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DueDash wants to help startups become investable and network with potential investors[Startup] Investment is not an event, it is a process Parul Madan, Co-Founder DueDash  The FounderIn this interview we talk to the investor and founder Parul Madan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/parulmadan/), who is the co-founder of the entrepreneur network DueDash (https://community.duedash.com/). Parul can look back at more than 11 years as an employee in well-known companies (Ericson, Unitymedia (now part of Vodafone Germany)). The jobs brought her from India to Germany and the US. After some time in India, she came back to Germany with her family and set up shop in Cologne, Germany. She helped to start the founder institute in Cologne Germany as a Director of the chapter, as well as a mentor https://fi.co/apply/cologne   We try to help with the information asymmetry between startups and investors Parul Madan, Co-Founder DueDash   DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group here:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp   Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   The StartupDueDash is a social network, which aims to solve the information asymmetry between startups and investors when investing in early-stage companies. The idea came from the personal background of the founders, being active as a business angel. The actual product of DueDash is not available yet, the team is looking at Q1 2021 to launch it. Therefore they flipped their go to market strategy and first launched the social network part of their idea. One of our goals is that the investment should reach the people who deserve it Parul Madan, Co-Founder DueDash Feedback  Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA   The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email Folge direkt herunterladen

The Fintech Review is one of the annual traditions of Joe, established in 2014. Ever since shortly before Christmas we get together with Fintech entrepreneurs, event organizers, and thought leaders to look back at the year and forward to the new one in our fintech review. You can find the ones in English here on YouTube:   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUbiCAQc22WsxyePUkzBI-LKh1y4yy0sq   In this Fintech Review, we talk to  Paolo Sironi, Fintech Thought Leader, Author (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thepsironi/)  Frank Schwab, Co-Founder Fintech Forum (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankschwab/)  Luka Ivicev, Fintech Entrepreneur, Forbes 30 under 30 (linkedin.com/in/luka-ivicevic/)    Paolos Top 3 News Ant Financial IPO https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/930799521/regulators-squash-giant-ant-ipo?t=1607260457756   Google Pay Relaunch https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/google-pay-relaunch-transforms-it-into-a-full-fledged-financial-service/#:~:text=Google%20today%20announced%20a%20major,Pay%2C%20and%20even%20some%20banks.   Singapore allows fully digital bank license https://www.straitstimes.com/business/banking/mas-awards-digital-full-bank-licences-to-grab-singtel-and-sea-ant-gets-digital   3b Starling digital bank posts first profit  https://www.financemagnates.com/fintech/news/starling-becomes-first-digital-bank-to-post-profits/#:~:text=UK%2Dbased%20Starling%20Bank%20has,million%20on%20an%20annualized%20basis.   Paolo's 2020 impact Digitalization increases, evaluations declining    Franks Top 3 News Cash is still increasing ⇒ Cash in circulation in Germany increasing ⇒ Virtual ATM Songmic Pandemic ⇒ All becomes digital Moving from CrowdFunding ⇒ Government Help for Startups: Capilendo  Folge direkt herunterladen

Meet Europe’s most important Seed Investor  We are the most active seed investor in Europe. Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF  The InvestorAlexander “Alex” von Frankenberg  (https://www.linkedin.com/in/justdoitalex/, https://twitter.com/Justdoitalex, https://www.crunchbase.com/person/alexander-von-frankenberg) is Managing Director of Germany’s High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). We helped to raise 2,8 bn Euros in follow-on funding for our portfolio companies. Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF HTGF is a venture capital investor with private (like BASF, Bayer, Braun, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cewe, Dräger, Haniel, Lanxess, RWE, SAP, …) and public LPs (KfW, German Federal Government). The fund has approximately 890 m € (1 bn US$) in assets under management and close to 600 seed investments. focuses its investments in Europe, especially Germany, but also invests across the world – even at a lesser degree. In my experience in the venture business: It is really the “long tail” that matters ... it is also in the long tail, in den deal flow, where you need to find the hidden gems  Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   I think our record was 28 days between first meeting the startup and signing the [investment] contract. Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF     The FundIn 2005 HTGF  (https://www.htgf.de/en/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/high-tech-gr%C3%BCnderfonds, https://twitter.com/HTGF, https://www.linkedin.com/company/high-tech-grunderfonds/) was established as a private-public partnership, to compensate – at the time – for the lack of active, domestic seed investors. Just two years after the bursting of the dot com bubble many seed investors went out of business and so an expert group of the German government recommended setting up a fund. The private investors helped HTGF to develop into a real venture fund, not only a public funding entity. I reply to every email, even one that would just say “Yo, we should talk”.  Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF   On average it takes three months between the first contact with HTGF and its investment. Note this may vary significantly during corona and maybe some time afterwards. HTGF always takes the role of a lead investor in a seed-stage investment. This is due to their history. In later rounds, they will give up the role of a lead investor.   HTGF IVHTGF is currently raising its fourth fund and is looking to close the fund in June 2022.   We not only open doors at our LPs for our portfolio companies, we also know many many other companies. Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF   Further Readings / Additional Resources  Dot-com bubble: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dotcom-bubble.asp  We can invest globally, but we are focusing on Germany. Alex von Frankenberg, MD HTGF   FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA   The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email Folge direkt herunterladen

Sciflow helps you to write the best possible research paperMicrosoft Word was never meant to write scientific papers in it Carsten Borchert, Co-Founder Sciflow Media PartnershipThis interview is in media partnership with the CONTENTshif accelerator program (https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/programme/for-startups/), which we follow since its inception. CONTENTshift is the accelerator program of the German Book Publishers and Printers Association. Below you will find more interviews from past batches. We used to record the interviews directly at Frankfurt Book Fair, but since it is canceled this year due to Corona, we resorted to remote only interviews.   Contentshift Winner 2020The winner of this year’s batch is Sciflow (https://www.contentshift.de/en/contentshift/news/congratulations-to-sciflow/). We will publish the exclusive interview with them as the last of our series this year. There is no software without an error. You just need to find them Carsten Borchert, Co-Founder Sciflow  The FounderWe are talking to Carsten Borchert (https://www.linkedin.com/in/carstenborchert/), co-founder of the Berlin-based startup Sciflow (https://www.sciflow.net/en/). His life took him from an internship in South Africa through positions in well-known companies like Bertelsmann or Oracle. He learned how to sell software, which comes in handy right now. Carsten also holds a position in the alumni startup association of FU Berlin, where he helps startups founded by current or former FU Berlin students.   I was a software quality engineer and basically my job was to crash software. … That was a lot of fun Carsten Borchert, Co-Founder Sciflow Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   Blog Post with all Linkshttps://www.startuprad.io/blog/sciflow-helps-you-to-write-the-best-possible-research-paper/ Folge direkt herunterladen

Learn from Maria – Investor in several of Germany’s renowned startupsNormally you want to invest in people who you already know. Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor   The EnablerThis interview is part of our series of startups and investors in the startup scene in the state of Hessen. The whole series is sponsored by Hessen Trade and Invest, you can learn more about our enabler here: www.invest-in-hessen.com Startup investment is a very risky business Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor   The InvestorIn this interview we talk to Maria Pennanen, she is known to our established audience as co-founder of Accelerator Frankfurt, but she is also a Business Angel with more than 10 direct investments. Directly and indirectly, she is or was invested in many renowned startups like Solarisbank, Clark, Bankify, Savedo or Finance Ads. You can learn more about Maria here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/pennanenmariaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariapennanen/Accelerator Frankfurt: https://www.acceleratorfrankfurt.com/Mindclip: https://www.mindclip.com/  The best thing to start is joining a business angel organization Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor   The AuthorMaria is also the author of the book “how to f*ck up your startup” in which she helps entrepreneurs to learn from failures. You can find the eBook here https://amzn.to/3oa2Stw   Affiliate LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. Recommended by: Bill Gates “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYnIt is very rare that you invest in an idea from people you just met, especially in seed. Maria Pennanen, Startup Investor Find all information and an automated transcript here:  https://www.startuprad.io/blog/learn-from-maria-investor-in-several-of-germanys-renowned-startups/ Folge direkt herunterladen

This Month in German Startups - November 2020  Welcome to This Month in German Startups by Startuprad.io - in a transatlantic news recording with Chris in New York City.  Today we are wrapping up November 2020 for you with an update on German startups working on corona vaccines, Flixbus, Finleap, Rocket Internet’s ongoing delisting, and a potential digital Euro   Enabler This recording was made possible by (Hessen Trade and Invest). Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/   Find all options to subscribe here:  Tech Startups Germany by Startuprad.io - Audio PodcastiTunes https://apple.co/2Z17bflSpotify https://spoti.fi/3kCcgoB   Housekeeping - Time to brag  We have only one thing to say: Stay safe everybody! Be grateful for what you have!  Affiliated Links Why not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. ·        Recommended by: Bill Gates  “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlB ·        Recommended by: Jeff Bezos  “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKe ·        Recommended by: Elon Musk  “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhw ·        Recommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQ ·        Recommended by: Warren Buffet  “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06 ·        Recommended by: Tim Cook  “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Show Notes, Links and more reading https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2020/ Folge direkt herunterladen

(+)plural makes Children Books for Blind and Visually Impaired Children AffordableBlind and visually impaired children learn Braille [writing for blind] only in school, so we had to re-think children books for blind and visually impaired Christina Oskui, Co-Founder PlusPlural   Media PartnershipThis interview is in media partnership with the CONTENTshif accelerator program (https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/programme/for-startups/), which we follow since its inception. CONTENTshift is the accelerator program of the German Book Publishers and Printers Association. Below you will find more interviews from past batches. We used to record the interviews directly at Frankfurt Book Fair, but since it is canceled this year due to Corona, we resorted to remote only interviews. At the time of the recording, we did not know who won the final award. The winner of this year’s batch is SciFlow (https://www.contentshift.de/en/contentshift/news/congratulations-to-sciflow/). We will publish the exclusive interview with them as the last of our series this year.   Three things remain with us from paradise: stars, flowers, and children. Dante Alighieri  The FounderThis time we speak to the co-founder of (+)plural (spoken plus plural http://www.plusplural.de/) Christina Oskui (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-oskui-825b8615a/, https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/participants-2020/christina-oskui/). Christina wrote her first children’s book about an hedgehog, who lost his spikes, finance with a crowdfunding campaign on StartNext (https://www.startnext.com/en/kinderbuch-igel). During the writing she also designed plush figures to go along with the book (owl, rabbit, duck), but she could not find any publisher who wanted to publish the books together with the stuffed animals. During this time she also realized that books for blind and visually impaired children are extremely expensive, due to the high amount of manual labor going into each book. Also, books catering to sighted and blind children at the same time are not available. So she aims with her social startup (+)plural and modern production techniques to change that and make affordable books for all children. There have been no books that blind and non-blind people can read at the same time. Christina Oskui, Co-Founder PlusPlural   Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires. Paulo Coelho   The StartupBlind children learn Braille writing only in school, so many children have a very small choice of books they can enjoy. The high price comes from a large amount of manual labor going into these books (gluing, stitching, stapling of different textures, textiles, and pieces to the book).  A friend of hers has a blind child who only likes part of one of its books. (+)plural (http://www.plusplural.de/) combines 3d printing, modern manufacturing, and picture books to make affordable picture books for blind and sighted children. The books include stuffed animals, as well as 3d printed parts. (+)plural is a social enterprise.   Venture Capital Funding(+)plural is at a very early stage, but they are open to talk to external investors. They are also looking for partners for sale and distribution for their books.   My first book was about a hedgehog who lost is spikes and I designed a stuffed animal, which went along with the story Christina Oskui, Co-Founder PlusPlural   Further Readings / Additional RessourcesBraille https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braille Zentralbibliothek für Blinde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Central_Library_for_the_Blind Startnext https:...

Where to set up Shop in Canada You can get anything here you can in Silicon Valley and all over the US. Ishu Sing, Host “Starting to know business”   Media Exchange This is the first media exchange we are doing. We talk with Ishu Sing (Website, LinkedIn), founder of the Toronto based podcast Starting to Know Business (iTunes, Listen Notes). We thought it would be great to look at the respective countries. So, in this audio-only cooperation, we will talk about where to look if you want to evaluate entering Canada, as a startup based abroad. In his part of the cooperation, we will talk about the diversity of Germany and that there is no default choice for setting up shop in the country as well.   Strong and interesting startups are all over Canada. Ishu Sing, Host “Starting to know business”   Canada Canada is a G7 nation and should be on the list for international expansion for every aspiring startup. For some, it could be the first choice in North America. https://www.canada.ca/en.html   Affiliate Links Why not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to share their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. ·         Recommended by: Bill Gates “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlB ·         Recommended by: Jeff Bezos “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKe ·         Recommended by: Elon Musk “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhw ·         Recommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQ ·         Recommended by: Warren Buffet “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06 ·         Recommended by: Tim Cook “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn   In Canada we have 3.5 million entrepreneurs. Ishu Sing, Host “Starting to know business”   Startup Hubs in Canada   I feel that right now the startups in Toronto are developing a bit faster than Vancouver … Toronto is growing very very strong. Ishu Sing, Host “Starting to know business”   Toronto We start with the largest city by population and the home town of Ishu, Toronto (https://www.toronto.ca/). Much of the startup activity is here concentrated in the so-called MaRs Discovery District. MaRs was originally founded in 2000 to commercialize public-funded research with local companies. You can learn more here: https://www.marsdd.com/   Montreal is coming up with lots of strong tech startups as well. Ishu Sing, Host “Starting to know business”   Montreal The second-largest city in Canada, also close to the US border. This city is home to the French-speaking population of Canada, French Canadians. A knowledge of French is not required, but helpful. You can learn more about the startup scene in the city here: https://www.bonjourstartupmtl.ca/en/ as well as find some examples of Montreal based startups here: https://builtinmtl.com/.   Vancouver Vancouver is located on the pacific coast of Canada. They have been one of the first tech hubs in Canada. They are also close to Seattle, with the headquarters of Amazon and Microsoft. You can learn more about the local startup scene on the Vancouver based blog https://techcouver.com/   Calgary A few people may remember Calgary from the Olympic Winter Games in 2010. If not, it is located to the north of the population centers in Canada, in the Rocky Mountains. Note that the city is even for Canada a bit on the chilly side. The focus of the city is mostly on energy like fossil fuels and mining/drilling business. You can lear...

Artificial Connect uses AI to generate automated local event announcementsIn Hannover [a city of 790.000] there are 40.000 to 60.000 events in a normal year. The problem of the publishers was to first generate all the event information and second to write articles about them. Felix Rolf, CEO Artificial Connect   Media PartnershipThis interview is in media partnership with the CONTENTshif accelerator program (https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/programme/for-startups/), which we follow since its inception. CONTENTshift is the accelerator program of the German Book Publishers and Printers Association. Below you will find more interviews from past batches. We used to record the interviews directly at Frankfurt Book Fair, but since it is canceled this year due to Corona, we resorted to remote only interviews. At the time of the recording, we did not know who won the final award. The winner of this year’s batch is SciFlow (https://www.contentshift.de/en/contentshift/news/congratulations-to-sciflow/). We will publish the exclusive interview with them as the last of our series this year. The FounderIn this interview, we are talking to Felix Rolf (https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-rolf-526a4894/) the founder and CEO of Artificial Connect (https://www.artificial-connect.com/), an AI startup located in the beautiful city of Hannover. Felix originally started with an advertising conglomerate with roots in newspaper publishing, where he got to work in several departments. He enjoyed his time in digitalization projects, especially in data science. During his time there he worked at the intersection of data science and sales. I participated in a boot camp for three months to learn about the statistical tools needed for data science. Felix Rolf, CEO Artificial Connect Affiliate LinksWhy not learn from entrepreneurs and executives who are open to sharing their favorite books. We skimmed through some recommendations and that is what we found. Recommended by: Bill Gates “Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker” https://amzn.to/2XAENlBRecommended by: Jeff Bezos “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras” https://amzn.to/2RGKGKeRecommended by: Elon Musk “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel” https://amzn.to/2REbHhwRecommended by: Tony Hsieh “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan” https://amzn.to/34KgraQRecommended by: Warren Buffet “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street by John Brooks” https://amzn.to/2K92z06Recommended by: Tim Cook “Competing Against Time by George Stalk and Thomas Hout” https://amzn.to/3cjMMYn Find all links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/podcast-artificial-connect-uses-ai-to-generate-automated-local-event-announcements/ Folge direkt herunterladen

Scriptbakery taught an AI to analyze manuscripts and the emotions of a potential reader98% of the manuscripts sent to publishing houses are not read right now. Patrick Kaiser, COO Scriptbakery Media PartnershipThis interview is in media partnership with the CONTENTshif accelerator program (https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/programme/for-startups/), which we follow since its inception. CONTENTshift is the accelerator program of the German Book Publishers and Printers Association. Below you will find more interviews from past batches. We used to record the interviews directly at Frankfurt Book Fair, but since it is canceled this year due to Corona, we resorted to remote only interviews. At the time of the recording, we did not know who won the final award. The winner of this year's batch is SciFlow (https://www.contentshift.de/en/contentshift/news/congratulations-to-sciflow/). We will publish the exclusive interview with them as the last of our series this year.  The FounderWe talk to Patrick Kaiser (https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-kaiser-5978ba1b6/), the COO of Scriptbakery (https://www.scriptbakery.de/), a Freiburg based startup, which taught its AI to analyze a book script and analyze the potential emotions of a reader. Patrick got his job as COO because he has a black belt in Kungfu. The founder of the company knows him from the Kungfu gym, where the founder was Patrick’s student.   We taught our AI with 1.7 mn data points, to make it work with all European languages Patrick Kaiser, COO Scriptbakery PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW   DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp   Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   The largest chunk we get here as scripts are biographies by Professors and Teachers who have retired Patrick Kaiser, COO Scriptbakery Blog PostFind all the links and show notes here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/scriptbakery-taught-an-ai-to-analyze-manuscripts-and-the-emotions-of-a-potential-reader/ Folge direkt herunterladen

Questlog mastered individualized mass productionMedia PartnershipThis interview is in media partnership with the CONTENTshif accelerator program (https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/programme/for-startups/), which we follow since its inception. CONTENTshift is the accelerator program of the German Book Publishers and Printers Association. Below you will find more interviews from past batches. We used to record the interviews directly at Frankfurt Book Fair, but since it is canceled this year due to Corona, we resorted to remote only interviews. At the time of the recording, we did not know who won the final award. The winner of this year's batch is SciFlow https://www.contentshift.de/en/contentshift/news/congratulations-to-sciflow/. We will publish the exclusive interview with them as the last of our series this year. I did Erasmus for Entrepreneurs and already had the business plan for Questlog in my suitcase. Frederic Geiger, Founder and CEO Questlog   The FounderFrederic Geiger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederic-geiger-0a951b89/ ) is the founder and CEO of Questlog (https://questlog.eu/?lang=en), one of the finalists in the 2020 batch of the CONTENTshif accelerator program (https://www.contentshift.de/en/accelerator/programme/for-startups/). Frederic set up Questlog, after graduating with a master's degree from Technical University Munich, which also took him to Taiwan (https://www.ntu.edu.tw/) and UC Berkley (https://www.berkeley.edu/). Originally Frederic studied management technology, with a focus on entrepreneurship.  The EU program Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (https://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/) took him to Sweden.   Many people collect small things on their travels. They see it as really precious things. … My idea was to combine these two things. Frederic Geiger, Founder and CEO Questlog     PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW   DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp   Right from the beginning I put a form on my website saying “You did not find what you are looking for, send me a message here” … I block out two hours a week, where I do the designs for all the new requests. Frederic Geiger, Founder and CEO Questlog    Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   Bookshops are really the place to go for inspiration for a thoughtful present. Frederic Geiger, Founder and CEO Questlog     The StartupQuestlog is a wooden box, with the shape of a country on the outside (https://questlog.eu/). You can keep all the memories from a trip inside like entrance tickets, little collectibles and so on. You can also hang the wooden boxes on the wall and display them. Every time you take them in your hand again you associate memories with the items. The box is also a great place to keep memories. The startup also runs individualized mass production. The wooden box is always the same and the map is printed on it at the client request. The startup also keeps a small stack of frequent tourist destinations on their inventory. All other boxes are stored without a map.   My dream would be a configurator on my website, where the customers could design their product and get it shipped to them. Frederic Geiger, Founder and CEO Questlog    Future plansThe company is currently only selling in Germany and is looking for a partner to expand. In the next step, you can also contribute digital content to the box, which will be financed by a c...

doks. innovation enables indoor drone flights for next-level digital logisticsInside a building GPS does not work. We use a combination of global mapping and local mapping… it is very very complex. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation   The FounderIn this interview, we talk to Benjamin Federmann (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminfedermann/) the CEO and Co-Founder of Kassel-based drone startup doks. innovation (https://www.doks-innovation.com/). D oks.innovation is not a hardware startup, they only provide  Benjamin has spent some time after university in marketing and consulting for some smaller and also well-known companies like Leica.   The feedback from the interviews I conducted was so good, I was sure I needed to found the company Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview, or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW   The customer can ask almost any question and find the answer in our data. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation   DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp   When we started with our first prototype, we crashed 30 to 40 drones. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation   Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye Our drone is a flying camera to collect data for the inventory management. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation   The Startup  The startup doks.innovation enables companies to monitor their warehouses via drones, which can fly indoors without smacking on any shelf or wall. Doks is not a hardware startup. doks.innovation provides only the ai software for the drones to enable them to fly indoors. On the other hand, they are also working closely with hardware providers, since they have very specific requirements for their drones. The drones are using cutting-edge drone hardware, which is not yet publicly available. The company is still small, but they have reference customers like Mars and BMW. Our clients have to press a button and come back 3 or 4 hours later. The data collection is totally automated. The customer can ask almost any question and can find the answer in our data. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation  Venture Capital Fundingdoks.innovation is open to talking to new investors from Europe and the US. They are looking for the next financing round in Q1 2021 and to expand to the US in 2021.   When we stared there was no hardware available for what we have been looking for. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation     The Video Interview is set to go live on October 15th, 2020 19.00 CET Frankfurt/Paris/Zürich/Milanohttps://youtu.be/yi8SmEMuuj8   Drones are good for land surveying, but are there areas where drones are currently not working? So I made more than 100 interviews in one and a half year. Benjamin Federmann, CEO and Co-Founder doks.innovation   Further Readings / Additional ResourcesLearn more about Kassel here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g187342-Kassel_Hesse-Vacations.html   FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA   The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email Folge direkt herunterladen

Emporion Innovations helps startups and corporates with anonymized testing of product ideas Many startups want to solve a whole array of problems with their product, but in the start, they are just solving a small aspect. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation  The FounderAlexander Kuchta is the co-founder and CEO of Emporion Innovations (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-kuchta/), a small boutique agency in the Rhine-Main area (https://emporion.technology/). Alex is an economist by training, who started first with the idea of an online flee market like craigslist. This did not work, but he started working with his co-founder. Instead of going with their MVP to an investor, they instead decided to set up a digital agency, what they now call a digital product studio.  If you realize, what you do does not work, either iterate – or try something else. Maybe you learned something along the way to solve another product. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation   PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW   Never never build a product without testing if you have a problem worth solving. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation   DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp   The most crucial part of your business model is your demand. If there is no demand, your business is worth nothing. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation   Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye Creating a web agency on a green field is a super super bad idea. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation   The Web AgencyThe team behind Emporion Ventures originally came together to set up something similar to Craigslist, a retail market place. They then decided to turn into a web agency, primarily designing UX and graphics for websites and apps. This turned over time into what they call Emporion Innovation, where they help to launch, build, and accelerate new startups and corporate startups. They focus on the product during all of the phases and help with the complete design and development of digital products. You can learn more about them here:  https://emporion.technology/    Marketing personas can be done in a good way, but also in a very bad way. The good way is to understand what you are using them for. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation      The Video Interview is set to go live on October 12th, 15.00 CET (Frankfurt/Milano/Zürich) - This is our Columbus Day special  https://youtu.be/aQF4_XBlxjU     Fail early, fail fast and fail very hard. This is what we have learned. Do not waste time on something that will not work. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation   The Audio InterviewThe Audio Podcast will be published at the same time and be posted here, after release. Subscribe to our podcasts here   Your idea is worth nothing. Ideas have no value, execution has. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation   Further Readings / Additional Resources  Ebay Kleinanzeigen: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ebay-kleinanzeigen Marketing Persona: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-definition-under-100-sr   Even if you go out [with your product] you come to the point where you realize: What I thought would work, does not work and you want to notice this early. Alexander Kuchta, CEO and Co-Founder Emporion Innovation FeedbackReach out to ...

As a developer … I want to work on a feature… and if I make a security relevant mistake, I have to get a report, but not disturbed in my workflow. Janosch Maier, CPO Crashtest Security The FounderIn this interview, Joe from Startuprad.io talks to Janosch Maier (https://www.linkedin.com/in/janoschmaier/), CPO and Co-Founder of Munich-based Crashtest Security (https://crashtest-security.com/) a cybersecurity startup. Crashtest security helps to scan web applications for know vulnerabilities, so automated hacks can not be successful. Crashtest security is part of focus this year of Munich-based entrepreneurs. The recording was done before Corona really struck. Janosch has a bachelor’s in computer sciences, with a minor in education. During the interview, he tells us the story of how he met a US-based hacker in Uganda and how this puts him on track to start his company.   Don’t use software, that isn’t supported anymore. You open yourself for attackers. Janosch Maier, CPO Crashtest Security    Affiliate LinksOur affiliate partners: Startup in need of a bank account? Try our partner Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking for a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala: http://bit.ly/2w01Zye Need office space? Co-Working at WeWork https://we.co/2GYbxvS Need something done fast? SEO / Graphics / Sounds / Transcript look at Fiverr: http://bit.ly/2S0f2YF You can listen to many of the books from our recommendations with an audible subscription: https://amzn.to/2pGzseh  The Startup  The Startup Crashtest Security is based in the center of Munich. (https://www.linkedin.com/company/crashtest-security/, https://crashtest-security.com/, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/crashtest-security The startup has a Software as a Service security tester. In order to use it, you need to sign up and enter the details of your website and the penetration test starts. If Crashtest Security finds a vulnerability they let you know how they got in. For these tests, they use know vulnerabilities, open-source tools, and their proprietary know-how.  You can imagine our tool as an online virus scanner for known vulnerabilities. Janosch Maier, CPO Crashtest Security   The Video Interview is set to go live on April 9th 15.00 CET (10 am East Coast Time, 14.00 London)https://youtu.be/CzcKlRKI6cc   FundingCrashtest Security is currently financed by business angels, but they may be looking for capital soon. Reach out to us, we will connect you to the team.   Further Readings / Additional Resources  Hackers for Charity: https://www.hackersforcharity.org/about-us/ Uganda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda Worth visiting due to the national parks (just some examples here) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwindi_Impenetrable_National_Parkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_National_ParkFind more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:National_parks_of_UgandaDuring the interview, we talk about ETH Zurich. Albert Einstein or John von Neumann studied there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETH_Zurich   FeedbackReach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA Folge direkt herunterladen

SleevesUp! Sees a bright future as coworking space in tier 2 and tier 3 citiesWe came up with the brand name SleevesUp!, since it is for the people who roll up their sleeves and start doing. Sebastian Schmidt, CEO and Co-Founder SleevesUp!  The FounderIn this interview we are talking to Sebastian Schmidt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/busysebastian/), CEO and founder of the Frankfurt-based coworking chain SLEEVESUP! (https://www.sleevesup.de/). In our interview we talk about how his startup lead him to found a new chain of co-working spaces in a city, where international giants like WeWork, Mindspace, Tribes and Regus just started their expansion.   What we want to do is going to the tier two and tier three cities, because you also do have a demand. … you have the self-employed guy and girl everywhere. Sebastian Schmidt, CEO and Co-Founder SleevesUp! PatreonLearn about our interviews hours before they are released, help in the selection of the startups we interview or even suggest startups to be interviewed, by becoming a Patron: https://buff.ly/32bZ4zW   We don’t have the large cost space e.g. having a barista, so we can make a small co-working space profitable. Sebastian Schmidt, CEO and Co-Founder SleevesUp!   DueDashIf you don’t like Patreon, there is DueDash. DueDash is a Social Network, for startups and investors. We have a group of supporters there as well. You can join the group there:  https://buff.ly/2R90PYp   We did a bit of research, there are less and more attractive tier two cities, and there are 80 to 100 cities all over Germany. Sebastian Schmidt, CEO and Co-Founder SleevesUp!   Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d Looking to open a bank account to shift between crypto and fiat? Try our partner Bitwala with this affiliate link here http://bit.ly/2w01Zye   The StartupSebastian founded SleevesUp! in Frankfurt. He stuck with entrepreneurship after a failed startup, where he and his co-founders rented out desks in their oversized office. Hi strategy is to go to the outskirts of smaller cities, where you also find freelancers and small businesses. His clients don’t life in the city center, so they appreciate the shorter commute to the outskirts. They don’t need the very representative office space, some international brands offer. He sees a large demand for his type of coworking and they already expended to cities like Aachen and Hannover.  Venture Capital FundingSleevesUp! Is bootstrapped with classic bank financing for most of their spaces. They also have friends and family funding, but their investment case is not too far away from a classic real estate investment case. If you would like to know more, reach out to us and we will connect you. During corona, the large wave of cancellations from our clients luckily did not take place. Sebastian Schmidt, CEO and Co-Founder SleevesUp!     The Video Interview is set to go live on October 1st 2020, 19.00 CET (Frankfurt/Paris/Zürich/Milan)  https://youtu.be/VJn-xin6RFs     The Audio Interview is set to go live at the same timeThe Audio Podcast will be published at the same time. Subscribe to our podcasts here   Feedback  Reach out to us, here is our audience survey, to give us feedback, suggest topics, interview partners or just to say “Hallo!” https://forms.gle/mLV6mVKwGwKuut8BA   The InterviewerThis interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him: LinkedIn Twitter Email Folge direkt herunterladen