The Startup Hunter Diary — A Month Long Trip Around Europe — Episode 15

Bits & Pretzels Day 2

Why are you so serious?!

Bits & Pretzels after party definitely lived up to its reputation. We had a great time and we got to meet with so many people it’s insane. The party had us up till late but next morning we were ready for another beautiful day at the conference.

We were really excited for day 2 of Bits ‘16. Some pretty cool events were lined up for today, but there is one we really couldn't wait for. Sir Richard Branson was here to give us a speech. As you can imagine, his talk was priceless. I mean we have all read/watched videos about him, we all know most of his projects, but I think this was next-level.

If I have to pick the one thing that I recalled the most from his speech, it would be don’t take yourself too seriously and be nice to people. That’s what he lives by, and how he built his incredible career. Don’t take yourself too seriously as in, no matter what you have accomplished, you need to stay humble, always learn from people smarter than you, and accept it when you are not the one made for the job.

All right if you are wondering, yes, he is planning to reach Mars, but I doubt he will share Elon’s shuttle…

Richard Branson speech was definitely the climax of the day. But at least one cool event was left, the final of the pitch competition.

We saw great companies pitching during the 2 days of the conference. There really was some quality. So an even bigger congrats to all the winners of each of the categories (I’ll get you the names later).

The biggest shout-out is for the main competition winner though. Yes she had a great product (name will follow too, I just don’t want to misspell or anything), but I believe what made the difference was her story. She put a lot of work on her storytelling and it made a big difference! Told ya…

So that’s it for the conference, it’s been great, we met a lot of people, but it’s not over. Tuesday we are at Oktoberfest with the Bits & Pretzels people!

Oh and we had a great concert to end the conference 😄.

Hop on the train of the most exciting startup trip ever made, and travel with us! It shall be fun.

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