Picture: the two ECF Oscars in front of Golden Gate Bridge.
December 1st 2013, Silicon Valley
On Wednesday we pitched for ECF at the CLEAN TECH OPEN Global Forum in Silicon Valley, worlds home of venture capital and start-ups.
from left: Rex Northen (CTO), Nicolas Leschke (ECF), Christian Echternacht (ECF), Scott McGrew.
At the end of the day we received our „Oscar“ for best Start-up in the category Agriculture, Water & Waste 
1.000 Startups applied for that event.
The next day, thursday, we left the conference for San Francisco, a 90min ride from San José (Silicon Valley). While checking in at the hotel we received a phone call of Dr. Franka Birke of Climate-KIC: „where are you guys, you have to be on stage in 10min! All winners of yesterdays categories are pitching again for the overall win of the competition.“ Now that was a problem… we suggested to present via skype. Okay. 10min to go to our room and to prepare the pitch.
Nicolas pitching in our hotel room… In Silicon Valley he was broadcasted on big screens. He started his presentation with the following words: “In the beginning of my pitch I usually start asking: who of you shares my passion for good food, please raise your hands. But as I cannot see you today, let me do it this way: give me a shoutout if you like good food!” …now, that went well! It is quite impressive hearing a large crowd cheer over the small MacBook speakers.
Well, of course we thought our chances are like zero, pitching via Skype. So after the pitch, we closed the laptop and went out for some beers and food in Chinatown.
We ended up in a taqueria, when a phone call reached us from Franka: „buy yourselves a bottle of champagne! You won the overall competition!“ No way, we did of course not believe her but followed her advice to find a wifi spot to check our mails and whatsapps. We found a tiny pizza place (called Paris…) with WiFi and after being online, tons of messages started popping up on Iphones… we won!!!
Same time in Silicon Valley: Dr. Franka Birke (Climate-KIC Berlin) receiving the ECF Oscar for us.
So at the end we brought two Oscars back to Berlin One for best Start-up in the category agriculture, water and waste. And one for the overall win of the Cleantech Open as best international Start-up.
Christian and Nicolas
Greetings from San Francisco!
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Warm welcome back in Berlin, at GreenGarage of Climate-KIC Germany on EUREF Campus Berlin, home of the ECF Office.