Pirate Summit – an event for start-ups
Some say it's the craziest event for founders and investors worldwide! To get there, Till Ohrmann, the initiator of the founding event, has declared the Pirate Summit to be a matter close to his heart, which initially led to the couch in the office becoming his place to sleep: ‘My apartment and office were the same...’
CCB: You have been involved in the development of the Pirate Summit from the very beginning. What is the Pirate Summit?
Ohrmann: The Pirate Summit is an event for founders and investors for start-ups that are in an early phase: in other words, start-ups with a maximum financing volume of 1.5 million euros, according to our definition. The Pirate Summit thrives on the joy of entrepreneurship and a sense of adventure...
That's why there's a pirate motif…
Yes, we wanted to create a platform that would enable us to meet investors. After discussions with investors and founders, it was clear that an event like this needs an exciting setting! Then one of the future co-founders pointed out a blog post to me: It compares entrepreneurship with piracy. Pirates are adventurous and willing to take risks, they are on a treasure hunt, they forget everything around them, leave all their private lives behind, just to focus on this one goal. We felt very comfortable with this definition of entrepreneurship. We then built a conference that matched the whole thing. We were able to attract very well-known people from the international start-up scene as speakers. Nevertheless, founders and investors talk to each other at eye level. This is also laid down in our house rules.
Why Cologne?
Iserlohn was originally intended as the location (I studied there), but after the first talks it was clear that it had to be a bigger city. Cologne was our first choice because of its great culture. I believe that the Pirate Summit is as suitable for a few cities in Europe as it is for Cologne. Cologne works because Cologne is liberal, open to new ideas, because Cologne is crazy, among other things because of the carnival, it just feels different. Another thing that speaks for Cologne is its proximity to other locations: I'm not just thinking of the Rhineland, but also of the Ruhr area, the short distances to the Rhine-Main area and to the Benelux countries. Everything is within a radius of 200 km, which is a 1.5-hour drive. This makes it possible to reach millions of potential customers in this conurbation and to establish contacts with many globally relevant medium-sized companies and corporations. It all fits together very well here in Cologne.
The Pirate Summit has been around for 6 years. Why is it so successful?
I think it is actually the result of the following components: authenticity, selection of the right participants and craziness. We market ourselves as the ‘craziest startup event in Europe’; some also say it is the craziest in the world. Another crucial feature is the selection of participants. We are an application-only event, which means that people have to apply to us or we approach and invite them from around the world. There is no option to simply buy a ticket. We are very uncompromising in this regard. We organise several events, but the Pirate Summit is our centrepiece and embodies the entrepreneurship that we and our participants live.
Who are the pioneers of the Cologne start-up scene?
For example, the company that developed an ad blocker, a programme for blocking advertising. It has already been installed millions of times on browsers worldwide. The inventors are in Cologne: a few dozen employees and probably extremely successful financially! These are the kinds of success stories that hardly anyone knows about. And the brains behind them are here in Cologne and are world market leaders in the digital sector.