When the large auditorium of Ludwig Maximilian University is packed to capacity despite the perfect spring weather—and not just with suits, but especially with students—there can only be one thing on the agenda: the startup event "Leading Entrepreneurs – Munich's Best Of." As always, the focus here wasn't on complicated procedures, metrics, or measures, but on young startups with all their passion, motivation, and inspiration.
More than 1,000 visitors attended Munich's largest startup event in the large auditorium of the LMU. They were treated to numerous startup pitches, insights into the lives of successful founders, and insider tips from serial entrepreneur, managing director, and co-founder of LMU Entrepreneurship Centers Andy GoldsteinHe opened his speech on the topic “Entrepreneurial Thinking” also with these strong words:
“Being an entrepreneur means bringing something to life, regardless of the circumstances”
One of the main goals of LMU Entrepreneurship Center is to inspire, excite, and motivate young people to develop their entrepreneurial potential and surpass themselves. The evening's two guest speakers left no doubt that the path to becoming a founder is not always straightforward, but that there are also some challenging passages to overcome along the way.
Success stories that motivate – and disillusion
One of the guests was Anna Kaiser, Founder & Managing Director of Tandemploy, who, together with her co-founder Jana Tepe, has set herself the goal of nothing less than revolutionizing the established job market. Motivation and inspiration play an essential role in such an undertaking, as Anna clearly explains in her presentation. But the courage to do something no one else dares to do is also crucial, in her opinion – even if you're called crazy for it:
“I love being crazy and doing crazy things – that’s how we create innovation.”
The founders of Flixbus, a LMU Entrepreneurship Center native, at the beginning of their company's founding. The image of buses was anything but attractive in their early days and they first had to be taken out of the coffee-trip corner – of course, without a large marketing budget behind them:
"At the beginning, we had no money at all and couldn't even afford to paint a bus, so we had to 'paint' the bus in Photoshop for an advertising shoot. And we also spent two weeks discussing purchasing a printer for 200 euros."
His tip: Never start a business alone! As a team, you can always motivate each other to keep going in difficult times.
Today, the company, which began with three routes across southern Germany, operates over 1,000 buses and offers up to 80,000 international connections per day to 700 destinations in 18 countries. Jochen comments on the role of the LMU Entrepreneurship Center:
“The LMU EC was an important source of inspiration for us, especially at the beginning […] and has thus been a very good starting point for our team and company.”
Old hands and young wild ones – startups introduce themselves
Furthermore, the newly minted “alumni” teams of the winter semester class introduced themselves in the form of pitches. In 180 seconds each, Tacterion, Agrando, Soundsetter, Preomics, nearbeye, Staff board, Voltstorage, Patya, Useley, Neon Trading, Hellsicht, ParkHere and Furnitects their business models, into which they have invested their heart and soul, time, and energy over the past six months. This time not only created unique experiences and memories, but also brought the founders one step closer to their dream.
In addition to these supposedly "old hands," the new startups that will now be moving under the Entrepreneurship Center's roof also had the opportunity to present their ideas in so-called speed pitches. They were given 30 seconds each and then faced critical questions from the moderators. A total of 16 teams will spend the summer of 2016 at LMU Entrepreneurship Center, developing their startups with the help of coaching, support from external and internal experts, and the LMU Entrepreneurship Center's extensive network of contacts. The summer batch represents a diverse mix of areas. The spectrum ranges from solutions in the logistics sector to innovations in the wellness sector to the "de-digitalization" of online shops.
With all the new business ideas, the startup and community manager pointed out on LMU Entrepreneurship Center, Florian Rickert, in his keynote speech, he once again pointed out a criterion that is often even more important than a good idea:
“Similar to the “location, location, location” we know from the real estate world, the motto for startups is: team, team, and another team.”
To address and address this essential need, a CoFounder Space has been established. This space offers those interested in starting a business the opportunity to search for like-minded people who share their passion and enthusiasm.
Conclusion: The Leading Entrepreneurs Night once again demonstrated the diverse startup potential that exists at Munich's universities—and that the topic of startups is becoming increasingly popular among students. So, the trend is in the right direction.
