road to
start summit 2025

The Road to START Summit is our flagship pitch competition, where the winners earn the spotlight to show their ideas in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Apply As START-UP

Why attend this
EVENT?

Meet the region’s sharpest early-stage teams, hear bold pitches, and connect with investors, corporates, and the START network.

EXPERIENCE THE
THRILL

Light startups. One stage. Live Q&A with a renowned jury—see how founders defend vision, traction, and business model under pressure.

bE PART OF THE
NEXT BIG THING

Cheer the winner as they secure their “golden ticket” and step onto Europe’s premier startup stage with 6–7k+ attendees.

NETWORK &
CELEBRATE

Swap ideas with founders, corporates, investors and fellow student’s tech leaders, and future teammates over the course of 3 days.

frequently asked questions

what is the road to start summit?

The Road to START Summit is a series of events organized by START chapters throughout Europe. These events serve as warm-up gatherings leading up to the START Summit, which will be held in St. Gallen on March 21 and 22, 2025. The goal of these events is to identify a promising startup that will represent START Munich at the START Summit and pitch their startup in St. Gallen.

how is it different from road to start hack?

The Road to START Hack serves as a warm-up hackathon for the START Hack which will be held together with the START Summit from March 20 until March 22, 2025. RTSH is a weekend-long event where students from around the world come together to work on cool new software and/or hardware projects. The Road to START Hack will be held on the 6th and 7th of December, 2024.

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR START-UPS?

1. You have to be founded in 2022 or later
2. You have to have received less than 500.000 CHF in funding
3. You have to be an independent legal entity

GET IN TOUCH

Our partnerships department is happy to connect partners passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship of all industries and sizes who want to collaborate with driven students and are looking for stellar talent in the ecosystem of the Franconian region.

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