Last Saturday, pupils and young students presented their founding ideas in front of a professional jury at the University of Mannheim. Their ideas had been developed by them in the program "Junior Accelerator" of the Initiative für Existenzgründungen und Unternehmensnachfolge – ifex from the minstry of finance Baden-Württemberg. From the beginning of this year, the participants spent weekends in Stuttgart, Freiburg and Mannheim with experienced founders, experts and coaches to improve their business ideas.
After the final pitch contest, the team Campusjäger from Karlsruhe was selected as winner of the program. Martin Trenkle presented the company, which has already been founded: corporations can "hunt" for interns, working students and alumni using an automated online platform. The target population are students, so companies will be able to identify young talents while they are still at the university.
During the award ceremony, Prof. Peter Schäfer, Head of Ifex, complimented all participants: "For me, all of them are winners. We have seen very strong presentations and well-developed business ideas today. And exactly that has been the target of our initiative – to pick up first ideas and elaborate them. Ideally, like in the case of our winners, to the point of market entry.“
The project "Junior-Accelerator" allowed young people to sign up for intense training and coaching for founding their own company. It has been realized by the Mannheim Center vor Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MCEI), a part of the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (ifm) at the University of Mannheim. Some participants have already entered the market sucessfully, others are standing short before their market launch.
