A day full of inspiration and support for future entrepreneurs
On the 23rd of May 2014, more than 250 students, entrepreneurship enthusiasts met at the University of Mannheim and listened to the talks of various founders who studied there. One lesson is stressed by all of them: linking up with others, buliding networks and starting cooperations is essential for the survival of every startup. The event has been lauchend by the Lehrstuhl für Mittelstandsforschung und Entrepreneurship with its Mannheim Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MCEI) led by Prof. Dr. Michael Woywode, who states: „our idea is to let successful founders inspire and support young self-employed to become sucessful as well“. The organization of the event was conducted in cooperation by the bdvb Hochschulgruppe Mannheim, which put a lot of effort and ideas into its realization.
Using different channels for marketing
One of the founders who has been present is Katja Andes. She studied business studies at the University of Mannheim and founded the "Idea Camp" in 2011 together with some friends. The startup helps unexperienced founders to walk their first steps. Her workshop „No-Budget-Marketing-Challenge“ help many hints about how to reach ones first customers without spending any money for it. According to Andes, E-Mail marketing, blog marketing, forum marketing and social media are the most important tools. „The most important thing is to always remember what is interesting and exciting for for your counterpart“, she explained to the audience. One of the listeners was the economics student Alexander Sölch, wo is very interested about turning his hobby into a profession as soon as possible, which was his main reason for choosing this workshop: „as a student, you don't have great amounts of capital to spend. That's why I'd like to find some inspiration in this workshop“.
A broad range of topics and exciting discussions
The workshops covered a broad range of topics. Dr. Jochen Haller, managing director of exchangeBA, gave a lecture on finding the right investor. Robert Rudnick, who founded Coffee Circle, spoke about „online marketing in a Social Business“. The startup sells fair trade coffee, which is being grown biologically in Ethiopia and plucked manually. Lea Sophie Cramer, founder of Amorelie, covered the topic „sucessful brand building and multichannel marketing“, Björn Goss from Stocard taught his visitors how to pitch professionally in fromt of investors and Rupprecht Rittweger, founder of e-shelter, communicated some deep insights into his highly sucessful company, which operates highly secure data centers.
Furthermore, Alexander von Frankenberg, CEO of the High-Tech Gründerfonds, presented his financing activites and Lisa Jentschura of the chancellery Osborne Clarke gave lots of input about the management of a companys terms and conditions.
Michael Altendorf from Adtelligence andTim Wegner from Minodes presented exciting insights about how customer insights can be turned into profit in the online as well as the offline world.
The concluding panel discussion, which was moderated by Jessica Di Bella (MCEI), was set on the topic "E-Commerce versus Local Commerce". Christoph Samwer (Lendico), Jan Dzulko (M Cube), Robin Simon (Serial Entrepreneur), Simon Engelhorn (Engelhorn) and Martin Rost (Zalando Lounge) spoke about new sales and marketing channels in trading. Inspired by this discussion, the participants of the Startup Homecoming 2014 had the oppunity to exchange more ideas and the impressions of the day at the following get-together and afterparty with live music by Juri Rother feat. Pierre Pihl. .
The Startup Homecoming 2014 was the first of its kind at the University of Mannheim, but will be repeated every year from now on. The MCEI has also launched a frequent Startup-Lounge, where founders and future entrepreneurs can exchange in an informal atmosphere. Furthermore there are constant Founder Talks, where entrepreneurs come to the University of Mannheim to talk about their career and their business. Finally, the MCEI offers once per year a 4-day Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, where future entrepreneurs are prepared intensely for founding their own business. The goal of the organization is clear: „We want to bring the entrepreneurial spirit to the students and make them realize their most promising ideas consistently", Jessica Di Bella, Head of MCEI, sums up.
