STARTPLATZ KI Accelerator NRW
Wed 28.10.2026STARTPLATZ Köln12 AI startups
Most of the founders had never met before Wednesday morning. By dinner they were a batch. Here is how the first day of the STARTPLATZ KI Accelerator NRW Batch #3 went.
28 October 2026
Room Berlin
STARTPLATZ founder Lorenz Gräf and Programme Lead Jono Birkett opened the day.
Room Berlin
Twelve teams, one minute of mindset and three minutes of pitch each. Here is every one of them.
Room Köln
Jono Birkett set the rules: eight tables, seven minutes per round. By the last bell almost everyone had met everyone.
Lunch area & terrace
Lunch above the Mediapark, office hours with the team and a short video interview with every startup.
The whole house
Half an hour through STARTPLATZ, past the wall of startups that began here.
Room Berlin
Jono Birkett and Heinrich Rauh walked through the 18 weeks: Founder Sessions, KPIs, 1:1s, Mentor Madness and the road to Demo Day.
Room Berlin
Manaén Stürenberg got the room moving. Every team set its goals for the batch and the one number that counts.
60 Seconds to Napoli, Mediapark
Food and drinks around the corner. At 10 pm the same people were still at the table.
Buon appetito
The invitation to the evening. Photos from the dinner follow.
Programme team
The people the founders work with every week until Demo Day.
Programme Lead
Leads the accelerator together with Heinrich Rauh. Go-to-market, sales and the network of mentors, partners and investors.
Programme Lead
Co-leads the accelerator. Coaching, weekly KPIs and access to mentors and investors.
Founder Activation
Ran the Founder Activation on kickoff day: purpose, goals and the number each team commits to.
Meet the batch
Builds an AI agent for your company in a three-minute chat, connected to the tools you already use and hosted in the EU.
artaios.ai ↗
An AI social media team that knows your brand, with a human approving every post.
companycore.ai ↗
Collects and checks property documents for estate agents, a job that otherwise takes weeks.
immorivo.de ↗
AI legal monitoring that flags only the law changes that matter to your company.
justima.app ↗
AI voice interviews that capture expert knowledge before people leave the company.
phronora.de ↗
Turns vague IT ideas into validated requirements before money goes into building or buying.
requaire.com ↗
AI ghostwriters for LinkedIn that write in your own voice, at a fraction of agency cost.
staaff.ai ↗
An AI receptionist and scheduler for trades businesses, set up in ten minutes.
veynosmart.de ↗
A marketplace for products made in the EU, growing into the whole online shop for small brands.
youro.shop ↗In their words
There is exactly one KPI that counts: traction. Not the nicest pitch deck. Not the fanciest model. Customers who pay!
The goal is to make STARTPLATZ one of Europe's leading places for AI startups.
Until now I was always alone in my home office. Now I want to seek out exchange with other founders.
Customer commitments and rejections alternate, and that creates enormous emotional volatility.
3 March 2027, STARTPLATZ Köln: the twelve teams pitch to investors.
Kickoff Day of the STARTPLATZ KI Accelerator NRW, Batch #3, 28 October 2026, STARTPLATZ Köln. Free and funded by the state of NRW, in cooperation with NRW HUBS, supported by Base44.
Thanks to the team behind the day: Jono Birkett, Heinrich Rauh, Manaén Stürenberg, Leonie Göbl, Emily Möllenbeck, Paul Martinez, Julian Palaszewski, Jan-Paul Goetze, Linus Minor, Johannes Gräf and Lorenz Gräf.
Der Accelerator STARTPLATZ KI Accelerator NRW wird im Rahmen der Hub-Richtlinie gefördert.
„Die Entwicklung zu sehen, die sie während des Programms machen, ist schon echt Wahnsinn.“
„Der Accelerator hat uns dabei geholfen uns zu fokussieren und Sales Prozesse zu etablieren“
