START Berlin

📣 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 📣 Only less than 10 seats left! Last chance for you who wants to join the START Female Mentorship Program! We will be closing the applications on 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟮𝗽𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝗼𝗻! You've seen the mentors, you've seen the programs, what are you waiting for? Be a part of our program and enjoy the benefits! 🚀 Sign up with the link right here: https://tally.so/r/m6dWgk We'll be waiting for you 😉

🔍 Spotlight on Germany’s Most Active Seed Investors! 🚀 Discover the VCs driving innovation at the earliest stages in Germany: • HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds: Leading with 35 pre-seed and seed deals, focusing on software, medtech, and climate tech. Notable investments include Ineratec and Storybox. • Earlybird Venture Capital: With 22 deals, this pan-European fund targets enterprise software, fintech, sustainability, and deeptech. Key investments: Isar Aerospace and Greenlyte. • Robin Capital: Solo GP Robin Haak’s fund made 20 deals, investing in B2B SaaS startups across Europe, Israel, and the US. Highlighted investments: Glassflow and Atmio. • IBB Ventures: Berlin’s development bank, investing in healthcare, industrial technologies, and IT, secured 17 deals. Notable investments: Quantistry and Qdrant. Exciting times ahead for Germany’s startup ecosystem! 🌱🚀 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g9MvkZQw IBB Ventures Robin Capital Earlybird Venture Capital HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds #VentureCapital #Startups #Innovation #GermanyTech #SeedInvesting

It’s going on right now and I’m missing it. The truth of VC: 𝐅𝐎𝐌𝐎 𝐢𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 🤫 Creating an extraordinary company and product is key to triggering that FOMO among investors. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐕𝐂𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭. Yesterday, we visited the Lakestar office in Berlin, one of Europe's leading venture capital firms. Lakestar is renowned for its investments in groundbreaking technology companies led by exceptional entrepreneurs. Their early investments include Skype, Spotify, Facebook, and Airbnb. We were warmly welcomed by Enrico Mellis, Principal at Lakestar. Enrico shared the history of Lakestar, introduced us to the team, and gave us an in-depth look at their diverse portfolio. He explained which investment should we pick, the importance of diversification, and how they support their portfolio companies. Enrico highlighted three disciplines of VC: 🔎 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: Identifying high-potential startups. 💰 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: Making strategic and impactful investments. 📈 𝐀𝐝𝐝 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞: Providing unparalleled support to help portfolio companies thrive. The session was followed by Torben Schulz, Co-Founder and COO of Rows.com, sharing his entrepreneurial journey and discussing product-led growth, fundraising strategies, and investor relations. Simply put, Rows revolutionizes the spreadsheet experience with seamless data integration and collaboration, powerful automation, and innovative features. Founded in 2016, with offices in Porto and Berlin and backed by Lakestar, Accel, and Cherry, the growth and potential of Rows over the past two years have been nothing short of remarkable. 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 The visit to Lakestar and Rows was the highlight of the year for us. We witnessed firsthand how creating a stellar company and product can drive investor interest and foster growth. For any startup looking to make its mark, the lesson is clear: 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐎𝐌𝐎 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰. Thank you, Enrico Mellis, Lakestar team, and Torben Schulz, for this amazing visit and insightful session! John Choi; Kemal Rais; Francesco Sieben; Jonathan Romanowski; Lukas Dorna; Mahir Isikli; Idil Sena Dogan; Laida Landea Ruiz; Faye Man; Eileen Schneider; Alex E.; Jan Hecker; Anouar Springer; Clara Barre; Hendrik Wirthwein; Charlotte Mommsen; Deniz Can Sebik; Julius Kaiser; Noah Petermann; Davide Senigalliesi; Ezgi Beceren; Benedetta Mariani; Mauro Risso; Nikolas Rieger; Lena Sievert; Ohan Askaryan; Christopher von Bierbrauer zu Brennstein; Tomy Doan; Jose Medina; Georg Louis Maucher

🚀 Berlin Startups in the Space Race! 🚀 Space is trending again, and it's not just about moon missions or falling space debris. The SpaceTech sector is also a vibrant field for German startups. 🛰 New Space: A New Era of Space Exploration Since the launch of Sputnik I in 1957, satellites have been our primary tool for space exploration. But today’s landscape is drastically different: Costs have dropped by 80-90%. SpaceX’s Starship can reduce costs per kilogram of payload by 50 times! Satellites are more accessible than ever. In 2023 alone, there were 3,000 satellite launches. 💯 LiveEO Turns Theory into Practice Deutsche Bahn uses satellite images from LiveEO to monitor hundreds of kilometers of railway tracks from space, detecting damage early. Agriculture is becoming more efficient with satellite data, helping farmers with crop monitoring and yield estimation. A McKinsey study shows that 29% of crop farmers already use or plan to use this tech. 📈 The Booming SpaceTech Market The Earth Observation market is estimated to be worth €9-17 billion by 2022, with a projected annual growth rate of over 10%: Phase 1: Satellite Missions – Launch and operations, dominated by companies like SpaceX. Phase 2: Data Acquisition – Companies like Capella Space and ICEYE gather high-resolution images and other geospatial data. Phase 3: Data Analysis – Firms like LiveEO and Earth AI use machine learning to derive insights from raw data. 🌍 The Future of Earth Observation AI and machine learning are crucial in managing the vast amounts of data collected from space. Innovations like large visual models (LVMs) and multimodal language-image models will unlock new potentials. Additionally, the number of satellites is set to rise rapidly. If you found this helpful, please share and follow for more content like this. #SpaceTech #BerlinStartups #Startups #Innovation #EarthObservation #SatelliteTechnology #AI #MachineLearning #NewSpace

Exciting News! The START Summit 2024 Aftermovie is now live! 🎬✨ Take a journey back to the highlights, inspiring talks, and unforgettable connections that defined this year’s event. 🚀🚀 The Aftermovie captures the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that made START Summit 2024 truly exceptional. From networking with industry leaders to discovering cutting-edge technologies, the event showcased the vibrant energy and creativity of our community. 🔥 #START24 #STARTSummit #entrepreneurship #Startup #leadership

𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗻𝘂𝘀 𝗕𝗷𝗼̈𝗿𝗻 👋 We are thrilled to share the journey of one of our esteemed alumni, Björn Loose, Partner at Cavalry Ventures. Joining START Berlin back in 2014, Björn served as President and Advisory Board Member until 2017, all while building his network and kick-starting his career in the European venture capital and #startup scene. 🚀 Björn not just established the Talent Summit as one of the largest HR & Leadership conferences in Europe through his commitments as Operations Lead, but also supported Cavalry Ventures in its early days, working as their very first Investment Analyst. Today, Björn leads early-stage investments for software businesses across Europe as Partner at Cavalry. We are immensely proud to see our alumni thrive in such way and, with the help of the START community, make a significant impact in the startup and VC world! 🤗 If you are an aspiring #student entrepreneur, #investor, or simply passionate about the Berlin startup ecosystem, START can be a pivotal part of your journey too! Join us in the next batch to find out how.

🚀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻! 🚀 Excited to have these mentors on board for the START Female Mentorship Program! Here are they: Niharika Rakheja Niharika is the CEO and Co-Founder of ReloSync, a platform revolutionizing integration for newcomers in Europe. Under her leadership, ReloSync has won the Berlin Newcomer Startup Award and the Rising Talent Award by Founderland, and has built a vibrant community of over 200 users with its MVP launch. With over six years of experience in business strategy, international marketing, and team leadership, Niharika previously managed a multi-million euro portfolio at a private equity firm Mantaro Brands and led their Creative Studio Team. She is deeply passionate about women empowerment, diversity, inclusion, and migrant advocacy. Theodora Chatzipavlidis Theodora, Co-founder of travelout_NOW, brings a unique blend of expertise in finance, social entrepreneurship, and innovation management to the table. With her startup, she's tackling the challenges of loneliness and isolation through AI-powered travel connections, aiming to make meaningful global interactions more accessible. As a mentor, Theodora offers her deep insights into building startups from the ground up, navigating the complexities of funding and fostering a culture of innovation and resilience. Sitan-Nancy Cissé Sitan has spent 5 years working as an IT Consultant for various different big corporate clients. Currently she is the Founder Community Admin Lead at BlackInTech Berlin. Before that she worked in different smaller companies and startups as an experience and corporate communication designer. She also recently founded her own startup and is now moving into the VC and investment world.  She has a background in Design and Software Engineering helping her to tackle challenges from different perspectives. Don't miss the chance to have them a your mentor! 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟮𝗣𝗠! ✨ Link to registration: https://tally.so/r/m6dWgk

✨Part 4 of the Mentors Revealed ✨ Many more exciting mentors are joining the START Female Mentorship Program! Here are the next 3 that have joined our team! 🔥 Mika Sagindyk Mika has built a GTM and customer acquisition engine at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and later transitioned to entrepreneurship by joining Entrepreneur First. She is now working on her second venture, Tackle, which is backed by Y Combinator. Mika is a recipient of the IT Women of the Year Award and is passionate about empowering women in the VC, startup, and tech ecosystem. Beatrice Gola Beatrice is a dynamic freelance product management coach with a wealth of experience spanning over 15 years in digital and hardware product management. From leading initiatives at start-ups to steering strategies at corporate giants like Miles & More GmbH, OBI next, and SHARE NOW. Beatrice has honed her expertise. As a seasoned lecturer in agile product management and innovation, she empowers individuals and organizations to thrive. With a background in systemic coaching and a passion for fostering growth and efficiency, Beatrice brings a unique blend of strategic insight and hands-on experience to the table as a mentor, guiding mentees towards success with unwavering dedication. Alexandra Din-Eteki Ngandeu Alexandra has lived in Germany for 25 years and has since ventured into entrepreneurship by co-creating two startups. The first, Manuyoo, is an online webshop that enables Africa-based entrepreneurs to sell products in Germany. The second, Dhoola, is a fintech company that allows the diaspora to buy services directly for their relatives in Cameroon (where she is from) through a mobile application. After all these years in Germany, Alexandra is now sharing her experiences and know-how with her community. Get to know them more by becoming a part of the program! Only less than 10 seats left‼️ Excited to see what’s coming up 🤩

🤩 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘄𝗵𝗼'𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲! 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀! 🤩 The third round of the mentors for the START Female Mentorship Program has arrived and we're excited to introduce you to them all! 🚀 Dr. Alevtina Evgrafova Evgrafova As a researcher-turned-entrepreneur, Alevtina brings over 17 years of experience in environmental sciences, sustainability, and foresight analysis. She is the founder and CEO of RESEARCHPRENEURS, an AI-driven matching platform for businesses and applied researchers. Janine Vanessa Heinrich Janine is a fervent advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in entrepreneurship with over five years of experience in the startup ecosystem. In addition to completing her master’s in Entrepreneurship, she has also collaborated with organisations such as Founderland gUG (Rise & Thrive Report) and ADAN e.V. | Afro Diasporisches Akademisches Netzwerk (Afro-Diasporic Academics Network) to develop the ADAN Elevate Accelerator, as well as conducted independent research on the experiences of underrepresented entrepreneurs, which is in the process of being published. Madalina Tricolici Madalina has been an entrepreneurial operator for ±4 years, working in management consulting (McKinsey & Company), VC (SquareOne Venture Capital), and start-ups (Leapsome, Kombo). She's had a steep learning curve over the past years, coming from a non-traditional background into the heart of technology and innovation, and heading towards a life of entrepreneurship. They will be accompanying you in your entrepreneurship journey to bring out the best of you! Looking forward for your participation in the START Female Mentorship Program!

Huge congratulations! 🎊- We’re thrilled we had the opportunity to visit plancraft last November and to learn about their journey, founders’ stories Alexander Noll Julian Wiedenhaus and growth hack Till Zimmermann 🛠️. START Berlin’s trip to Hamburg last November: https://lnkd.in/dfzQFf6K