Displaying items by tag: inside the venture

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/

What social impact do organizations have? How can the social impact be increased with the help of an online platform?

Prof. Dr. Dominika Wruk, Assistant Professor for Sustainable Entrepreneurship, is offering two master theses on this topic. Find more information here. German writing skills are required! 

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Felix Bures worked close to the marketing team at Freachly. Freachly is the leading marketing platform for local merchants in Europe. The company offers different digital services for local businesses to increase their social media presence and to showcase their products to potential customers.

Felix project aimed to analyze Freachly’s company data to identify the causes of customer churn and present potential solutions. His consulting project also included the support for raising additional capital from investors. Therefore, he provided a pitch deck with all the relevant insights. Next to the applied startup project, Felix did a study on the effectiveness of gamification elements for multi-sided platform businesses. The thesis was finalized in January 2020.

Read here more about Freachly in our MCEI Success Stories.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Philipp Epstein worked on the digitalization of his family’s business venture, the hotel Romina. He stated that smaller, private hotels have a more personal relationship with their clients in comparison to big chain-hotels, but they are at a big disadvantage when it comes to the digital customer journey. The aim of his project was to develop a digital marketing concept and increasing the stakeholder value of the private hotel. Therefore, he conducted multiple customer interviews and market research to find the right digital products, that would optimize the management of the hotel and increase customer satisfaction.

In the academic part of his thesis, he focused on the automation bias for layman users of digital health applications. He reviewed the relevant literature and collaborated with the startup NALA.care in order to conduct an experiment on the topic. Based on the statistical data from the experiment and on qualitative interviews, Philipp took stated a positive relationship. He suggested adding automation bias and mitigation strategies in the design framework for digital health applications. The thesis was finalized in September 2020.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Robin Kiwitt became part of SAP Ruum. SAP Ruum is a B2B company that provides a digital platform and tool, where teams can plan their projects and automate processes without code. In his project, Robin scaled the go-to-market strategy of the company by preparing the framework of an account-based marketing (ABM) process for SAP Ruum. Based on proven consulting methods and materials provided by the company, Robin evaluated the product-market fit and derived recommendations for the implementation of the ABM. Next to the applied startup project, he conducted a study on the differences between the ways social and commercial entrepreneurs mobilize their financial resources.

The thesis was finalized in February 2020.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Julius Seitter became part of the RoadAds Interactive team. The company specializes in vehicle advertising technology and offers a unique product – a digital e-paper screen for trucks and buses, that can flexibly change the advertising contents based on the vehicle’s location.

Julius’ project focused on the hardware sales business, the newly emerged addition to the established advertising technology core. For his consulting project, he analyzed the AS-IS business state of the company to determine points of improvement. Moreover, he conducted qualitative research on customer markets and competitor’s landscape. Applying these insights, he designed a marketing strategy that covers product-, price-, channel-, and communication-related measures. Next to the startup project, Julius conducted research on startup platform ecosystems and the value they could bring for corporate-startup partnerships. The thesis was finalized in March 2020.

Find more about RoadAds Interactive in our MCEI Success Stories.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Maximilian Bruhm supported FastBill in their preparations for the Series B fund raising process.

FastBill is a FinTech startup that provides a cloud-based solution for the financial management of entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, and freelancers. In his project, Maximilian illustrated and analyzed FastBill’s business case and provided his insights in a consulting report. The primary focus of the project was the development of a financial planning tool, tailored to the needs of FastBill and its investors. The tool is going to be used for reporting, forecasting, and monitoring the company’s progress. The academic part of Maximilian’s thesis focused on the application of alternative valuation methods in German VCs based on qualitative research. The thesis was finalized in November 2019.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Michael developed a strong business model for his flat-sharing company WGLV GmbH. He evaluated the German flat-sharing market characteristics using relevant local data as well as conducting interviews with possible customers.

Based on his research, Michael developed WGLV GmbH’s business model and recommended several directions for growing the business. We are excited to hear more from him and see how his venture develops. In the second part of his thesis, Michael concluded a qualitative study on entrepreneurship education and its effects on students’ careers. He summarized the relevant literature and data in a case study.

The thesis was finalized in September 2019.

Inspired by his own school experience, when a young Christian would have to make his own sandwich for lunch or opt for a less nutritious store-bought one, a grown-up Christian developed the idea of Freshman.

In the theoretical part of his thesis, Christian researched how business models are validated in entrepreneurship. He applied this knowledge in his Inside the Venture part where he worked on his startup idea Freshman, a school lunch supplier, that gives more than just delicious food. The project also intends to inform and nourish knowledge about healthy diets from a young age. He developed a first draft of his business model, interviewed stakeholders, researched possible financing options and needed certificates for starting a company in the gastronomical sector. Christian also prepared pitch decks for customers and investors. His hypotheses are still to be validated and we are looking forward to seeing how this venture develops. The thesis was finalized in June 2019.

Find more on Freshman in our MCEI Success Stories.