Displaying items by tag: inside the venture

In the theoretical part of the Bachelor Thesis, Jonas summarized the relevant research on the effects of word-of-mouth in online social-networks and compared them with the current business practices. Thereby, he wanted to understand how these can affect online sales and how companies can implement their use efficiently. The “Inside the Venture” part of his research focused on the direct application of the above-mentioned studies in the context of his own startup FAGACCI.

FAGACCI is an online fashion jewelry business, that offers high-quality products for an affordable price. In the “Inside the Venture” part of his thesis, Jonas analyzed the company’s marketing strategy and developed new optimized approaches for organic word-of-mouth brand promotion as well as strategies for dealing with negative reviews. The thesis was finalized in June 2019.

Find more about FAGACCI in our MCEI Success Stories.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis Sebastian Frederik Jacobsen further developed his startup idea HEYANNA. The company is an app-based startup that re-imagines co-living. At its core, the app uses a matchmaking algorithm to help co-living crews find a new flatmate. In his pursuit of redeveloping the app, Sebastian interviewed early users and evaluated their feedback with the help of usability tests. His research concluded that the first version of the app was too text-heavy, hard to understand, and used many features that distracted from the core. Through his research, he pinpointed the weak spots of the app and developed a new, more user-friendly version of HEYANNA with a reiterated business model.

Next to the applied start-up project, Sebastian conducted a qualitative study on the role of technology in physical stores in an omnichannel retail environment using Hagberg’s framework. The thesis was finalized in January 2020.

Sebastian and his Co-Founders worked together on the development of HEYANNA in the course MAN 633 - Entrepreneurial Spirit.

Find more information on HEYANNA in our MCEI Success Story.

For the “Inside the Venture” part of his Master Thesis, Torben Kramp partnered with Bruemmer Digital Ventures GmbH (BDV GmbH) and conducted an in-depth analysis of the business model, and elaborated on possible strategic directions for the future.

BDV GmbH is the parent company of the Hackathon Company and they organized the first regional SuperHackathon back in 2019. Since then, the venture has flourished and more events took place, the biggest so far was held in April 2020, the EU-Hackathon EUvsVirus. More info about it here!

Based on his company insights and relevant literature, Torben created an investor pitch deck to support BDV GmbH on its path to investor readiness. For the academic part of his research, Torben performed an explorative study of the factors that affect the entrepreneurial process and intention in the context of a hackathon event. Based on expert interviews and semi-structured questionnaires, he concluded that hackathons help to develop social and human capital factors that incite entrepreneurial intention.

The thesis was finalized in August 2019.

As part of his “Inside the Venture” Master Thesis, Kai Bruchmüller performed thorough market research for SpinDiag GmbH for their rapid on-site testing systems for drug-resistant bacteria (German target market).

Kai has performed four interviews with experts and a large-scale survey with health workers that helped him derive the essential factors that influence the usage and application of quick tests. Based on these data he divided the market into customer segments and identified and classified hospitals as potential customers for SpinDiag GmbH. Next to the applied start-up project, Kai conducted a qualitative study on the reasons and usage of social media in startup marketing strategies.

The thesis was finalized in January 2019.

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/