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SummerUP at CODE: One Week, 40+ Projects and Real Users

a group of hackathon participants and organizers on stage
January 21, 2026
7 min read
Paulina

What happens when you bring together curious people from different backgrounds, students from Software Engineering, Business Management & Entrepreneurship, Digital Design & Innovation, and builders from outside CODE, and ask them to create something real in just one week?

Last summer at our campus in Berlin, the answer was SummerUP – One Week of Non‑Stop Building and Selling: more than 40 projects that went from idea to MVP, many with their first users and paying customers in only a few days.

SummerUP was initiated and led by two CODE students, Felix and Tjark, and powered by our partners and sponsors: MVP Founders, Jetpack, Prof. Dr. Roland Fassauer, Intershop Stiftung, Rolf Schrömgens, and The Delta.

For anyone curious about what it’s like to study software engineering, digital design and innovation, or entrepreneurship at a startup‑focused university of applied sciences in Berlin, SummerUP is a concentrated glimpse into our everyday learning culture.

👉 This article is best enjoyed together with the SummerUP recap video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h75B2isLGs

Why SummerUP is not a typical hackathon

Traditional hackathons usually run for a weekend and focus heavily on technical execution. Teams write a lot of code, but there is often little time to validate whether the product solves a real problem or if anyone would pay for it. SummerUP flipped this script.

The core principle:

Sell before you build.

Instead of polishing features first, participants were encouraged to:

  • talk to potential users early,
  • test real demand with simple prototypes and landing pages,
  • explore pricing and value propositions,
  • and only then invest serious time in building.

For people interested in software engineering, digital design, product building and entrepreneurship, this meant combining everything they know – and a lot they were still learning – into one intense, startup‑style sprint.

One intense week: from ideas to MVPs

Over the course of one week, more than 40 teams formed around a wide range of ideas. Some arrived with clear startup concepts; others pitched problems they cared about and attracted co‑founders on the spot.

During the week, teams:

  • refined their business models and target audiences,
  • built MVPs using modern software tools and engineering practices,
  • created visual identities, prototypes and user journeys with digital design & innovation methods,
  • experimented with sales channels, landing pages and social campaigns,
  • and talked to real users, partners and early customers.

The atmosphere on campus felt like a small startup hub inside Berlin: laptops everywhere, whiteboards filled with funnels and user flows, ad experiments running in the background, and groups of people pitching to anyone who would listen.

Daily mentoring from founders, investors and startup experts

A key ingredient of SummerUP was the mentoring infrastructure. Each day, teams met with:

  • experienced founders,
  • investors,
  • and startup and product experts from the Berlin ecosystem.

Among the mentors were Lukas Kneip, Matthias Voss, Feliks Eyser, Fabian Wittleben, Ralf Holtkamp, Philipp Ströhemann, Tim Kanik, Prof. Dr. Roland Fassauer, Tim Tepass and Thorge Lindner, all of whom invested significant time into helping our teams grow.

Mentoring sessions covered topics such as:

  • choosing the right scope and architecture for an MVP,
  • prioritizing features and technical trade‑offs,
  • designing clear and accessible user interfaces,
  • and refining pricing, go‑to‑market strategy and storytelling.

Instead of learning about startups from slides, participants got direct feedback on real decisions they had to make that same day.

Founder Talks from the CODE startup ecosystem

Alongside mentoring, SummerUP also featured daily Founder Talks from people in and around the CODE startup ecosystem:

Many of these founders once sat in the same classrooms and project spaces, studying or collaborating with CODE students on early‑stage projects. Seeing them return to share honest stories about failure, pivoting and eventual success was a powerful reminder of what is possible when you combine tech, design and entrepreneurship in a city like Berlin.

For current students and external participants alike, this was not just inspiring – it also showed how Berlin’s startup scene and CODE’s project‑based learning are tightly connected.

10,000 € pitch day at The Delta Campus

The week ended with a high‑energy pitch day at The Delta Campus:

  • more than 170 guests,
  • over 40 pitches on stage,
  • and a 10,000 € prize pool.

Teams presented what they had validated and built during the week: landing pages with sign‑ups, early revenue, functioning prototypes and carefully thought‑through design concepts.

The jury included Thorge Lindner, Tobias Wittekindt, Philipp Ströhemann, Fabian Wittleben, Feliks Eyser, Louis Buys and Leonie Althaus, who gave extensive feedback, challenged assumptions and highlighted the projects they saw the most potential in.

The top three teams received financial support from the prize pool, while the top ten projects won an exclusive online session with SumUp co‑founder Petter Made, made possible through our collaboration with EWOR.

What participants learned

Across all backgrounds and disciplines, SummerUP compressed a huge amount of learning into a single week. Participants:

  • experienced how to move from idea to MVP under real time pressure,
  • learned to validate assumptions with users instead of guessing,
  • practiced turning complex ideas into simple, testable prototypes,
  • saw how software engineering, digital design and entrepreneurship depend on each other,
  • improved their skills in teamwork, communication and conflict resolution,
  • and gained confidence in pitching their work to mentors, investors and a large audience.

Many left the week with a much clearer sense of what it means to build a software product or digital service that people actually want – and what kind of founder, engineer or designer they want to become.

Building a startup‑minded university in Berlin

SummerUP is also a good example of what it means for CODE to be a startup university in Berlin:

  • Our campus is surrounded by startups, accelerators and venture funds.
  • Students and external participants collaborate with founders and experts from day one.
  • Events like SummerUP help turn early ideas into real entrepreneurial journeys.

The event itself was only possible thanks to a large group of supporters behind the scenes. Together, they created an environment where studying software engineering or digital design in Berlin is not separate from building startups – it is intertwined with it.

Why this matters if you want to study software engineering, digital design or entrepreneurship

If you are curious about where to study software engineering, digital design & innovation, or entrepreneurship in Berlin, events like SummerUP highlight the difference between a classical university and a project‑based university of applied sciences:

  • You learn the theory – but you are expected to apply it in real projects.
  • You work on products that have real users and potential customers, not just grades.
  • You become part of a community where students, alumni, external builders and partners continuously experiment, build and share knowledge.

For many participants, SummerUP confirmed that they do not just want a degree. They want to become builders – people who can design, code and launch meaningful products in the real world.

Watch the SummerUP recap

To get a better feeling for the atmosphere, the speed and the teamwork, make sure to watch the SummerUP recap video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h75B2isLGs

And if you are interested in joining the next edition of SummerUP – or in learning more about how to study software engineering, digital design & innovation or entrepreneurship in Berlin – take a look at our study programs and upcoming events.

At CODE, SummerUP is only one week in the calendar, but it captures what we stand for all year round:

Learning by building. Together.