"It’s hard to keep an entrepreneur in a big company,” says Berlin-based entrepreneur, Christian Reber.

Looking at the market, he felt he could build a next-generation alternative - a  software-as-a-service platform that would allow users to create and publish interactive decks.

Arguably it takes a certain amount of chutzpah for an independent entrepreneur to enter a presentation tools market in which Powerpoint comes loaded with Windows Machine and Google’s Slides is available for free through browsers and Android apps.    .

And as Reber acknowledges, Microsoft is a formidable competitor not only in terms of Powerpoint but also in the burgeoning collaborative software market.

What’s more, Powerpoint may not be software that sets the blood racing with anticipation, but it works well and people - a whole lot of people - are familiar with it.

Nevertheless, any software that is new to the market needs some kind of USP,  Reber opted to focus on collaboration - perhaps not a big surprise these days - but also live slides.  Users can integrate real-time data - on say, employment figures or the stock markets - into slide presentations which will update as the information changes

I’d like to create a company that will sustain and feed people for 100 years or more,” he says

So can a German startup compete in mature presentation tool market