“Who of you loves traveling?” The arms of the students in the audience go up even faster than the ones of the faculty members. “Then, we have the right topic for you!” Jeroen and I are standing next to each other, the huge screen to our right, the audience in front and above on the balcony into the concert-hall-like room. We only have about 5 min. to get our story across: how we founded, what we founded, why we founded. It is far too little time to really be able to dive into the details. However, it is enough to raise awareness for the topic, hopefully inspiring the young audience to reflect more whenever they study abroad, go on an internship or discover the world with their friends during break.
Luckily we get the chance to expand on our short pitch during a Q & A session on stage. Invited by the faculty chair, we are honored to have been selected to bridge the time the judges need to decide on a winning team for today’s Madden Challenge: a start-up pitch event for undergraduate students at the University of Denver. While still in the middle of learning in my role, even after two and a half years after being Co-Founder and CEO of ChargeHorizons, I am also happy to serve as a mentor and share some of the learnings I have been able to collect so far.
The Q & A session passes incredibly quickly and when the judges arrive, Jeroen and I leave the stage, excited to know in a few minutes who is going to win today’s pitch event – and: who knows – maybe also who will join us shortly in the community of young founders!