARI.

What was the weirdest question you got asked at your job?  “Why are you contacting me and why aren’t you boiling some water for a cappuccino?”

If you would host a session, what would be your favourite thing to do? A startup pitch combined with a live concert of  punk bands and the foyer of our office

What is the biggest challenge for you? To answer these questions

What do you like about startup lifestyle? That you’re working on something impactful in an open minded environment

Which role do you have in the team? They say I’m the best in finding the perfect memes and gifs for every situation. Does that count as a talent?

LILITH

How did you get into the startup world? Actually – that was by accident. I was bored at my old job and was looking for a part time job over the summer. PIRATE was searching for people to help with SAFARI – so I found myself head over heels in the startup world. And – I still love it.

What is your daily job so far? I’m responsible for marketing and social media for Startup SAFARI, one of my projects is Startup SAFARI Berlin.

What was the weirdest question you got asked at your job? I really had to laugh when one host was afraid, that his office could be demolished if he participated in SAFARI and 500 attendees might run over his office. In the end, he hosted a great session with 50 attendees.

What is the biggest challenge for you? Getting up between 5 and 8 am. Seriously, I worked 2 years at a morning tv show where I had show up at 3 am – that was totally fine for me. But getting up at 6 am? No way.

If you would host a session, what would be your favourite thing to do? I would love to have a big discussion about how we want to balance work and free time in the future. There are great concepts out there that I find very interesting to discuss. With a big barbecue on a sundeck – that would be the perfect session for me.

What do you like about startup lifestyle? Honestly – 5 years ago, i never would have thought that I would work with startups, entrepreneurs and business men and women. I worked at theaters, broadcasting stations, concert halls – and then I found myself working at Pirate.global last year and had the chance to get to know the startup scene from a whole different point of view. I love how energetic the startup scene is. The people are so passionate about what they do, they put all their energy into their projects – I love to work like that myself. I also like the great sense of community. I feel like everybody is super excited to learn from each other, help each other out and get to know each other.

Which role do you have in the team? Well – obviously I’m the social media girl. Since I have no problem talking in front of a lot of people, I’m usually also the one moderating some of our events and pitching SAFARI at meetups, pitch competitions and other events. Besides, I’m the one who is always hungry and never in the office before 10 am (except there is really really really big trouble).

DIRK

How did you get into the startup scene? A friend needed help with his struggling startup, so I jumped in. First with Communications and Social Media, very soon extended to Operations. The Startup didn’t make it, but I loved it so much that I stayed in the Startup World.  

What is your daily job so far? For Startup SAFARI Berlin I’m doing Operations and Host Management, and everything regarding Graphics and the Website

What was the weirdest question you got asked at your job? The panicking question by a host if we could guarantee that not more than 20 people would show up to his session – at a point where we were panicking if anyone would show up to his session. In the end, everything was fine.

If you would host a session, what would be your favourite thing to do? Just a networking session at a rooftop terrace with good beer and pizza, with interesting people. Should be a warm, sunny evening, of course.

What is the biggest challenge for you? Raising my child to be a good person in this struggling world.

What do you like about startup lifestyle? I love that you don’t do the same small tasks every day, year in year out, like you would do in a big company. Ideally everyone is doing everything and it never gets boring.  

Which role do you have in the team? I’m the one who is not in the office, as I am the only one sitting in Berlin. At Startup SAFARI Cologne some of the hosts joked that I would be a chatbot, but I’m pretty real.

In the last blogpost, we explained why we decided to build this year’s edition of Startup SAFARI Berlin around Topic-Tracks. These are not the only changes we made, here is what else you can expect from Startup SAFARI Berlin 2018:

Sessions – more than presentations

At SAFARI we want to give startups the chance to present themselves to the startup scene – and who would know better how to do just that, than the startups themselves? That’s why every host organizes their own session in their own office. Session hosts are free to do whatever they want during their session – except for two simple rules:

1. Sessions shouldn’t be longer than 60-90 minutes – and there has to be time for networking. The best program is worth nothing, if you don’t have time to talk with anybody.
2. No powerpoint presentation! Meaningful connections are only possible with interaction. Nobody wants to end up with two days full of dry frontal lectures, especially when the content does not differ from anything you can read on the company’s webpage anyway.

We encourage our hosts to get creative when it comes to their sessions. Apart from all the interesting insights you can gain, we want SAFARI to be a lot of fun!

Tickets – more options for you

At previous SAFARIs, there was always one ticket which gained you access to all sessions. That’s also what we did at our first SAFARI in Cologne. We learned that some attendees were joining SAFARI in order to check out one or two startups. Others were exploring the ecosystem like there is no tomorrow and visited more than 10 sessions. To give credit to these different types of SAFARI attendees we decided to establish a different type of ticketing system. You can now get tickets for one, three or six sessions – and, of course, the network ticket with all sessions and extras for those of you, who really want to deep dive in the ecosystem. And of course, you can always upgrade your ticket if you get really excited about SAFARI;)

Cooperation with StartupJoblist.com

If you attended a previous SAFARI, you might remember the Jobseeker ticket option. In Cologne, we got so much resonance from jobseekers als well as hiring startups, that we started a new project named StartupJoblist. It is a job network built around recommendations and trust to grow local startup ecosystems and give jobseekers an easy entry into a career in the startup world. (If you want to know more about the backstory of Startupjoblist read here). With this year’s Startup SAFARI Berlin, we’ll also bring StartupJoblist to the capital. 

The ninth edition of Startup SAFARI Berlin is taking place May 8th-9th, 2018. With these changes, we are confident to create an event even more valuable to all attendees. We believe it functions as a platform for meaningful connections in the future – and strengthens the unique ecosystem of Berlin.

What do you think of these changes? Leave your feedback in the comments!

In 2017, we from PIRATE acquired Startup SAFARI (read the backstory of the acquisition). Some of you might know Startup SAFARY from the past, since 2018 will already be the ninth Startup SAFARI edition in Berlin. So – what will change with the new team?

The open-door character is the heart of Startup SAFARI and we will certainly preserve this key feature. But in our opinion that only provides the basis for meaningful connections. We do see some room for improvement in other areas: in this and the following blog posts we want to give you insights on what we have changed.

Tracks

SAFARI is open to anyone who is interested in Startups. There are so many different startups from different fields: from e-commerce to software development to prop tech to social startups and many more. In order to make this urban jungle of startups accessible to people unfamiliar with the scene and make your visit of SAFARI more purposeful, we decided to structure Startup SAFARI Berlin around Topic-Tracks:

• Growth (Online Marketing, Adtech)
• Retail and E-Commerce
• IoT (Industrial focus including VR / AR)
• Smart City (Proptech, Travel)
• Fintech
• Insurtech
• Recruiting

…and more to come. The best part of it: it is a Win-Win-Win-Situation.

For attendees: Let’s assume your aim is to improve your SEO skills! The Growth track is all about Online Marketing and Ad-tech. It includes workshops, discussions on the future of online marketing and many more interesting sessions about the topic of growth. So this track would be perfect for you to improve your marketing skills!

For hosts: If your goal is for example to find a perfect business partner for your next venture, hosting a session at SAFARI gives you the perfect opportunity to attract the right kind of attention and speed up generic processes. With the topic tracks, it is much easier for corporates and potential business partners to find the startups they are looking for – and you have a much higher chance to have the relevant people at your session.

“The Startup SAFARI helped us to connect with proper business partners during our session. It took less than three weeks to sign an agreement with one of Germany’s biggest insurance companies in the field of logistics. What seemed to be impossible turned out really fast!”

Arndt Solms, Co-Founder and CEO of MyDaylivery

You might also be looking for developers to support your team. You could organize a workshop about scrumming and get to know your candidates in a completely casual way –  this will give you more insights than a normal job interview.

For jobseekers: The topic-tracks help you as a jobseeker to easily find the startups and companies relevant for you. You can get to know them, get a feeling of how they work and what they stand for – and if you would like to work in their team. Recruiting is not a one-way street! We want you to find the company you really want to work for, as easily as possible! 

For corporates – Guided SAFARIs: For companies and organizations we offer Guided SAFARIs. That means they come to SAFARI with a small group and visit sessions with a personal guide. We match startups and companies looking for partners  customized to their current needs. For Startups looking for investors and partners, the Guided SAFARI can be a valuable basis for exchange.

Read about what else we changed in the next blogpost!

What do you think of the Topic-Tracks? Leave your feedback in the comments!