Education, entrepreneurship, startup

Mentoring at Synthesis @ Constructor University

This week I was invited to join the incubator “Synthesis” at the Constructor University in Bremen, DE as a mentor.

Join me at Constructor University as we launch migrant entrepreneurs with world-changing ideas. Deep tech, UNSDGs, Diversity – that is what “Synthesis” is about.

Here’s why to apply:

  • Become a future-proof entrepreneur: Learn from the best and thrive in a rapidly changing world.
  • Make a real difference: Tackle global challenges and contribute to a better tomorrow while getting a potential investment of up to €100K!
  • Join a vibrant community: Network with passionate individuals from around the globe.
  • Turn your idea into reality: Get expert support and mentorship to launch your startup and get mentorship from people like myself!

Applications close March 25th, here’s how to apply.

P.S. Know someone this program would be perfect for? Spread the word!

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Education, entrepreneurship, startup

Back mentoring startups @ Young Entrepreneur Summit

I’m back also this year mentoring startups at the (rebranded) Young Entrepreneurship Summit run entirely by students at Constructor University in Bremen, DE.

About YES

“The Young Entrepreneur Summit is the ideal springboard for you to project that unique idea!

Contest your idea, benefit from the expertise of successful entrepreneurs through our one-to-one mentorship process, and win thousands of euros to kick-start your venture!

Here at Young Entrepreneur Summit, we guide you from your first business idea towards your very own company—from vision to venture.

From the first application round, you will be provided with valuable advice from experienced founders and entrepreneurship professionals and get a chance to participate in webinars that introduce you to the most important aspects of founding your own business.

The best ten teams will be paired with a personal mentor to guide them through the last application round and prepare them for their pitch during the final event on the Constructor University campus.”

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Education, entrepreneurship, pitching, startup

My Pitching Masterclass now available to anyone, anywhere, anytime

Pitching Masterclass – 2024 Edition: Now available ONLINE!

As you may or may not already know, as the co-founder of the Rheinland Pitch, Germany’s largest startup pitching event founded back in 2013, I’ve been preparing and training the applying startups how to pitch investors.

And with training how to pitch, I don’t mean how to put on a song and dance in front of investors – I mean how to actually find investors, how to contact investors, what investors are looking for, how the funding game works, and the contents of what and how to actually pitch investors successfully – with my in-person Pitching Masterclass.

So far I’ve trained over 3.000 startups how to successfully pitch in person.

Over the years I’ve also been booked by companies, events, organisations, startup programs (like incubators and accelerators), and universities and colleges, to help their employees, members, startups, and students improve their pitching skills.

Happy customers include KIT ( Karlsruher Institut für Technologie), Cologne Business School, Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf, RTL Journalistenschule, Bertelsmann, Budapest Enterprise Agency, USAID, DMEXCO, Web Summit, Pirate Summit, Medien Gruppe RTL, ottobock, Zentis, Founders Foundation, 0-1 Booster (Japan), Startup Nano (Portugal), Startup Braga (Portugal), IHK, DigitalHUB Aachen, DigitalHUB Düsseldorf, DigitalHUB Bonn, DigitalHUB Cologne, Reifenhäuser, etc.

But until now, you’d have to be able to attend an in-person Pitching Masterclass to enjoy the benefits.

As the Pitching Masterclass has been evolving and updating – and the aggregated collective wisdom of the thousands of startups I’ve been working with for over the last 11 years – I thought it was a damned shame that you could only access the knowledge if you were somehow able to attend an in-person Masterclass.

So to be able to help as many people as possible to pitch investors for raising funds, I’ve now created and released a 100% digital version of the Pitching Masterclass open for anyone, anywhere, anytime!

So, got startup? Get smart, get funded: Enroll today.

Also available: Corporate Edition

And that’s not all; I’ve also created a different version for employees wanting to secure buy-in from stakeholders for their innovation ideas and for companies wanting to train their employees to be better at pitching new innovations internally. Spoiler alert: corporate innovation ventures are not startups and they need a different approach to securing funding and support. This version includes a framework for getting to yes, for securing buy-in from stakeholders and an additional very useful alternative pitch format to the classic pitch deck just for corporates. Here’s how to learn more about this corporate edition.

Also available: Unlimited Edition

Both versions of my Pitching Masterclass are available either as a single user for startups and employees AND as an subscription edition with unlimited users for companies, organisations, startup support programs, and educational institutions who want to make it available to all of their employees, members, startups, or students on-demand. Here’s how to learn more about the unlimited users options.

Contents

What you can expect is +2 hours of video and +370 slides with these topics and contents in a user friendly web-based learning interface:

INTRO

  1. Intro
  2. Welcome
  3. About your instructor

BEFORE YOU START PITCHING

  1. First thing first
  2. The Basics
  3. Your competition today
  4. Capital available today

HOW TO RAISE MONEY

  1. Funding sources available to you
  2. What investors are looking for
  3. How the funding game works
  4. When should you raise money
  5. How to find investors
  6. How to contact investors

PITCHING

  1. Pitching TL;DR
  2. The three pitch types
  3. The High-Concept Pitch
  4. The Elevator Pitch
  5. The Pitch Deck (The Funding Pitch)
  6. Final words

ADDENDUM
20.1 Startup metrics
20.2 Pitching Tricks
20.3 Further Resources
20.4 AirBnB’s first (successful) pitch deck
20.5 Acknowledgements

DOWNLOAD
+370 slides as PDF

AFTER THE PITCHING MASTERCLASS
What’s next?

Enroll today!

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entrepreneurship, Events, startup

The Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals are BACK!

The spectacular Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals format is back!

All photos by Manor Lux, https://manorlux.de/

And what a spectacular Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals 2024 it was in KOMED, Cologne!

This year, based on the experience and feedback gathered from doing this for over 10 years now, we mixed it up a little to make it even more interesting for the audience – and to give even more startups the exposure: We decided to try three different categories with three startups pitching in each.

The categories were Sustainability, Generative AI, and Female Entrepreneurship. The finalists were:

Sustainability:

  • Beaverdesk
  • Innovative Robot Delivery
  • Fainin GmbH

Generative AI:

  • Panos AI
  • Cityscaper
  • LABNODE

Female Entrepreneurship:

  • KOHO Smart
  • Campus Cruiser
  • Qizify Learning

And then the startups pitched…

The jury considered each pitches, asked questions… With the Rheinland Pitch finals format we have a panel of expert judges that count for 50% of the weight of the votes together with 50% of the audience.

The audience asked questions…

The audience also voted…

And then it was time for the classic networking break with Currywurst.

Networking is at least half the value of the event.

And it wouldn’t been possible to put on a flawless event without a lot of great helpers!

And the winners were…

Sustainability: Fainin GmbH

Generative AI: LABNODE

Female Entrepreneurship: Qizifi Learning

It’s a wrap! See you in 2024! Stay tuned to https://rheinlandpitch.de

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Education, entrepreneurship, Lean Launchpad, Lean Startup, startup

Guess who’s back (in Aachen)

Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back… at the digitalHUB Aachen e.V. for the seventh year in a row now, again supporting the 2023 batch of 12 incubated startups with a custom version of the Lean Launchpad (LLP) program.

Together over the years we have been able to achieve an incredible 87% survival rate of their incubated startups.

So what is the Lean Launchpad (LLP)? It’s the world’s premier early-start support program that originated at Stanford and Berkeley over 10 years ago and has since spread to top universities, GOs, NGOs, startup support programs, and corporate innovation programs world wide. It applies an evidence-based process, going from beliefs to facts. It lets the idea evolve by exposing it to unbiased feedback from the market at incredible speed instead of applying a top-down linear creationism approach (that rarely – if ever – works out) at a snail’s pace. It’s 20% theory, 80% hands on experience, and 100% peer dynamics, 100% reality-based, 100% engaging.

The LLP has been tested by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) – a 7 BILLION USD public fund that finances commercialisation of publicly funded research in the US – and found so radically effective for increasing the fundability of early-stage ventures that the LLP has been mandated into US law: If you want funding from the NSF, you first have to attend an LLP program – it’s the law.

The good thing about the Lean Launchpad is that it has no lock-in, no licensing model, or other such nonsense. And you can send your own faculty, staff, and employees to be trained and certified as an LLP Educator at great universities around the world once you’re comfortable with the program and would decide to move it in-house.

Let me know if you want to know more about the Lean Launchpad (LLP) and how it can help radically improve the outcomes of your students, startup support program, or corporate innovation program – Phone: +4915140133149 Mail: [email protected] Zoom: https://ohours.youcanbook.me/

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