New paths: Media Lab Bayern refines the Fellowship

What is the best way to promote media startups? Media Lab Bayern has spent a year learning and, building on these experiences, is now trying something new. Interested parties who don't yet have a startup idea or a team can now apply for the "Media Entrepreneurship Program."

The fellowship is aimed at designers, developers, business developers, and journalists – even if they have not yet dealt with the topic of "startup." As part of the Media Entrepreneurship program, which starts in October 2016, they will receive preparatory courses in design thinking and team building so that after two months of part-time work, they will have a well-tested idea that can be pursued further. Building on this, the Media Lab Bayern offers the now expanded “Media Startup Fellowship” Teams with a validated idea have four months starting in January 2017 to develop their prototype, establish a business model, and found their startup. The funding includes coaching, mentoring & workshops, office space, and a prototyping budget of €10,000. The next fellowship starts in January 2017.

Both programs build on each other. Teams that have already found each other and a validated idea can also apply directly for the Media Startup Fellowship.

“Unlocking even more potential for innovation”

The restructuring of the current fellowship is based on the experiences gained by Media Lab Bayern over the past year. Previously, the "Founders Fellowship" was aimed at teams that had already presented an initial prototype of their idea. The Lab supported them in entering the market with mentoring sessions and accompanying business coaching.

The possibility of founding a startup in the media and news industry is still new to both the industry and the startup scene. Therefore, there aren't many teams that have reached this stage with their ideas. Therefore, Media Lab Bayern provided more support to the teams in the second batch in validating their ideas and building prototypes. The program is now being structurally adapted to this situation.

"With the new program, we want to unlock even more potential for innovation. It has been shown time and again that there is a great need for a program that focuses on the team and the idea,"

says Lina Timm, Head of Media Lab Bayern. Most people don't lack ideas—they just lack the right team.

"Talents from the media industry don't have much contact with developers and designers either during their training or later in their careers, but they know the industry well and are more likely to know where the problems lie that a startup can solve. But without an interdisciplinary team, a startup rarely works,"

Timm continued. That's why the Media Lab also supports team building with its new Media Entrepreneurship Program.

Funding is available for ideas and projects that advance the media and news industry, whether content- or technology-related. Exciting topics include messaging and bots, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data and robot journalism, payment and paid content, 360° video, augmented and virtual reality, mobile storytelling, and native advertising.