30 startups, two already very successful founders and a full LMU auditorium — Leading Entrepreneurs once again shows that enthusiasm for the topic of entrepreneurship is unbroken.
Some showed what they have learned in the past six months and others presented what they intend to implement in the next six months — at Leading Entrepreneurs, the major networking event organized by LMU Entrepreneurship Center (LMU EC), a total of 30 startups from the LMU Accelerator took to the stage yesterday evening in front of around 1,000 interested participants.
“What makes a great entrepreneur?”
Before the startups were invited onto the stage, Andy Goldstein, Managing Director of the LMU EC, gave a short talk on the topic of "What makes a great entrepreneur?" In his view, in addition to a deep understanding of one's own project and a clear vision, one needs, above all, love for one's own project. Because that is the only thing that keeps one going in less good times. Passion also sees Bastian Nominacher as essential for founding a successful startup. The managing director and co-founder of Celonis told the young audience in the large auditorium "The Story of a Unicorn Made in Munich" — with the punchline that even at a startup as successful as Celonis, not everything always went according to plan and improvisational talent was often required.
Passion, hard work & luck
What else does it take besides passion, hard work, and a good team to successfully start a business? Luck — that's what Benjamin Günther, co-founder of Stylight, is certain of. He believes that he and his three co-founders were also lucky with their exit: when they sold Stylight to ProSiebenSat.1 for €80 million in early May 2016, the Brexit vote was still imminent. After that, their e-commerce startup probably wouldn't have been as easy to sell, says Günther. He's already working on a new project: with Alasco He and his team want to make construction project processes more efficient and transparent.
Networking in the atrium
The main focus of the evening, however, was on the startups. First, the 2019 summer batch introduced themselves, before the 2019/2020 winter batch took the stage. Anyone who still had questions for the participating startups after this round of introductions—or perhaps even wanted to apply—had ample opportunity to do so during the subsequent networking session in the atrium.
If you would like to be there next time, the next Leading Entrepreneurs will take place on April 23, 2020.
