DESY Start-up Office

Have you missed the Startup Port Community Day 2024 in June? Catch up and get some impressions from the uplifting event in our little recap video below. The impressive Leuphana Zentralgebäude was bathed in yellow & purple when people from the entire Hamburg metropolitan region interested in innovation and start-ups came together 3 weeks ago to connect, chat, and get inspired. We are already looking forward to next year! #StartupPort2024 #networking #communityevent #ideationchallenge

Watch out, the application deadline for the European Pitch Contest of Bits & Pretzels is coming up! The international conference for founders and enthusiasts from the start-up scene will host 5.000 founders, investors, and industry leaders for three days full of learning, networking & doing business from September 29 to October 01 (pack your Dirndl or Lederhose for Munich's Oktoberfest!) Eligibility Criteria for the Pitch Competition: -> You have an MVP or an existing product -> Your startup was founded in 2019 or later -> Your startup has less than 100 employees -> Your startup has raised less than 15 mio € in cumulative equity funding while not exceeding Series A Can you check the boxes? Are you ready to stand out? Then apply until July 07, we are crossing all our fingers. For more info click the link below ⬇

Just back from two great days in Berlin, where I was very honoured to co-host a thematic table at The Transatlantic Big Science Conference together with Robert Okabe from our partner institution the Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago, part of the University of Illinois System. DESY and the Discovery Partners Institute have an active collaboration with the aim of supporting each other’s technology transfer and innovation activities. This collaboration encompasses among other activities, the sharing of best practices and the opportunity for mentoring and supporting startup teams regarding market entry in the US or Germany. DPI faculty also support the current DESY Startup School as lecturers and mentors. In Berlin, we discussed during the thematic table what needs to be done to foster more #startup activities from the impressive science base in world-leading national labs on both sides of the Atlantic. The discussion concluded that #education in schools and at universities has a crucial role to play to prepare future scientists not only for a scientific career but also to inspire them and equip them with the necessary skills to spin-off a business. Secondly, the political and legal framework is very important for the success of startups further down the line. It is still harder for startups to raise sufficient funds in Europe than it is in the US. In the US, the #SBIR and the #STTR programs play an important role in funding early stage deep-tech startups' R&D. Federal Agencies participating in the programs are required to dedicate 3% of their R&D budget to R&D projects run in conjunction with small businesses or startups. This could be an interesting model for Germany to help close the funding gap. Thank you to Robert Okabe, Arik Willner, Michael Rossbach, Prof. Dr. Franz Kaertner, Petra Vorsteher, Ragnar Kruse, Ioannis Legouras and Egbert Jolie for a great discussion!

LinkedIn made easy: yesterday we had our 6th Entrepreneurship Lunch in 2024, this time presented by Sibylle Helms from Hamburg Invest who shared her wide-ranging expertise in Social Media Marketing and LinkedIn skills. Sibylle started with an introduction of the LinkedIn channels of Startup City Hamburg, and the services provided by Hamburg Invest, and pointed out how these services can help pre-founders and early start-ups. Almost 20 participants came into the session with very different experiences about LinkedIn - from heavy users to persons having no profile yet. Sibylle gave them an excellent overview of the most important questions, like how to expand the LinkedIn network and where to get inspiration and content from. The ladder led to a lively discussion if AI-generated and optimized content works better than authentic text - the common agreement: it depends on the target group. Sibylle showcased also her favorite tools and gave useful tips to make working with LinkedIn easier. Thank you to Sibylle, to all who attended and contributed to the interesting discussion, to the orga-team of Start-up Labs Bahrenfeld & the DESY Start-up Office, and for the support of Startup Port. Susanne Dietz Lizzy Harmstorf Katrin Schönert Startup Port Start-up Labs Bahrenfeld Startup City Hamburg #entrepreneurship #lunchandlearn #networking #linkedinhacks #socialmediaskills

Today (June, 24) is the last chance to register for Future Innovators Module 1 “About Innovators and Innovation”: https://lnkd.in/dCr8i5PS It's online only, free of charge.

Everything you always wanted to know about SPRIND (and never dared to ask): This was the intriguing title and motto of yesterday’s presentation from Barbara Diehl (SPRIND - Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen agency) held in the Start-up Labs Bahrenfeld. We had the pleasure of hosting the session with almost 20 participants who weren't shy at all to ask their questions about the various funding instruments of SPRIN-D, the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation. The agency was set up in 2019 as a new funding body by the German government to decrease the risk of early-stage technology projects which are characterized by promising socioeconomic breakthrough potential. With the SPRIND Freedom Act, which was implemented in 2023, the agency is now able to support researchers and entities with bespoke solutions - ranging from financing validation studies, R&D phases, and product development until market readiness, plus giving additional individual support and access to their network. The audience learned that there are two ways of application for breakthrough innovation technologies: one bottom-up approach with open project applications, and one top-down approach called SPRIN-D challenges (or the little sister SPRIN-D Funke). Barbara Diehl emphasized that the agency is welcoming all kinds of projects regardless of the research field or form of entity, but that they are looking explicitly for ground-breaking technologies invented by teams who are fully dedicated and driven to create a positive impact from the science base. Thank you to Barbara Diehl for an inspiring and encouraging talk during which you could literally feel her passion for innovation. Thank you to all participants for many many questions and a lively discussion. And thank you to the Start-up Labs Bahrenfeld team for hosting our event. Lizzy Harmstorf Christina Frehse Sabine Brock Dorothea Ringe Katrin Schönert #disruptiveinnovation #groundbreaking #impact #researchfunding

What an inspiring Startup Port Community Day 2024: Last Thursday, the Start-up crowd of the Hamburg metropolitan region, partners, and basically everybody interested in innovation or founding were invited to the annual Startup Port gathering, this year hosted by the lovely Leuphana University. The whole event was about bringing the different teams and stakeholders together, getting to know each other, and creating a village. We were happy to be involved in designing an interactive ideation challenge and had fantastic support from our DESY start-up teams J-040, EV Metrics, and ZinlentiX who all joined the pitching arena. Thank you to all the people who contributed to this event, the Leuphana hosts, and of course the wonderful Startup Port team. You can read more about the evening here: https://lnkd.in/dGcZjpfM Jennifer Johnsen Behnam M. Mohsin Shafiq Lizzy Harmstorf Katrin Schönert Timo Christian #StartupPort2024 #networking #communityevent #ideationchallenge

Time to give a heads-up: We are almost halfway through the fourth cohort of the DESY Start-up School. The participating scientists already became familiar with tools in business development planning, budget setting, and sales strategies, and have gained unique insights from the mentoring CEOs. This year, our DESY Start-up Office team has joined forces with our collaborators at the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI). As a result, a new addition for the students is the introduction of start-up scaling strategies, featuring practical insights and perspectives from investors and various enterprises.  A big thank you for a valuable fourth webinar goes to the mentors from DPI Larry Schor Michael Flavin and Robert Okabe. And as usual, a thank you to Pegram Harrison as moderator for navigating and putting all the pieces together. We encourage you all to continue the thrilling journey as sciencepreneur - inspired by a quote from the last webinar: "Amazing science stuck in the lab won’t change the world". #journey #sciencepreneur #workingonthebusinessmodell #fromseedtoscale The program is free of charge for the participants and organized by DESY, in cooperation with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and receives additional funding from the Helmholtz Association.

A great opportunity for all future sciencepreneurs: registration for the 2nd run of module 2 of the Future Innovators program, the "Hightech Design Sprint" is open. Join the five-day boot camp (in English) at DLR in Cologne to identify problems and pinpoint the underlying real-world needs before solving them. You will work in a multi-discipline team and try need-led innovation with Jeroen Bergmann yourself for one week. We hosted the first edition of the Hightech Design Sprint and are still impressed by the concept, the teams' commitments, and the output. Highly recommended! Registration: https://lnkd.in/e64Ffngy Timo Christian Benjamin Wang

Dear Start-up Community, clear your calendar and join us for this huge summer event at Leuphana University on Thursday: The Startup Port Community Day https://lnkd.in/dYGC5Se5 What you can expect: an impulse talk by Birte Prinzhorn, a specially designed ideation challenge, mini-pitches by start-ups and a lot of networking. See you there! Startup Port Lizzy Harmstorf Katrin Schönert Dorothea Ringe Christina Frehse Timo Christian Tatjana Timoschenko