Students get a taste of entrepreneurship at the Entrepreneurship Summit

On the weekend of October 22-23, this year’s Entrepreneurship Summit of the Entrepreneurship Foundation, a meeting of people interested in founding companies and startups, took place at Freie Universität Berlin. The Summit is one of the most important startup congresses in Germany. This year, a group of 15 students from Hof University of Applied Sciences took part for the first time.

The students from Hof University of Applied Sciences were offered a broad platform for inspiration and networking with successful founders from all over Germany at the Entrepreneurship Summit. The excursion was organized by the Startuplab of Hof University and the Digital Startup Center Einstein1; Photo: Jörg Raithel;

“We want to give our students the opportunity to think outside the box, get a taste of founder air, exchange ideas with each other and soak up the special spirit of this event.” And further

The Summit is an ideal platform for inspiration, information and networking!”
Jörg Raithel, Startuplab at Hof University of Applied Sciences

Raithel had organized the excursion together with Dr. Jens Löbus from the Digital Startup Center Einstein1. More than 50 impulse lectures, workshops or pitching events offered plenty of opportunity here.

*The Entrepreneurship Summit in Berlin is one of the largest and most important startup congresses in Germany; Image: Stiftung Entrepreneurship;*

Hof founders pitch and win

The Hofer founder team of Lokalfindr spontaneously used the opportunity to pitch their own idea in front of the Berlin audience and get feedback

For us, this was a valuable experience and we took away a lot from this weekend that will help us with our own start-up,” says Noah Lehmann.
Noah Lehmann, Lokalfindr

Lehmann, together with Keeman Pun, Jonas Kemnitzer – all computer science students at Hof University of Applied Sciences – and Dennis Brysiuk from Nuremberg, is developing a digital platform to help people find regional culinary insider tips.

*Over two days, more than 50 impulse lectures and workshops will take place in the start-up context; Photo: Stiftung Entrepreneurship;*

Melanie Wirth also took advantage of the opportunity to present her own idea to a broad audience. The Hofer founder of the bag label beosh prevailed against a large field of great start-ups in a proof-of-concept competition with her handmade bags made from the leather substitute cactus. The competition was about generating the most sales with a new product within 24 hours. With almost 5,000 euros in sales, Melanie Wirth won the competition by a wide margin

I really didn’t expect so many bags to be sold.”
Melanie Wirth, beosh

*Melanie Wirth of Hof-based bag label beosh; photo: Melanie Wirth;*

The digital startup center Einstein1 will accompany Ms. Wirth in her next steps, especially in setting up her own online store

We are extremely happy for Ms. Wirth and will do our utmost to support her in building her business.”
Dr. Jens Löbus, Managing Director Einstein1

Also from Einstein1 and present as a speaker for logistics processes was Markus Kreil from ESKASI UG. The founding region Hof was thus strongly represented in Berlin.

Excursion to be repeated next year

“For us organizers, this year’s Summit was also a test balloon to see whether the event would be well received by students. We had almost 40 applications from all faculties of our university. This shows that the topic of start-ups is attracting more and more interest. That’s why we will offer the excursion again next year,” says Jörg Raithel.

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