Full house — more than 1,000 students, startup enthusiasts and entrepreneurs came to the startup event of the LMU Entrepreneurship Centers (LMU EC) in the LMU's main building. A total of 18 new startups from the 2019 summer batch will use the Leading Entrepreneurs stage to present themselves to a large audience.
Leading Entrepreneurs—the flagship event of the LMU EC—isn't just a boring lecture; it's designed to inspire students to realize their ideas, visions, and dreams. The Entrepreneurship Center at LMU Munich has hosted this event since 2007. This year, over 1,000 interested members of the startup scene—including investors, entrepreneurs, representatives from industry and politics, as well as students and graduates interested in starting a business—gathered for an evening featuring 30 startup pitches and exclusive success stories from numerous founders.
Freeletics founders present new startup
The event was opened by Andy Goldstein, co-founder and managing director of the LMU EC, who offered deep insights into the daily life of an entrepreneur. He emphasized the importance of realizing one's ideas and visions. This year, Leading Entrepreneurs invited Joshua Cornelius and Mehmet Yilmaz, founders of Freeletics, to the stage as speakers. Both spoke about their "journey" with Freeletics. They had founded the startup in August 2018 to a US investorThey also publicly unveiled their new startup, "The Life Company," for the first time. The Life Company, with the slogan "We celebrate human potential," is currently focusing on education.
“Education has a greater impact on our abilities, success, and standard of living than anything else we can control,”
so Joshua Cornelius and Mehmet Yilmaz.
Farewell to 15 alumni startups
Before the keynote speech, the startups of the 2018/2019 winter batch had 120 seconds to present their business models, which they had been working on for the past six months with the support of the LMU EC. Among this year's alumni startups are Munich-based startups such as BlueGowho want to make people's everyday lives easier by reducing access barriers with the help of automatic ticket booking in public transport.
Summer batch 2019 introduces itself
The evening continued with the presentations of the 18 new startups of the 2019 summer batch. The founders had 30 seconds to present their innovative business idea to the audience. For example, BE Support, a startup that develops and markets innovative energy storage solutions for outdoor energy (mobile, weather-independent, versatile, and easy to use), introduced itself. Or the startup Loewi, which uses years of experience from elite sports to make personalized health promotion available to everyone.
Following the keynotes and pitches, guests and startups gathered in the atrium of LMU Munich for networking. Here, all startups had the opportunity to meet prospective clients face-to-face at their booths or to network with other founders. The relaxed atmosphere, accompanied by complimentary drinks, provided an opportunity to expand their personal and professional networks.
