New startups pitch in Berlin at HackFwd Build event [TCTV]

Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

HackFwd, the pan-European accelerator created by Lars Hinrichs, the founder of LinkedIn competitor XING, recently held its open PitchInBerlin session, where startups are invited to enter the programme. It’s a sign that HackFwd, one of the few accelerators in Europe to stress the need for technical co-founders, is opening up to new teams. I went to the event in Berlin and interviewed all the startups pitching on the day, as you’ll see in the below video.

We’ve covered how HackFwd works before in this interview with Hinrichs but it’s clear now that their HackFwd “Build” events, held four times a year, are becoming mini conferences, with several key European players attending and a few international ‘stars’ of the tech scene, including most recently Om Malik of GigaOm. Previously held at other locations, they will now be held always in Berlin, as was the previous Build event in October, which we reported on here.