We are happy to look back on a successful and inspiring fall semester 2019. We have met loads of new start-ups and inspiring people and were again able to put up many events in our regular event series and beyond to foster the start-up culture at the University of Mannheim and within the Rhine-Neckar-Region. As you can see a detailed report for the spring semester 2019 on our page, the following focusses on the fall semester 2019 in review.
We hosted a lot of awesome events like our Startup Lounges and Founder Talks. In addition, we were also realising other events with external partners or student initiatives we are cooperating with. Of course, we also continued our accelerator-style course formats Entrepreneurial Spirit (MAN 633) and Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Practice (MAN 631) and our classes Introduction to Entrepreneurship (MAN 630), and Social Entrepreneurship (MAN 635). The following more in-depth perspective along our core pillars Education, Support and Inspiration will provide your with more detailed information on our teaching activities, support programs and events.
Education & Support
Our courses in the fall semester were the accelerator-style courses Entrepreneurial Spirit (MAN 633) and Creativity and Entrepreneurship in Practice (MAN 631) and our classes Introduction to Entrepreneurship (MAN 630), as well as Social Entrepreneurship (MAN 635).
Within our accelerator courses several Inside the Venture projects were realized: customer and marketing analysis at Bucher Bags, development of a European expansion strategy at Cansativa, market research at Future Stock, workshop conceptualizing at LUB, business model and market evaluation at Reportix, B2B and B2C integration at Pourista, improvement of business model and strategy at Treye Tech, as well as development of a regional marketing strategy and customer outreach at Swapfiets.
Furthermore, for all our course participants but also for everybody who was interested we were able to offer another pitchworkshop in cooperation with FirstMomentum who helped students and founders in becoming better in creating pitch desks and pitching in general.
Inspirational Events
In the past semester we had amazing Startup Lounges and an intriguing Founder Talk again. The Founder Talk was given bei Vladimir Danila in the Fuchs Petrolub Saal. Vladimir is a Uni Mannheim student. After winning the big European science competition “Jugend forscht” in 2017, he decided to take his project to the next level by founding his company Linearity. Today Linearity is changing the workflow of millions of designers around the world, already challenging Adobe. Linearity is building the best next-generation graphic design tool for designers, artists and product managers and gained a lot of media attention with articles from Gründerszene, FAZ and BILD. In the light of the above, we were insanely proud to have Vladimir with us to deliver this semester's Founder Talk. The event ended as always with a meet and greet in Café L3, where participants had the opportunity to ask their questions in a more familiar and loose atmosphere.
Moreover, we were enjoying various Startup Lounges with amazing start-ups presenting themselves. The first Startup Lounge in the fall semester was with the Mannheim start-up onTrack. Maraike, Asli und Benni from onTrack shared their vision of a worldwide digital music museum with us. Their app offers music, videos, and history connected to certain spots in town. Following was acáo, a young innovative food and beverage provider from Wiesbaden. With their natural energy drinks they are present at nationwide stores like the drugstores of DM. Next was the Mannheim start-up metru, offering a platform for video interviews of potential applicants. Next was 60seconds. The 60Seconds App connects people, events, concerts, clubs, event offers and events locations through videos. Users can search, find, preview, rate concerts, parties, clubs, locations, festivals through videos and based on that decide where to party the other night. In November out guest was 1000 Satellites, a new regional coworking provider. Next we had guests not from far. Sally Sales Assistant is sitting at the MAFINEX Gründerzentrum and they provide a voice assistant for the field service and appointment preparation. The highlight of the semester were our two pitch battles, in which the student start-ups from our courses MAN 631 and MAN 633 pitched to a jury.
We thank all our supporters, partners and program participants for living the entrepreneurial spirit and making these formats happen! We are already looking forward to 2020!
More news about the MCEI
At MCEI we had a little change. Rukshana entered into the final stage of her Master's including her master thesis while also gaining more responsibility at her job at N26. So heavy hearted she decided to leave Mannheim and MCEI and to settle permanently in Berlin. We already miss her and her humorous and intriguing personality as well as her professional approach to all communication affairs that needed to be done at MCEI. Nevertheless, we wish her an awesome start and time in Berlin, which is not only Germany's capital but also Germany's start-up capital! Already from September on, now Stefan is our website- and communication manager. Stefan comes from the Uni Heidelberg and has a law background with a focus on Economic, European and Capital Market Law. And he of course brings a lot of passion for start-ups as well. Welcome to the team, Stefan, and happy to work with you!
