Displaying items by tag: inside the venture

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2020 Nguyen-Truong, Daniel Vester and Mats von Gegerfelt were joining Istari, a startup active in the company database market. The main task of the MCEI team was to design and implement a business strategy for the company. Utilizing both primary and secondary research, recommendations on business model, customer targeting and product development were given. Finally they proposed a strategy aiming to position Istari.ai as a highly specialized data supplier, resulting in a B2B2C business model. Feedback on Istari.ai’s features was collected by the team in various expert interviews. These interviews were meant to enable the startup to deliver a highly-demanded product and engage in sales with local SMEs within the first months after the end of the project.

Istari is an AI and database company, based in Mannheim. Their vision is to create the future of enterprise databases in providing comprehensive information in real time. To get this valuable information, their webAI scans millions of websites at high frequency to analyze them with artificial intelligence. Results show mapping of companies in company networks, identification of central players and analyses of partner, cooperation and competitor networks.

To know learn more about Istari, visit their website: https://istari.ai/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2020 Erdem Meral and Erind Subashi chose InTheGreen for their Inside the Venture project. Their job was to find the constraints at the production stage and look for solutions. This involved many specific and technical issues on how to improve the growth of the plants, which led to also rather specific research the team had to perform. This research could be aiming at the legal framework but also on fertilizers and plants. Last but not least their task was to perform market research in order to find the right markets for expanding business.

InTheGreen UG is a vertical farming company focused on microgreens. The company grows microgreens by using “vertical farming”. Vertical farming is still a new method that increases the productivity of the available ground. Microgreens are aromatic, small vegetable and herb plants. They are harvested after about two weeks. As a result, they have a significantly higher vitamin and mineral density than their grown versions.

To know learn more about InTheGreen, visit their website: http://in-the-green.eu/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2020 Konstantin Schmidt and Klelia Deletang joined Immoly to help them in starting over and grow their business. The consulting team’s main effort was the creation of two investor pitch documents, helping the company to accelerate their growth by acquiring venture capital. Creating the pitch documents involved a critical assessment of all parts of the business, especially market, competition, sales and marketing.

Immooly is a proptech start-up aiming at simplifying real estate transactions through a digital platform, which also helps to lower fees significantly compared to traditional maklers. Especially the process of exchange of ownership of a real estate property is in the focus of Immooly.

To know learn more about Immooly, visit their website: https://immooly.com/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2020 Ziwei Li, Giulia Lotti and Van-Hao Luu were giving various support to Freachly. The project team pursued two main tasks: First of all, identifying ways to acquire nano–influencers, and second, finding ways to make them more active. Using a blank-page approach they identified some cost-efficient channels for the acquisition of nano–influencers and provided insights concerning the design of referral systems. As an enduring commitment they designed a roadmap for the implementation of these measurements after their departure from the company.

Freachly helps local businesses to target the right audience to increase awareness, gain new customers, and give a professional touch to their online image, working with nano–influencers. In many cases these influencers tend to have a rather local focus, which makes them the perfect cooperation partner for local marketing. Freachly also offers managing all social media accounts and giving it a professional touch, so that new customers in a certain target area can be attracted.

To know learn more about Freachly, visit their website: https://www.freachly.de/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2020 Markus Schmidt and Lorena Marisa Di Seclì were involved in setting up the FATALE university, a project from the Mannheim based consulting firm LUB. This led them to activities in all stages of setting up a new continuous education platform. Their tasks began with developing a time and business plan for the venture. Then followed setting up and improving platform and landing page. Finally, they were also involved in customer acquisition and video production.

LU Kommunikation (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. At the beginning of 2020, the product range consisted of workshops & keynotes, with topics ranging from career consulting over linguistic analysis to HR. All of these products had one characteristic in common: due to a high need for personal interaction, they were difficult to scale, something that was important for the long-term growth perspective of the company. This is why Dr. Burel developed the initial idea for a scalable, on-demand, career-consulting solution, called FATALE University. As an online based program that incorporates on-demand videos & only some personal interaction, meant to standardize certain consulting forms and being more scalable.

To know learn more about FATALE UNIVERSITY visit their website: https://drfemfatale.de/

As part of the MAN 633 Entrepreneurial Spirit course in spring 2020 Julian Herrlich supported Bacchus Software. His main task was to revise and improve the company´s business plan. Therefor he particularly took a closer look at the relevant competition in the sector and pricing strategy. Apart from that he managed to find clients willing to test the latest version of the software.

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/

Our partner startup LUB is inviting applications from students interested to write an Inside the Venture thesis with them. LUB needs support with the text analysis of CSR reports from German DAX companies. For this project German language skills are required.

If the study interests you and you would like to be a part of it, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for scheduling an appointment with us and for further details.

Description of the Project

In 2017, the German Bundestag passed the CSR Directive Implementation Act. CSR stands for "Corporate Social Responsibility". Companies of a certain size must therefore comply with non-financial reporting requirements from 2018 on environmental, employee and social issues, respect for human rights, and combating corruption. Unfortunately, the compulsory text does not mean the actual implementation of measures. The task is to compile a list of company reports and analyse them regarding the difference in what they are promising and ultimatly were implementing. The focus should be on a textual comparison of DAX companies between 2015 and 2019. As these reports are increasingly coming to the muncipal sector, major German cities should also be included in the analysis (e.g. https://www.mannheim.de/sites/default/files/2017-10/Nachhaltigkeitsbericht%20Mannheim%202016.pdf). A paper on the a sub-area of the topic is available for more information: https://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/11222622-corporate-social-responsibility-versicherungswirtschaft. 

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg is inviting applications now from students interested to take part in their project titled "Multipro" (details follow). The participation in this project can be equivalent to the completion of an Inside the Venture Master Thesis.

If the study interests you and you would like to be a part of it, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for scheduling an appointment with us and for further details.

Description of the Project

Multipro

Multiplex Proteomics

Refer to the attachment below for the description in German and the accompanying diagram.

The transfer of large biomolecules into the cell interior is of paramount importance in science, biotechnology and biomedicine. We have developed a universal platform based on an innovative method for transferring proteins into living cells.

Our methodology enables us to develop, validate, and deploy a growing number of innovative reagents and valuable biological screening molecules ("biologics"), including for use in phenotypic screens. The method allows a direct modulation of the function of the target protein through the transfer of functional proteins into living cells with potential applications in antibodies and CRISPR-based gene editing, and allows the observation of medically relevant proteins under physiological conditions.

The project is supported by the BMBF funding measure VIP+: "Validation of the technological and social innovation potential of scientific research".

Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg is inviting applications now from students interested to take part in their project titled "Multipro" (details follow). The participation in this project can be equivalent to the completion of an Inside the Venture Master Thesis.

If the study interests you and you would like to be a part of it, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for scheduling an appointment with us and for further details.

Description of the Project

Multipro

Multiplex Proteomics

Refer to the attachment below for the description in German and the accompanying diagram.

The transfer of large biomolecules into the cell interior is of paramount importance in science, biotechnology and biomedicine. We have developed a universal platform based on an innovative method for transferring proteins into living cells.

Our methodology enables us to develop, validate, and deploy a growing number of innovative reagents and valuable biological screening molecules ("biologics"), including for use in phenotypic screens. The method allows a direct modulation of the function of the target protein through the transfer of functional proteins into living cells with potential applications in antibodies and CRISPR-based gene editing, and allows the observation of medically relevant proteins under physiological conditions.

The project is supported by the BMBF funding measure VIP+: "Validation of the technological and social innovation potential of scientific research".

As part of the MAN 633 Inside the Venture (Track 1) course in Fall 2018,  Yarui Guo and Jorge Villalobos supported Studybees, an education startup, in determining their launch plans and their customer acquisition process. The project supported Studybees throughout one semester with analyses for launch plans across universities and cities along with strategies to implement them. This included market analyses and formulating strategies for customer acquisition, activation and retention. Further focus was set on brand building, usability of the website and pricing including recommendations on areas of improvement. 

Studybees GmbH is a Mannheim-based startup founded in 2014 by Julia Hetzel, Alexandra Slabskaia, Fabian Klein and Johannes Saal. Co-founders Julia Hetzel and Alexandra Slabskaia are University of Mannheim alumna. They received consulting from MCEI and have also been Startup of the Month. Their aim is to provide high quality crash courses to help students with their exam preparation (offline and online).

To know more about Studybees, visit their website: www.studybees.de