Category Archives: Events

Education, Events, pitching

Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals 2015 in Cologne

12309206_10156309491600444_896876630_n

And the winner is…

Yesterday saw the first ever winter finals of the Rheinland Pitch event series – and a spectacular success it was!

The Rheinland Pitch is a monthly startup event where regional startups receive professional pitch training and a stage to present themselves to investors, media and the general public – for free. I’ve been involved from the start in April 2013 and thus far I have trained over 270 startups to pitch – and counting!

Once in a while we pick the best of the best to pitch in a grand finals. This summer the first ever Rheinland Pitch finals took place in Düsseldorf and was a rip roaring success and we were very excited to bring the finals to Cologne, hosted by the wonderful Wallraf-Richartz Museum.

12278715_10156306737650444_3826297696499103340_n

Quiet before the storm – The foyer of our awesome venue, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne

Continue reading →

Standard
Education, entrepreneurship, Events

The Very First Startup Weekend Maastricht is an EPIC success!

This weekend saw the very fist Startup Weekend Maastricht – and what an EPIC weekend it was! This time around I was invited as a coach to help the participants flex their entrepreneurial muscle and help out my wonderful friends on the organizing team with supporting the regional ecosystem

12017694_1547835255479513_5453370538222925189_o

The hands are doing the talking: The thin vs the broad side of the wedge

Visit their Facebook page for many more great photos and videos from the EPIC weekend that was Startup Weekend Maastricht!

Sjoerd Jansen, a participant on the winning team, wrote a post-event blog post. Here are some quotes:

Continue reading →

Standard
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.

fb_ollp_2015

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.

Continue reading →

Standard
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?

Continue reading →

Standard