Education, pitching, startup

The Pitching Masterclass goes LIVE

To celebrate that I have now coached over 500 startups at over 40 Rheinland Pitches so far since 2013, we decided to stream one of the coaching sessions (well, the theoretical part anyway) live on Facebook. And as we were having a few Spanish startups attending as guests, this time around it was held in English – which made it all the more accessible to stream.

Now, if you also want the really juicy bits of my Pitching Masterclass – the me helping you improve your pitch deck part – apply to the next Rheinland Pitch for free or sign up for one of my free Open Office Hours if you are a startup, or book me in person if you are an organisation, event or corporation.

Education, entrepreneurship, speaking, startup

Top 10 Startup Delusions @ Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship (MEWEEK)

Late night presentations, rounding off MEWEEK 2017

Recently I was honored and delighted to be invited back to this year’s Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship to speak about the mistakes, the false perceptions and beliefs common with first time startup founders and wantrepreneurs; The Top 10 Startup Delusions.

I have a long history with Maastricht and it’s always a pleasure to be back.

Here are the slides I used:

LOL – My buddy Moritz Delbrück of Justix GmbH trolled me in the presentation before me. Well played! :)

corporate entrepreneurship, Education, pitching, speaking, startup

Pitching Masterclass & Speaking @ RTL Mediengruppe

Pitching Masterclass @ RTL in Cologne, Germany

Recently I was invited to RTL Mediengruppe to help their journalist school’s InnoLab Week participants pitch their internal ventures with my Pitching Masterclass.

And to speak in front of RTL managers and stakeholders on another topic near and dear to me; How the old game of innovation and growth has changed and how to master the new game at an internal event.

Pitching Masterclass:

Some impressions from the InnoLab week:

Education, Lean Startup

Lean Startup Bootcamp, Baghdad Iraq

Skyping in to Baghdad

Today I was honored to be invited to share from my startup mistakes and coach participants at a Lean Startup Bootcamp for developers in Baghdad, Iraq.

One of the most interesting things I learned was that solving the last mile problem, buying groceries online to have them delivered is also a startup thing in Iraq – and a particular problem with the logistic is that popular exotic fruits are sold at separate shops often far removed from the supermarkets, which leaves the fulfilment and delivery process doubly complex.

Education, entrepreneurship, innovation, Lean Startup, startup

Working with USAID in Moldova

Lean Startup Crash Course @ iHUB Moldova

Recently I was honored and delighted to be invited by USAID to help companies and startups in Moldova.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the United States Government agency which is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid.

I knew where the country of Moldova (not Moldavia – that’s the name of a region) was on the map (Hint: It’s just east of Romania), but I had never previously visited. I was surprised to find a small but capable startup community and a lot of familiar faces in the capital of Chisinau.

The entrance to the cool new iHUB Chisinau

First up, I had two workshops with Moldovan companies and their management about how corporations engage with startups and why; One at Starnet (the primary telco in Moldova) and one at the coworking space and startup center iHUB (also supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs among others).

The topic of innovation and growth is especially interesting in Moldova because one of the leading industries is outsourcing; building apps, websites and software for other western companies. This is a good business model for now – but for how long? What happens when other markets will outcompete them on price? So I talked a lot about the importance in experimenting with developing new products and how, before their business model may become obsolete and also how and why they could be reinvesting in local startups as a part of their innovation portfolio.

Back to back, I was also honored to be invited to speak about my startup experiences at the Startup Grind Chisinau in the evening.

At Startup Grind Chisinau, I spoke a bit about my startup experiences

And a day later I held my popular Lean Startup Crash Course for existing startups and people considering founding one.

In between everything there was also time to sit down with an Estonian startup delegation to learn more about the ecosystem there

My guide and help on the ground was Traian Chivriga of UnArtOras that I already knew from Cologne’s own Pirate Summit – And in the evening there was time for socializing… ;)