Roughly once a month, the tiki bar under
DTU Skylab hosts the Pitchbar event, where entrepreneurs and innovation enthusiasts meet, drink beer, and shake hands.
The dim basement room is lit by sporadic lighting from the suspended lighting chains. The cast light in different colours around the room, and if one were to use a cliché, the word that comes to mind would be ‘hygge’ (the Danish word for ‘cosiness’).
Behind the temporary bar, bartenders pour free beers for the guests. One or two enjoy a soft drink instead. According to Facebook, the event starts at 5 pm, and people begin filing into the room soon after. Most have come straight from a lecture or group work.
But it is not only thirsty students who have come to enjoy a free beer. Among the guests we also find older men in suits, slightly confused students from other universities, and enthusiastic young people with dreams of becoming entrepreneurs, busily sharing their ideas with the person standing next to them.
Twenty minutes into the event, the vast majority of the guests are enjoying a beer and are engaged in lively discussion. Kristoffer Buch, one of the driving forces behind Pitchbar, rings the bell and takes to the stage—in reality nothing more than a small wooden box. Brimming with confidence and in fluent English, he welcomes all the guests and gets the afternoon event underway.
Sporting a black leather jacket and an impressive degree of enthusiasm, Michael Momme saunters down the metal stairs of the cellar bar. This is the first time he has set foot in DTU, but he is impressed with Skylab. He is attending Pitchbar because he is looking for someone with insight into the software that can help to turn his idea into reality.
“My idea stems from my studies at Roskilde University, where I wrote a paper on the elderly and loneliness. Via an app, the idea is to create a platform where elderly people can find activities to participate in. It is not necessarily about knitting clubs or that kind of thing, but rather about them actually doing something that benefits themselves and society,” Michael passionately explains.
Snapchat app
As the minutes pass, more and more people ring the bell and take to the ‘stage’—and each time, the noise dies down and people give their full attention to the brave souls making their pitch.
Over in the corner, we find Kristian and Andreas. Together with Andreas, Kristian—who is studying Process and Innovation at DTU—has created an application that enables professional companies to monitor their use of the popular social media, Snapchat. Kristian explains:
“Companies find it extremely difficult to assess what they’re actually getting out of having a Snapchat account. You can’t actually see many of the things you can on Facebook, for example. We have therefore created a program that enables them to assess whether it makes sense for them to spend time producing Snapchat content.”
Positive attitude
Well-prepared. That is how to describe Kirsten Gibson as she stands, folders in hand, moments before she takes to the ‘stage’—a simple wooden box. She explains that she had actually prepared a slide show, but since this is her first time at the event, she didn’t realise that it was quite so informal—so she rings the bell and stands on the box without it.
As co-owner of the company Mind Denmark ApS, she is looking for someone who is good at programming. Whether the candidate is a student, a graduate, or someone altogether different does not really matter. As long as the person is good at what he or she does and has a positive attitude. Mind Denmark specializes in positive psychology, which is why it is important that a new colleague can contribute to the positive atmosphere in the office,” explains Kirsten.
If the article has aroused your interest in the next Pitchbar event, you will not have long to wait. On 19 April, Skylab and Stardust are hosting their next Pitchbar, where you may meet your future business partner or colleague.