In what is becoming a yearly tradition, I was recently invited back as a mentor to the student-run event “3-Day Startup” (think of it as a clone of Startup Weekend) at WHU in Vallendar.
And the winners were… Quanta Labs (think EU version of Mercor).
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.)
Pitching Masterclass back at Gateway in Cologne!
Recently I had the honour of being invited back to Gateway at the University of Cologne to teach the selected startups for their “Startup Your Idea Contest” how to (better) pitch with my Pitching Masterclass workshop.
Want to see the results for yourself? Grab a ticket for the event at University of Cologne!
Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals 2025
It was that time of year again, time for the Rheinland Pitch Winter Finals!
It’s a wrap! And the winners were…
Defence Tech: Auxsys
Female Founders: Youro
Enterprise SaaS: Neo Predicts
The Rheinland Pitch was founded in 2013 by Lorens Gräf, Matthias Gräf, and me – and since grew to become Germany’s largest startup pitching event. It is open to all startups (for free) and a public audience on a regular basis ever since.
Check out https://rheinlandpitch.de for more photos and the next events.