Category Archives: Events

Education, entrepreneurship, Events, News

Introducing the free & open Lean Launchpad Düsseldorf

So I recently retired from facilitating and organizing Startup Weekend and Startup Next.

But fear not. I’m not going away and I’m not about to stop caring about entrepreneurial education for startup founders in our region. On the contrary, I’m ramping up my efforts.

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That’s why I have chosen to offer the Lean Launchpad (LLP), the world’s premier pre-accelerator program from Stanford, Berkeley and hundreds of other universities and used by numerous F500 companies, FOR FREE to early-stage startups.

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Education, entrepreneurship, Events, News

I’m retiring from organizing and facilitating Startup Weekend & Startup Next

I’m officially retiring from facilitating and organizing Startup Weekends and Startup Next, effective immediately. (You can still invite me as a coach, though).

SW Tourism Tehran, Iran 2015

Waving goodbye (SW Tourism Tehran, Iran 2015)

So long and thanks for all the EPIC awesomeness. I’m forever grateful for the experience and the people I’ve met on my journeys and the chance to have an impact on entrepreneurship and inspire individuals worldwide. It has certainly added more than a 10x meaning and value to my life.

Note: For those of you who don’t know, Organizers and Facilitators of Startup Weekend work on an entirely voluntary basis – aka for FREE. Keep that in mind the next time you are participating at a Startup Weekend or when you’re organizing a Startup Weekend with a facilitator shipped in from out of town.

So why am I retiring now?

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entrepreneurship, Events

Pirate Summit 2015

MC'ing the startup pitches @ Pirate Summit 2015. 02 September 2015, Cologne, Germany. Image ©Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media

MC’ing the startup pitches @ Pirate Summit 2015. 02 September 2015, Cologne, Germany. Image ©Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media

And thus, Cologne’s own Pirate Summit is history for this year. And what a spectacular event it was – once again! This marks the 5 year anniversary and the same number of summits I’ve attended.

This year I wasn’t pitching anything myself, but MC’ing the startup pitches on the first day instead, I opened with the exact same hack I debuted pitching my own startup from the same stage in 2011.

Back then as now, I made everybody stand up and introduce themselves to a stranger next to them, explain who they are and what they expected to get out of the event.

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entrepreneurship, Events

Startups on a Boat – from Koblenz to Cologne

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Yesterday I had the pleasure to be invited onboard the MS Gründerschiff to moderate the startup pitches during the trip on the river Rhine from Koblenz to Cologne.

MS Gründerschiff loosely translates to MS Founders’ Ship, and it was a one of a kind networking event to bridge the startup scene of Koblenz with that of its bigger brother in the Northwest, Cologne. The event saw local stakeholders, startups and corporates – leaders and feeders – come together to talk about how to strengthen the region.

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Photo by NERDHUB CC

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Education, entrepreneurship, Events

Introducing the first Rheinland Pitch Finals in Duesseldorf

Yesterday saw the culmination of nearly two year’s work making the Rheinland Pitch THE biggest longest continuously  running startup pitching event in Germany and quite possibly Europe.

Standing room only! Almost 900 registered participants - Image CC by NERDHUB

Standing room only! Almost 900 registered participants – Image CC by NERDHUB

The Rheinland Pitch is a regular monthly event where regional startups apply to pitch an audience of investors, media and peers. Applicants receive professional pitch training and goes through an extensive selection process. So far over 220 startups applied, 66 startups pitched to the audience, almost 4.000 audience in total. It’s a FREE and open event for both startups and audience. Apply here: rheinlandpitch.de

And what a final it was! Almost 900 registered participants saw the mayor of Duesseldorf open the event and four regional startups pitch. And from now on we’re expanding to a bi-monthly event in Duesseldorf in parallel to Cologne – I’m very exited to make the Rheinland Pitch even bigger!

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