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Tag: Female Founders

  • Girl’s Day 2023

    Girl’s Day 2023

    Empowering the next generation of female leaders!

    As part of the HWR activities, we participated in Girls Day to give girls in grades 7–10 the opportunity to discover entrepreneurship as a career path. But there were also many other great insights into HWR’s fields of study, such as civil engineering and senior police service. It was a fantastic event across all departments.

    Female Founders: Inspiration for the Path as an Entrepreneur

    At the Startup Incubator Berlin of HWR Berlin (SIB), further students were guided through a dedicated program. The motto was: “Future own business: Ideas and inspiration for future female founders.”

    The participants were warmly welcomed at Rohrdamm and were able to showcase their creativity right from the start by brainstorming the meaning of entrepreneurship. They quickly realized that entrepreneurship knows no boundaries and that women can implement creative ideas and become self-employed in any field. After a tour of the SIB premises, the group headed together to the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology.

    The highlight of the day was the Innovation Venture Day, where a number of startups presented their ideas. The girls had the opportunity to meet successful female founders who shared their very personal experiences as entrepreneurs and encouraged them to take paths that no one has taken before. What all the students learned: being an entrepreneur means being bold.

    You can read a recap of the entire day here: Girls Day at HWR Berlin

    The Startup Incubator Berlin of HWR Berlin

    At the Startup Incubator Berlin of HWR Berlin, founding ideas are developed to market readiness. To this end, we support academic founding teams with expertise, infrastructure, and scholarships. We create a shared platform for entrepreneurial thinking and action (mindset) with the Berlin business community (including Siemens AG). As a lean incubator, we focus on speed in developing and validating business models with customers.

    Since 2016, the Startup Incubator Berlin has been supporting founding teams with the Berlin Startup Scholarship. More than 30 startups have benefited from this financial and non-material support, combined with the infrastructure provided by the HWR Berlin entrepreneurship center, to successfully develop their business ideas and products. Well-known startups such as Wonder, Forget Finance, SunCrafter, and startupdetector are now successfully active in the market. Forget Finance recently closed a seed funding round of €3.8 million.

    About the Scholarships

    Berlin Startup Scholarship

  • Female Founders Finance Day

    Female Founders Finance Day

    On 17.11.2022, the first Female Founders Finance Day of the Startup Incubator Berlin in cooperation with the Berliner Sparkasse took place live at Siemensstadt Square. We started with a roundtable of experts on the topic of finance and funding and the role of women in the founding sector. To close the evening, expert and financial advisor Ines Kroll delivered an impulse talk on financial and liquidity planning.

    Rise in Female Founders, but Gender Gap in Capital

    It was an extraordinarily exciting evening with many facts, especially from the recently published Female Founders Monitor by the Startup Association. While 20% of founders are now women, there is still a gender gap when it comes to capital. Male teams receive 9 times as much capital as female teams.

    What was the conclusion of our talk round?

    There is still a lot to be done, but a great deal has already been achieved. It is important to build your own network — and to do so strategically. As an aspiring founder, build a network that can support you in your career. Find out which business angels fit your company and reach out. Angels also often enjoy serving as mentors.

    Learn everything about the topic of finance — how does the entire investment landscape work? Berliner Sparkasse offers, for example, extensive (free) consulting for startups, whether it concerns loan financing, grants, or investments: berliner-sparkasse.de/startups

    There are many books that explain the basic “ABCs”, for example Dealterms.vc or you can attend an Angel Academy, such as the one offered by our speaker Karla Schönicke, the FIN Academy. It is designed for future investors, which you as an aspiring founder may one day become. The knowledge will benefit you in any case, and it is an ideal place for your network.

    Knowledge is Power

    The IHK (Chamber of Industry and Commerce), the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB), Berliner Partner (economic development agency) and the Business Plan Competition Berlin Brandenburg also offer aspiring founders and young startups free workshops and informational events on finance and funding.

    The Investitionsbank Berlin also offers a funding guide with all funding programs from the region.

    Further Events

    Simply follow us on LinkedIn and keep checking our events page. We regularly organize workshops and events.

    Here you can find a few video recordings of our event on YouTube.

    Our Talk Round Guests at a Glance

    Karla Schönicke – Venture Scout at Ananda & Speedinvest & Founder Women CTO Dinner

    With 10 years of experience in the Berlin startup scene, including the last 6 years in product management, Karla has seen a large number of startups and scale-ups from the inside — from 8 to 350 employees, B2B and B2C, in FinTech, SaaS, e-commerce, WealthTech and HRTech. She then transitioned from the tech industry to venture capital. Together with the Female Investors Network (FIN), she launched the first Female Business Angel Academy #FINacademy to attract more women to startup investing. In June, she joined Ananda Impact Ventures as a Venture Scout and now uses her extensive professional network to find impact startups.

    Tina Weise – Trueffles GmbH

    Tina Weise is Managing Director of Trueffles GmbH and is responsible for the product conception and business development of the company. Together with her team, she is building Trueffles, a community-based research platform that enables people to compile their information more efficiently, organize it more clearly, and share it with one another. Trueffles has just completed the Berlin Startup Scholarship at the Startup Incubator Berlin and is in talks with business angels for a pre-seed round.

    Dr. Amelie Wiedemann – DearEmployee GmbH

    Amelie Wiedemann is founder and CSO (Chief Science Officer) of DearEmployee GmbH. Healthy working is more than an ergonomic office chair. DearEmployee is a corporate health platform that supports companies in creating healthy and motivating working conditions. DearEmployee is particularly active in the D-A-CH region and has over 170 customers, including numerous large and medium-sized companies such as AXA and DEKRA.

    Prof. Dr. Heike Wiesner – Professor of Business Information and Communication Systems at HWR Berlin

    Transformative Technologies and Participatory Software Design are central components of Professor Heike Wiesner’s portfolio. She is a recognized expert in the field of business informatics, specializing in Business Information and Communication Systems. Additionally, she possesses specific expertise in the field of formative (accompanying) evaluation and the research area of IT & Diversity/Gender. She can point to already established national and international projects and publications and is furthermore a mentor for startup teams at the Startup Incubator Berlin.

    Petra Sachse – Head of Sales, Media and Creative Industries

    Petra Sachse has been working in the retail business of Berliner Sparkasse for 30 years and knows both the private customer segment and the business customer segment of Berliner Sparkasse. As a long-time manager, she has already been able to accompany many young colleagues in their professional development. Developing new talent is of great importance for companies today. Through her involvement in important strategic projects, she has been able to get to know and appreciate agile methods.

  • The Magic of Startupnight – SUN X Digital Week

    The Magic of Startupnight – SUN X Digital Week

    The #Startupnight 2022 was special in many ways: The networking event for the startup ecosystem celebrated its 10th birthday (hence the title SUN X), it came back as a big live event after two digital editions during the pandemic, and it presented three full days of programming with a wide spectrum of topics, speakers, impulses, sponsors and – of course – startups.

    The Startup Incubator Berlin was an official partner and the curator of the Incubator Day on Friday, September 9th, packed with a colourful program before closing with the actual Startupnight party.

    It was an honor, and some hard work for many weeks: A steering committee was established, weekly meetings held to coordinate agendas, plans were drawn up for guest speakers and panels, workshops defined and exhibitors lists built and re-built.

    The result was a thrilling day with many highlights:

    • over 20 Incubators exhibited at the Incubator Day, bringing along one startup each to pitch against each other for Super Demo Day (€ 1000 prize award from the Berliner Sparkasse)
    • 7 Workshops were held to different topics such as the Lean Startup Method, rapid prototying, Legal 101 for Startups and more.
    • The X-Challenge took place for two days in a separate lounge to tackle the question on „How to find the perfect (business) match” . About 30 strangers came together, spontaneously formed teams and worked in a professional Design Thinking workshop on a new approach. The three finalists pitched at the end of the Incubator Day on stage, and the winning team was awarded € 2,000 by the Icecubator and Spitzhorli Invest AG.

    Over 30 Speakers went on stage to talk about their expertise and share their know-how: From project management leaders to representatives of all incubators to the Business Angel Club Berlin Brandenburg e.V. with three duos of investors and founders.

    At the end of the day, the incubators emptied their booths in record time to make space for their startups represented. An impressive collection of 120 startups exhibited at the Startupnight, from Ed-Tech to High-Tech, from Sustainability to Aerospace. So very impressive!

    So what was the magic for us in this huge project?

    The magic of the Startupnight was to see all incubator in one big hall, hard-working colleagues that all support the Berlin Startup Ecosysystem and their startups to become successful.

    And most wonderful of all was to see that our startups from the Startup Incubator Berlin where visible everywhere: There was a2zebra who pitched for Super Demo Day and reached the finals. Participating in the X-Challenge were two co-founders from our teams Trueffles and Stella. And Tina from Trueffles won the X-Challenge with her team!

    Joining the Workshop from professional Wafm Academie about the potential of team members was our team prevact. The team Cleverlohn made it in the Masterclass program of the HTW after finishing the Berlin Startup Scholarship with us. CBright and DocVox were nominated for the Pitching Stage in the evening by investors.

    More SIB teams could be found among the exhibitors, such as We4All, Sittery, Kursinsel, Hale, Robbi and our dear alumni teams such as Bearcover, Brea, LexHub and truemetrics who meanwhile joined different programs in other incubators or secured their investments already.

    What does this mean to us?

    Public funding for startups works! Our offers for our startup teams work! Working together in a wide network of the Berlin startup ecosystem works!

    And last but not least: We are very proud of our startup teams and happy to accompany them on their journey to success. Big applause!

  • Thinking differently, leading differently – Entrepreneurship

    Thinking differently, leading differently – Entrepreneurship

    HWR Berlin is among the first signatories of the Entrepreneurial Skills Charter of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. Prof. Dr. Sven Ripsas co-authored the document. An interview.

    About the Person

    Prof. Dr. Sven Ripsas is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin). He advocates for the promotion of Entrepreneurial Education in education from school through university. His central research focus is on the development of innovative business models.

    What are Entrepreneurial Skills?

    Entrepreneurship Education encompasses a wide range of future-relevant competencies along the so-called 21st Century Skills and the UN Sustainability Goals (SDGs). These skills include communication and problem-solving in interdisciplinary teams. The social-ecological transformation requires all fields of knowledge: digitalization, ecology, and economics. Above all, however, it is about restructuring teaching in schools and universities away from the mere transmission of knowledge toward agile interdisciplinary problem-solving through “discovery learning.” The university leadership of HWR Berlin supports this charter — that is wonderful.

    Where are these skills important in everyday life and work?

    Everyday life is increasingly less predictable. This will apply to a great many professions in the future and already applies today to managers, politicians, and teachers. Decisions must be made in ever-new contexts. Old strategies are not always appropriate. The focus is shifting away from planning and monitoring execution toward situational assessment of needs and opportunities and making decisions agreed upon within a team.

    Why does a society need the broadest possible Entrepreneurial Mindset across all areas?

    Quite clearly: the social-ecological transformation is a mammoth task. Furthermore, in Germany, people have not yet recognized the power of Entrepreneurship Education, even though it has been a central educational goal in the European Union for years.

    How do you get people to think and act entrepreneurially?

    We need to start at school. Entrepreneurs are not capitalists, but changemakers. The decision-makers of tomorrow are in school today. Many then go on to vocational training or university studies. This is what we have been working toward at HWR Berlin for years with the German Entrepreneurship Education Campus, which will take place again in October.

    What role do universities play, and what can they do concretely?

    We need a cultural shift at universities. HWR Berlin is a pioneer in this regard. We not only have special degree programs for entrepreneurs, the StartupClass of the Entrepreneurship Summer School Berlin in August, and a Startup Incubator Berlin, but we are also actively involved in conveying entrepreneurship skills to employees within companies — the keyword being “entrepreneurs within companies.”

    What would you see as the next necessary step?

    Entrepreneurship Skills must be structurally embedded in the curriculum of all degree programs. We are working on that. The recently adopted Entrepreneurial Skills Charter will help us to involve other departments beyond the economic sciences. The goal is ultimately a strategy paper for the entire university.

    You were involved in developing the Entrepreneurial Skills Charter. What is it meant to achieve, and for whom?

    The Entrepreneurial Skills Charter is a milestone. It makes clear that entrepreneurship is not only about founding companies, but is a mindset. It is about creative, interdisciplinary problem-solving at the intersection of sustainability, digitalization, and economics.

    What expertise and experience were you able to contribute?

    My focus is entrepreneurship as an economic process. My doctoral dissertation already dealt with incentive structures for entrepreneurial action. In my view, today’s Entrepreneurship Education frequently lacks the competency to properly assess market incentives and their resulting consequences in the context of political initiatives. This is where I want to make a contribution.

    On what recent occasion did you consciously apply your Entrepreneurial Skills?

    Essentially every day, because the work of a professor is project-oriented, and it always involves creating something new.

    Prof. Ripsas, thank you for the conversation.

    The interview was conducted by Sylke Schumann, Press Officer of the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin).

  • Girl’s Day 2022

    Girl’s Day 2022

    Today, April 28, 2022, is Girls’ Day, the Future Day for Girls. It is a day on which girls can discover new professions that, due to the status quo, are still often considered male-dominated fields, such as computer science, industrial mechanics, or skilled trades.

    When it comes to #founding and #investing, women are also underrepresented. The share of women founding startups is still below 20%!

    And that’s where we come in.

    We at Startup Incubator Berlin support the Girls’Day – Mädchen-Zukunftstag campaign by aiming to have at least 50% women in our #Startup teams. To that end, we asked our #femalefounders what they have to say about founding a company and what advice they would give their younger selves.

    Thank you for your insights, Sara Foster and Amrei Ram from Sittery, Evoléna de Wilde d’Estmael 🌱 from Faircado, Jessica Biastoch and Sarah Gràinne Jankowsky from Brea Health GmbH , Tina Weise from Trueffles, Christina Kunz from RückMal.

    The Berlin School of Economics and Law also wants to introduce entrepreneurship as a career path at an early stage. That is why various workshops are taking place today. For example, 8 girls are developing a business idea on the topic of “The School of the Future.” A very important topic! We are very excited to see what comes out of it.

    Internally as well, we are committed to fostering more female-led ventures. Currently, 50% of our founders are women. In addition, our Marketing and PR Manager Cindy is dedicated to increasing the visibility of women through her platform The Bold Woman.

    Enjoy the video!

    The Startup Incubator of HWR Berlin

    In the Startup Incubator of HWR Berlin, founding ideas are developed to market readiness. To this end, we support academic founding teams with know-how, infrastructure, and scholarships. We create a shared platform for entrepreneurial thinking and action (mindset) together with the Berlin business community (including Siemens AG). As a lean incubator, we focus on speed in developing and validating business models with customers.

    Since 2016, the Startup Incubator Berlin has been supporting founding teams with the Berlin Startup Scholarship, and now also with the REACT Startup Scholarship. More than 30 startups have benefited from this financial and non-financial support, combined with the infrastructure provided by the HWR Berlin entrepreneurship center, to successfully develop their business ideas and products. Well-known startups such as Wonder, Forget Finance, SunCrafter, and startupdetector are successfully active in the market today. Forget Finance recently closed a seed funding round of €3.8 million.

    About the Scholarships

    Berlin Startup Scholarship

    REACT Startup Scholarship

  • “Give Me a Break” – Coffee Break for Female Founders

    “Give Me a Break” – Coffee Break for Female Founders

    Berlin Partner / Berlin Startup Unit Invites Female Founders to a Virtual Coffee Break

    According to the Female Founders Monitor 2020, only 16% of startup founders are women. Despite their high qualifications and entrepreneurial ambitions, they remain significantly underrepresented at the top of the business world.

    The Diversity Working Group of the Berlin Startup Unit is dedicating a new event series to topics of gender diversity. The first virtual coffee break “Give Me a Break – Coffee Break for Female Founders“ addresses as its first topics intercultural diversity, financing and funding, male-dominated structures, and the compatibility of family and founding a business.

    Nadine Jüdes, Head of Digital Economy/Startups at Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH, emphasizes: “We have a strong interest in activating and strengthening the potential of female founders for the Berlin startup ecosystem, and we look forward to interesting results and food for thought from the discussion rounds.”

    In 2015, the State of Berlin, together with partners from the startup industry, established the Berlin Startup Unit as a collaborative project to improve the framework conditions for young and fast-growing companies. The project of Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH brings together various players in the city’s startup ecosystem to further develop Berlin as a hub for founders.

    The Diversity Working Group of the Berlin Startup Unit invites all interested parties to the coffee break featuring exciting discussions with experts and networking opportunities:

    “Give Me a Break – Coffee Break for Female Founders“

    will take place on 27.08.2021 from 10:30 to 12:00
    in English on the networking platform Wonder.

    > Registration on Eventbrite <

    Partner Organizations

    Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V., Business Angels Network

    media:net berlinbrandenburg e.V., Network Association of the Media, Creative, and Digital Industry

    Beuth Startup Hub, the founding center of Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin

    Startup Incubator Berlin, the founding center of HWR Berlin

    Science & Startups, the association of startup services of Berlin’s universities Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

    Prime Crowd, a European venture capital investment platform and Female Investors Network by primeCROWD, established as the first point of contact for women interested in investing, in order to sustainably increase diversity in the investor scene

    Program

    10:30 Welcome
    Anna Wiese,     Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH
    10:40 Keynotes
    Svenja Lassen,     Managing Director of primeCROWD Germany
    and representative of the Female Investors NetworkGhazaleh Koohestanian, Managing Partner Re2You GmbH
    11:00 Discussion Rounds

    Intercultural Diversity and Gender
    52% of Germans believe that migrants should assimilate. How does this affect female founders from different cultural backgrounds? What challenges, but also what opportunities, open up for diverse founding teams?

    Elli Strauven-Dejean, Beuth Startup Hub (Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin)

    Norhan Othman, Coordinator at Startup Migrants Berlin

    Freda Katunda and Maria Suárez, Founders of LEAP (Healthcare e-learning Platform for Africa)
    Financing & Funds for Female Founders

    Access to financial resources remains more difficult for female founders than for male founders. What financing options are available for female founders, and what public funding is available to them?

    Julia Gunnoltz, Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises Berlin

    Sebastian Schwenke, Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg
    Overcoming Male Dominance in Industry & Business
    In 2020, only four percent of startups were founded by all-female teams — a alarming figure. Reasons include the still-prevailing image of the male founder, fewer financing opportunities for women, “male” rules of communication, and much more. What can women and men contribute to a more equal startup scene?Caroline Kunert, Humboldt Universität BerlinUte Voormanns-Wolters, Personal & Business Coach, Chair of the Women Entrepreneurs Network “Frauen machen Business”Compatibility of Family & FoundingEven today, the majority of responsibility for raising children in most families still falls on the mother. How can family and starting a business be reconciled? What support is available for female founders?Nadja Pahl, media:net berlin-brandenburg e.V.Christina Lüdtke, Science & Startups by Berlin University AllianceKatja Thiede, juggleHUB Coworking
    12:00 Closing

    Participants are free to move between the discussion rounds.

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