Alkje Stuhlmann

Out of the comfort zone and talk to a lot of strangers…🏴‍☠️

Besides great workshops, pitches and lectures, there was one thing in particular at the PIRATE Summit: the opportunity to talk to many people in person. This, I really enjoyed! Especially because one thing led to another, I was continually surprised and new paths opened up.

In the end, I sat in the car heading back home with three founders with whom I got into conversation solely because they were wearing a t-shirt with the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn 🚟 (overhead railway) and the little elephant Tuffi 🐘. It turned out that they were invited by Circular Valley from the most diverse corners of the world to present their ideas. It made me a bit proud of Wuppertal and the ever-growing startup network in our region!

I really missed the lively, varied, sometimes hectic and emotionally charged hustle and bustle of real life start up events. All the more, I am now looking forward to the next upcoming events, such as Bits & Pretzels at the end of the month.