How important is the choice of location when founding a startup? And what should founders look for when setting up their company? These questions shed light on an aspect that is often neglected in the startup industry: the choice of location.

To find answers to this question, Romy Riffel and Johannes Kliesch have enlisted the support of startup friends who have one thing in common: they were all founded in Mannheim in quick succession and some of them are still based here. Alisa Jahnke from Purelei, Alexander Pelz from Rosental Organics and Andre Sierek from Bitterliebe are guests on the podcast.

The conversation is about why Mannheim is called "Little Berlin", why it can be better to start up in a small city, in which areas Mannheim has room for improvement and what challenges the three invited startups are currently facing.

This podcast was created in cooperation with Next Mannheim. Next Mannheim is the startup ecosystem of the city of Mannheim and supports founders in a total of eight startup centers through events, workshops, office space and more.

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(00:00) Start

(08:52) How important is Mannheim for Alisa from Purelei?

(12:28) What are Purelei's plans for the next two years?

(15:50) What would Alisa like to see more support for from Mannheim?

(18:55) How would Alisa invest 150 million euros in Mannheim?

(20:40) Which city is better to start up in: Mannheim or Berlin?

(23:36) Which city gets the first Rosental Shop?

(27:54) How can offline stores enhance the brand perception of D2C startups?

(33:27) What would Mannheim have had to offer Rosental to keep them from moving to Berlin?

(34:34) How would Andre von Bitterliebe invest 150 million euros in Mannheim?

(40:26) How could Mannheim as a city better help local startups?

(43:47) How would Romy invest 150 million euros in Mannheim?

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