Date: Friday, February 10, 2012
Time: 8:34 pm
Place: Hike office #3 aka Mike’s home office

It was in early February when Chris, Mike and I sat down and decided to spontaneously apply for “Pitch In Berlin” at HackFwd. Hike had just cracked into the TOP 30 on the Facebook Developer Charts, app sales were growing constantly, and we were about to count our 100,000th fan on Facebook. After 7 months of die-hard bootstrapping, we felt that it was about time for Hike to leave the underground and present our “project” to people who know a thing or two about the startup scene.

Per HackFwd the application window remained open until Friday, February, 11:59 pm GMT. Well, as stated above, it was already 8:34 pm, so we had roughly 3 full hours left to prepare our application video.

After drawing a full-fledged storyboard lame ass scribble that no one else but us was able to interpret, we’ve started to record our 2 minute application video. Though we were already super confident in our product and traction at this time, we felt like the dumbest guys walking this planet, talking to the isight cam, sitting in Mike’s room with a stinking light setup and no proper preparation at hand. Geez, did you know it can take hours to prepare a 2 minute video? After numerous restarts, a little on-screen showcase of our apps and their numbers we’ve managed to cut and paste the sequences altogether. Finished was our SUPER BOLD application video… damn, we already envisioned the people at HackFwd laughing over this one ;) Well, since we expected to never hear nor meet these people in person anyway, we’ve submitted this “piece of art” at 11:54 pm! We had officially applied for Pitch In Berlin at Build 0.9 :D

A few weeks later I was waiting for my flight from Cologne to Hamburg to take off, when a last mail check prior to turning off my cell contained an invitation to Berlin. It was the invitation to Pitch In Berlin at HackFwd. From there on out IT WAS ON like Donkey Kong!

Berlin Calling

Pitch In Berlin was an awesome experience. Not just did we manage to win the jury decision over the other 11 presenters (out of more than 100 applicants); above all it was so much fun being part of this great event and meeting all these interesting people.

We want to take this chance to specially thank Lars, Mikko, David, Stephie, Jana, JP, the two camera guys (sorry, I can’t remember your names), as well as Sebastian Deutsch and all the other cool people we had a chance to talk to. Shout outs to the guys from ScatchApp.

What Does HackFwd’s Investment Into Hike Mean

Joining HackFwd adds fuel to our fire! We are as dedicated as can be and look forward to the challenge of providing you with the best products possible. Working closely with HackFwd and their team of proven experts will enhance the Hike experience in every aspect. Look forward to big things to come!

Thanks to All Hikers

That’s right! We wouldn’t be here without you guys! Almost 200,000 fans and more than 70,000 Facebook Pages utilizing our apps speak for itself. Thanks to each and every one of you! You are awesome!

Some Pitch Impressions