As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2021 Nadine Gabrek, Simone Mettmann, Nicola Delbach and Bastian Wirthmann performed their ITV-project at LUB. In the section Customer Care they were responsible for the improvement of and marketing for the chatbot.  Their main task was to develop a valid methodological sales strategy for the public sector. In doing so they had to evaluate the different market segments as also come up with an A/B-test on the best form of customer communication. Finally the chatbot was evaluated in real life contact with several municipalities across Germany.

LUB (Linguistische Unternehmensberatung) is a Mannheim based linguistic consultancy, which was originally founded in 2015 by Dr. Simone Burel and became a GmbH in early 2019. LUB advices public and private stakeholders in all regards of external communication. 

To learn more about LUB, see their website https://lub-mannheim.de/.

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2021 Cansu Öztürk, Caroline Pfeffer, Hanna Putz and Simon Wyrich supported Mentalport. Their main task was to develop a marketing concept for the young startup. A special challenge was to come up with a concept from scratch as Mentalport is in many ways early stage.

Mentalport is a new startup from Mannheim with a mission to give psychological advice to students. Their app aims to enable students to help themselves and better manage their everyday life. The launch of the beta website version is scheduled for the end of 2021.

To know learn more about Mentalport, visit their website: https://mentalport-sample.de/

Dear Mannheim founders, The German Startup Association needs your voice!

The survey for the 2021 German Startup Monitor (DSM) has been launched. The DSM provides a comprehensive picture of our startup ecosystem and has been the central source of information for media and politics on the startup ecosystem for more than six years. Make sure to be represented in this central piece of research with your startup and take part in the our survey now!
Click here for the survey: https://umfrage.deutscherstartupmonitor.de/dsm106 

The current federal government has been in office for more than a year: Many improvements for startups have been promised, but so far only a few have been implemented. This year's Startup Monitor is intended to show the needs of founders and make sure that important measures are implemented quickly. Thus, the Startup Association needs your support!

Participate now: https://umfrage.deutscherstartupmonitor.de/dsm106 

Course Outline

This practical course familiarizes students with concepts of entrepreneurial action and sustainable opportunity creation. Students learn key elements of crowdfunding, especially crowd interaction and digital communication, to foster sustainable entrepreneurship via creative ideas. In workshop-like sessions, students are encouraged to develop their own business models and crowdfunding campaign for a social idea focusing on goals such as gender equality, powerty reduction, stronger institutions, and quality education. The course is flanked via impulses of experts from practice.

Learning Outcomes

Students are capable to

• gain advanced insights in venturing,
• work in groups to create a social business model with economic viability, 
• understand social and psychological dynamics underlying crowdfunding success, 
• craft high quality multimedia content for a crowdfunding campaign, 
• pitch their business model in front of an expert jury.

Eligibility 

1. Students from all semesters and faculties (including non-business studies and exhange students) are welcome. 
2. Students who took MAN 626 or MBS M1 Summer Course are not eligible for the course.

Registration

Students willing to take the course have to register for the course between 15.01.2024 - 08.02.2024. All students who want to register have to:

1. register to the course and excercise via Portal2.
2. send an email to the course instructor (erika.ni[at]uni-mannheim.de) with "MAN 634 Registration" in the subject line, and attach their CV (1 page) and transcript of grades.
3. since you will receive the feedback if you are accepted to the course on 12.02.2024, please refrain from sending Emails before this date regarding your status or regarding the receipt of your email.

Course capacity is strictly limited as the format involves groupwork. Thus, students who registered but decided not to participate in the course have to deregister from the course during the deregisteration period indicated in Portal2.

Please see Portal2 for the periods of deregisteration and notification of acceptance for the course.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory and all students are required to attend all classes (exceptions are made for students who provide a medical certificate or have an exam).

Place and Time

Sessions:

• Bootcamp Day 1:
  11.03.2024, 9:00-18:00; Place: MAFINEX Technologiezentrum, Vortragssaal (Ground floor in Block A) (see https://mafinex.next-mannheim.de/kontakt/ for the address)
  
• Bootcamp Day 2:
  12.03.2024, 9:00-18:00; Place: MAFINEX Technologiezentrum, Vortragssaal (Ground floor in Block A)  (see https://mafinex.next-mannheim.de/kontakt/ for the address)
• Feedback Session 1 (optional):
  08.04.2024, 13:00-18:00, Place: EO 237
• Feedback Session 2 (optional):
  26.04.2024, 09:00-15:00, Place: EO 256
• Final Presentations:
  16.05.2024, 9:00-14:00; Place: MAFINEX Technologiezentrum, Hub 1 (Block C, above Agáta Café)  (see https://mafinex.next-mannheim.de/kontakt/ for the address)
  
  

Assessment

Crowdfunding video & conventional pitch (75%), campaign- & business plan (25%)

Persons in Charge

Instructor: Erika Ni

Supervising professor: Prof. Dr. Michael Woywode

Course Load and Language

ECTS: 6

Language: English

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in fall 2020 Richard Derks and Eduard Sasot supported SaleUp. The purpose of the project was to create something tangible that may be sold as a product or act as a demo to improve SaleUp's cold acquisition process for their sales training. The three suggested solutions have been (in-)validated by four interviews with SaleUp's previous and potential clients. Besides a concise, personalized, and unique client approach, SaleUp should emphasize Sales as a Service, a customer success story, and a value creation plan to increase lead generation and conversion.

Saleup is a startup based in Mannheim that offers seminars and trainings, mainly in strategy and sales as a service.

To know learn more about FutureNext, visit their website: https://www.saleup-training.com/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in fall 2020 Asad Auyb, Asad Ellahi an Gauri Maya Upreti assisted Opal Analytics. The main purpose of this project was to help Opal Analytics to improve its forecasted value and meet its core objectives. In the project they tried to enhance the 3-core objectives that Opal created for the customers i.e., improve sales opportunities, reduce losses, and increase customer satisfaction. Their project not only measured the value created for the customer by calculating the metrics like net cost saving, increase in sales and decrease in cost but also provides Opal team with recommendations to predict better results in the future.

Opal Analytics is a Mannheim based startup that helps bakeries to improve their processes. Data from checkouts and baking stations are linked to external influencing factors, such as weather, public vacations and local events. Their software analyzes this data in real time. The result is a precise, up-to-the-minute forecast of demand. This is compared with the current actual situation. This delivers an optimal production plan directly to customers' checkout screens. The plan can be used in the store as an interactive recommendation for action and relieves the staff on site.

To know learn more about Opal Analytics, visit their website: https://www.opal-analytics.com/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in fall 2020 Simon Kabs temporarily joined Pro-AspectX and helped them in pricing their product. The challenge hereby was the exclusive use in the B2B–sector and the unique character of the product. To determine a price range, instruments commonly used in marketing for price queries among potential buyers were used, such as the van Westendorp method (also called price sensitivity meter) and conjoint measurement. Special factors for the success of the project were the size of the producer's company and its short existence as a start-up, the high degree of technical innovation of the product, the relatively small number of possible buyers associated with it and the industry-specific conditions of the buyer sector.

Pro-AspectX is a spin-off from the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, currently operating in the government-funded start-up program EXIST. The team has committed itself to develop a new generation of optical non-contact process sensors for explosion-proof (Ex) areas in the chemical industry. With a unique optical setup and housing concept, their current prototype is the first “Ex-ready” all-in-one Raman sensor that can be operated directly in process plants. The developed sensor distinguishes itself from competitors by significantly lower installation costs, easy assembly and less bureaucratic effort. The high-performance plug-and-play sensors leads to cost reduction, increased efficiency and process safety of industrial processes within the scope of digital transformation. 

To know learn more about ProAspectX, see their presentation as part of EXIST.

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in fall 2020 Devadeep Sen and Muhammad Arsal supported Tutorspace. In order to assist the startup with its website launch and reaching out to more people, they developped further marketing strategies for the company. The strategies have been developed keeping in mind the target audience, the competitors and the education system of Germany. Since the startup was also interested in the expansion into other possible countries, they also carried out a market research into prospective countries where TutorSpace could expand in the future. As a result two key target areas where identified.

Tutorspace is a Ludwigshafen based education company that provides a plattform for tutoring. Students can find their teacher online and for free.

To know learn more about Tutorspace, visit their website: https://tutorspace.de/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in fall 2020 Mathilda Axelsson and Jie Sun supported FutureNext. Within the project they performed various tasks aiming to find new customers and make the product more attractive to potential customers. During their project, they collected insights about big companies with internal academies, taking a closer look at SAP and BASF, and how they could benefit from the Virtual Badge Service. Furthermore, they applied different models to analyse the Virtual Badge Service.

FutureNext is a marketing company with a focus on their Virtual Badget Service. They aim at a modern form of marketing that includes individualized virtual badgets. Users shall be given a token that they are proud to share. Creating these online certificates is meant to spark pride related to a certain company and increase engagements on social media.

To know learn more about FutureNext, visit their website: https://futurenext.de

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in fall 2020 Kourosh Semnani supported Bacchus Software. His main task was to improve features and usability of the software of Bacchus Software. The background for his mission was the customer´s desire for a broader range of features. His work focussed particularly on the digitalization and automation of painful and time-consuming administrative tasks.

Bacchus Software offers a cloud-based software for wine-yard management. The software is designed as a software-as-a-service-model. It helps clients to digitalise administrative tasks. Also the software is able to provide relevant data concerning the current status of the wineyard. That enables winegrowing companies to better adopt to changes in weather and other conditions, especially when seasons are changing.

To know learn more about Bacchus Software, visit their website: http://bacchus-software.de/