Category Archives: mentoring

AI, mentoring, startup

Mentoring startups at the STARTPLATZ KI Accelerator

Have you heard that our Rheinland region got our very own accelerator for AI-based startups in Cologne? Check it out.

Continuing the tradition of mentoring startups at STARTPLATZ over the years, recently I had the pleasure to mentor the next batch of participants in the new KI Accelerator in Cologne.

I was quite impressed by the diversity of the types of founders and markets addressed. This could be a very exciting batch.

If there was a recurring theme in my feedback, it would be “More money, more problems – Taking investors’ money to hire more people to do the work is usually not the efficiency boost you think wish it is (at this early, pre-PMF, stage). You, the founders, have to do the work.”

Full disclosure: I’m not affiliated with STARTPLATZ other than that we’ve been working together on strengthening the Rhineland startup ecosystem on various different projects, like the Rheinland Pitch, since it opened its doors back in 2013. A lot of people who only know me from one ore more of these projects assume I’m either a STARTPLATZ employee or co-founder – which I am not. Lulz. (I’m the founder-boss-man of my own little thing called +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES, also founded in 2013.)

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Customer Development, Education, mentoring, startup

Alumniportal Challenge Workshops & Mentoring

Recently I was honored and excited to be invited to teach and mentor the startups participating in the Alumniportal Challenge online. I first held an interactive online workshop on why most startups fail and what to do about it (customer development, lean startup, and all that), and then mentored the international teams over Zoom later in the month.

Alumniportal Deutschland is a non-profit online social network of “Germany Alumni” that is designed internationally for people who have studied, researched, worked or completed further training or a language course in Germany or at a German institution abroad.

The primary non-profit and non-governmental organizations responsible for creating, maintaining and promoting Alumniportal Deutschland are the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD – the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers), and the Goethe-Institut. Since 2019, the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) is responsible for funding the portal.

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Customer Development, mentoring, startup

Teaching & Mentoring for Founders Institute (FI) MENA

Recently I was asked to teach the current cohort of FI MENA startups about idea validation (aka Customer Developmen), business models and revenue sources and mentor them through later sessions.

Full disclosure: I am NOT a member of FI and I am not participating in the FI participation scheme. I’m not a big FI fan and I chose to remain completely independent, but I’m a big believer in helping grow more founders and financial independence in underserved regions – so when the call comes, I tend to answer regardless.

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mentoring, pitching, startup

Ignition+ Demo Night, Batch 19 – another team-win!

Recently I had the pleasure to be back at the Igniton+ Demo Night, this time experiencing the startup that I’ve been (b2b SaaS for early stage sales & pitch) coaching in the 19th batch of the Ignition+ program from Digihub Düsseldorf & Rheinland winning “best pitch” of the batch.

UPDATE: Following the tradition set by the startup I coached in the previous batch, OSPHIM – Layer Performance went on to be awarded “Digital Start-up of the Year 2025” by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, BMWE) for their outstanding digital innovation! FTW!

Congratulations Laura and Lukas of Layer Performance! Perfectly delivered pitch, very well deserved!

(BTW, if you too want to improve your pitch, you can enroll in my Pitching Masterclass online – available anytime, anywhere.)

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mentoring, pitching, startup

Startup Sprint Düsseldorf celebrating 10 years!

Recently, I was invited to mentor the teams participating at the 10th anniversary Startup Sprint Düsseldorf (think Startup Weekend, sans a global network).

I was also asked to do a little impromptu TL;DR on pitching, prepping the teams for what they could expect; If you can tell me which problem or need you are solving, for whom you’re solving it, and how – like a 6 year old child can understand – you’re already 80% on your way, 100% better than most! (want to learn how to pitch your startup successfully to investors? There’s my pitchingmasterclass.com for that! :)

Mad props to Ingo, Georgis, Peter, & team for keeping the volunteering up all these years! (And thanks for the shout-out, Peter – nice gesture to an OG! )

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