"Actually, everyone should be on the podium," said Dr Meike Rabanus from the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy as she introduced the announcement of first place at the Pitch Night at the University of Wuppertal. On stage, however, she congratulated the winners: the Save The Grain team, who impressed the jury with the social and societal change they want to initiate.

The first three places

Founder Lenia Römer impressed the judges with her pitch, a brief presentation of the start-up: with the vision of saving harvests and empowering women, Save The Grain aims to bring about lasting change in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. The team combines engineering expertise, social science and West African experience to create a solution that aims to double crop yields and sustainably increase incomes.

The team is currently starting with small drying technologies for the harvest and is working in parallel with the Chair of Electromobility and Energy Storage Systems at the University of Wuppertal on a larger system that utilises solar energy efficiently. The founding team's focus is on long-term impact and solving real problems, which is why they are working with local partners. The "Femmepact" brand offers sales structures for women, enabling them to sell products as far away as Europe and thus secure their financial independence. For first place, the team will receive prize money of 2,500 euros, provided by GoDaddy.

The second prize and 1,000 euros, sponsored by Wirtschaftsjunioren Wuppertal e. V., was awarded to Meike Kreutel. The co-founder of Femi-ON was able to convince the jury with a simple sentence: "Our product works in two to three minutes and has a comparable pain-relieving effect to ibuprofen." The effect is created by low-frequency vibration technology directly at the source of the pain and, in contrast to devices with electrical impulses, does not first have to travel through the body from the outside. The aim is to obtain certification as a medical device. The aim is to provide all people with menstrual pain with a fast, effective method via health insurance companies, making menstruation more pain-free, self-determined and suitable for everyday use.

Lexie secured third place and 500 euros, provided by Wirtschaftsförderung Wuppertal AöR. In her pitch, Kirsten Harting vividly demonstrated how curiosity can be encouraged by Lexie: With the aim of creating fair educational opportunities for all children, the AI-based, screen-free learning companion has already been tested in 50 daycare centres. According to the founder, the children would have loved to take it home with them. The focus of the start-up is on the confident and safe use of AI "made in Germany".

With their successful pitches, the top three also secured themselves an extraordinary team event in the Bergisch region: Deepwood GmbH gave them each a voucher for the Brückensteig trail on the Müngstner Brücke bridge.

In addition to the three winners, the teams from Amanéa, MedMaps - Connect and Oh Circle also presented their innovative ideas on stage. Their pitches impressively demonstrated how diverse, creative and future-orientated female entrepreneurship is in Germany.

Top-class expertise in the supporting programme of the Pitch Night

"I'm on my Period", proclaimed the sign with which founder Polina Sergeeva took to the stage for her keynote speech. With her founding of menstruflow, she is also dedicated to the topic of menstruation. She is the face of the brand and uses her reach specifically to draw attention to the topic of period pain.

She also uses her start-up experience to give others tips. One of these is to start making your own expertise visible early on, because people buy products from people. "Building a brand sustainably means giving it a face - that gives the brand strength," says Sergeeva. She pointed out the long-term perspective of a start-up and compared the journey to a marathon, where nobody knows when the next refreshment stop will be, let alone the finish line. Not everything on the start-up path is straightforward and can be planned. Nevertheless, she concluded that those interested in founding a company should not be put off by this. Founding a company is a multi-layered process. One final tip was: "We don't know exactly when the goal will be reached. The important thing is that we keep going - and keep going."

The panel discussion with Prof Dr Christine Volkmann, initiator and project manager of Women Entrepreneurs in Science at the University of Wuppertal, also revolved around the challenges faced by female founders. Together with State Secretary Gitta Connemann from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and State Secretary Silke Krebs from the NRW Ministry for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy, the panel looked at how a start-up path has bends and loops. The speakers agreed that setting up a company is careful and consistent work that cannot be cut short. This valuable experience contributes to the personal development of the founders, regardless of whether their plans are successful or not. Gitta Connemann emphasised: "Failure is intrinsic to entrepreneurship - not proof against talent. I would like to see a society that understands failure as a learning process."