start2grow: the €94k nationwide tech founder competition from Dortmund

Kick-off event late October. Free six-month coaching programme runs in parallel - workshops, individual coaching, an online Coaching Area where you draft the business plan. Businessplan-Abgabe via the Coaching Area by 26 January (12:00 sharp). Begutachtungsverfahren by an expert jury; the top 20 teams pitch in Dortmund. The Pitch & Party finale takes place early March at the DEPOT Kulturort Dortmund.

The signature feature: half the prize money is paid immediately to winners, the other half only on incorporation in Dortmund within 12 months of the award. This is a deliberate growth-capture mechanic - Dortmund pays you to anchor there. Out-of-state winners regularly accept the deal because Dortmund offers: lower cost of living than Munich/Berlin, dense Ruhrgebiet B2B customer base, TechnologieZentrumDortmund (TZDO) infrastructure, and significant follow-on grants from NRW (Landes-Förderbank NRW.BANK).

25 years of winners shows a strong pattern: digital-product startups with a clear B2B revenue path, deeptech with industrial-Ruhrgebiet customer fit, and dual-use software where the Dortmund tech scene provides both customers and talent. Pure consumer-app teams underperform unless they show realistic distribution paths; the jury is operator-heavy, not consumer-marketing-heavy.

If your team is already pre-incorporation or in Berlin/Munich for cost reasons, Dortmund moves are unusual but not rare - the Ruhrgebiet is structurally underrated for early-stage tech. If your team is already locked into Berlin/Munich with hires, the 50% commitment may not pay off. Honest calculation: model the 12-month Dortmund relocation cost against the second-tranche payout and the NRW follow-on grant access; many teams find the math works.