Recently I was invited to Idea Lab, the founder’s conference at WHU in Vallendar.
Sitar Teli on what they are looking for in startups to invest in
My friend Liam “Rude Baguette” Boogar moderating the panel on Crowdfunding
The absolute highlight for me was seeing Oliver Samwer talk about how founders must be willing and able to live in the dirt for a long time to be successful:
The BeNeLux Bus
I was recently honored and thrilled to be invited by Hans van Gent and Mike van Hoenselaar to produce this year’s StartupBus Europe BeNeLux bus bound for Pioneers Festival in Vienna, together with Magnus Petersen-Paasche, after my previous stint with Startupbus.
And after a lot of preparations, we finally went on the road last week – and what an EPIC trip it was: It took us from Amsterdam to Pioneers Festival in Vienna via Antwerp, Cologne, Berlin, Prague and Munich – all within 72 hours!
Recently I was interviewed by Julia Fiedler at DRadio Wissen (Radio! Yes – it’s actually still around!) about what to do if you have a business idea an how to proceed. Should you start by writing a business plan? If you are copying an existing proven business model, say opening a new ice cream shop around the corner – maybe. If you want to create a new travel app that the world have never seen before, most probably not.
“No business plan ever survives first contact with customers!” – Steve Blank
Business Plans are guess-based works of fiction and what you want to be doing is to get from a guess-based fantasy to a fact based business as soon as possible.
So what should you do instead? In the radio interview I talk about the concepts and methodologies of Customer Development, Business Model Generation using the Business Model Canvas and building and testing Minimum Viable Products (MVP) – the minimum you need to build or create to start testing and measuring if the guesses about your product, customers and revenue model are correct.
Have a listen [in German] for yourself.
Fresh off the boat from Silicon Valley and back in Cologne town, I was recently invited to give visitors and students an introduction to The Lean Startup at the Startup Day at the University of Cologne arranged by the HGNC.
Panel debate on venture capital and startup ecosystems
And of course there was no better occasion to debut the new CGN <3<3<3 Startups t-shirt.
Here are the slides I used:
If you want to book me too, shoot me an email and let’s talk.
A video report from the event (German):
As I’ve been around the world pitching my own startup at some of the world’s most prestigious pitching events, one of the ways I’m paying it forward to our local startup ecosystem is by teaching our startups how to pitch at the Rhineland Pitch in Cologne, Germany – a tier one startup pitching event that aims to educate our regional startups and raise our pitching quality to better compete worldwide.
If you want to practice your own pitch, I’ve shared the slide deck I use at the free pitch coaching session each month below. And don’t forget to apply for the next Rhineland Pitch – See you there!