MIT Global Startup Workshop 2011

Any plans for 2011? No? I have a great suggestion:
The MIT Global Startup Workshop in Seoul

http://www.mitgsw.org/index.php

Check it out!
See you in Seoul!

Virtual Water

Why is gold or gas that expensive? The number 1 answer to that question is – scarcity. Gold and gas are finite resources and they are increasingly hard to find and exploit. The high price just mirrors the fact that the demand is very high, while the amount of these resources are finite. But, what about water? Fresh water is the most important resource for mankind, but so far we still do not think about water efficiency. There is no price for water – at least not in  developed countries. We pay for using water infrastructure, but we do not pay for water, itself.

There is one movement, which shows the high water usage for everyday products like the t-shirts we wear, and the food we eat. The Water Footprint Network calculates the amount of water, which is used to produce, ship and store all kinds of products. The results are shocking.
Just to give a couple of examples to demonstrate the impact we have (figures from the water footprint network http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home):
15500 litres of water per kg of beef
140 litres for 1 cup of coffee
1000 litres of water for 1 litre of milk

As you can see, products we enjoy everyday, need high amounts of so-called “virtual water”.

So what? Well, of course we as consumers can not really change something about that, but recognizing that water will be the next diamond – for sure. Countries with urgent water scarcity already import virtual water, by importing wheat, beef, rice and coffee.

Why do we need to know about that?

Its pretty easy – you don´t need to be Warren Buffet to realize, that water is a great business opportunity. Water cleaning technologies will become more and more important. Technology helping to improve the water quality will help millions of people worldwide.
To give you one concrete example how awesome innovations look like, I want to introduce to you the “Watercone”, which turns salty and brackish water into drinkable water using only, energy from the sun:

Check out the website: http://www.watercone.com/about.html

Its amazing, the beginning of hopefully many innovations on that field!

:: By Simon Tuechelmann

:: New ideas and questions? Just write me an email: simtue _at_ web.de or leave a comment below

What can green do for you

Thanks to the overwhelming success of the section “What can green do for you”, I will contribute more about that topic. You will find a column discussing the opportunities of green tech.
The following topics will be discussed:
Energy Efficiency
Biomass
CCS
Cleaning tech
Food and Water
Work with politics and communication
Public-private partnership

I am sure you guys like that column and I hope to get a lot of feedback and new ideas from you. So do not hesitate to write an email to me or a comment.

Simon Tuechelmann
simtue _at_ web.de

Intel Challenge Europe 2010

We have received a request to share a new competition with our members, this time is a business plan competition organized byIntel and the university of Berkeley. The competition looks very interesting and the prizes are very cool… this can be your chance to make it to silicon valley! If you have a

good business plan do not hesitate to submit it, as the entry process is fairly simple and straight forward! Hope to see many entrants from europe and Friedrichshafen!

We need your help for the MassChallenge competition!

Hey guys the zustartup team  needa your help! we are participating in the masschallenge competition and would like it very much if you could help us getting into the semifinals! it is very simple and will take you 5 minutes max

We are fighting for 1M cash prizes and free office space in Massachusets (on top of the free advice)

1) go to: http://www.masschallenge.org/user/register
2) Enter the required information (only 4 fields) and select the “supporter” box
3) go to your email an activate the account
4) Now, Login (masschallenge.org) , then under „competition“, select „Team Pitches“and search for “lifesharing”
Alternatively go to:
http://www.masschallenge.org/competition/team-pitches/lifesharing-technologies

5) Read our pitch (optional) and rate it with 5 stars (required )
We promise it wont take you more than 5 minutes and you can make a big difference for our team! It would be nice if you can share this info with your friends on the net, so we can collect as many votes as possible!

you can read our 500chr pitch here (click more)

Why ignorance is bliss: A personal view on René Marius Köhler founder and CEO of Internetstores AG.

“If you are facing in the right direction, all you need to do is keep on walking.” Buddhist Proverb

By Daniel Alonso

If you are not from a German speaking country, you might wonder what “Fahrrad” stands for, and fahrrad.de might not seem like a golden domain to you. Fahrrad is the German word for bike, and bikes are what turned Rene Köhler into a young entrepreneur and certainly one of the proud people under 30 that can say he has more millions in the bank, than years of life.

Rene Koehler at the Zeppelin University

Last Monday I had the pleasure of attending an event  (YEP:Young entrepreneurs and professionals)  organized by the Entrepreneurs Club of the Zeppelin University. The Format of YEP is quite simple, young entrepreneurs (under 40) are invited to speak to a small audience, presenting the company they built and how they did it. Rene Köhler was there last Monday, and he reminded us that doing something simple, basic, but well done, is a good alternative to inventing the new facebook or new google. What he did was an online shop. He created the most successful online bike shop in Germany. Now, my goal is not to tell you the basics of creating an online shop (for some resources go to the end of the article), but to tell you why quitting high school and paying 42,500 EUR for a domain (www.fahrrad.de) changed the life of Rene Köhler and why ignorance is bliss.

Do you have a good idea? Then check out the MassChallenge Startup Competition!

So the MassChallenge competition has been officially launched,and they have around 1M USD in prizes (!)… sound interesting and tempting! I hope we will have some ZU students participating, as this is a very intersting new competition. Just by participating you get “training, feedback, PR and networking support via expert volunteers from partner organizations” and around 100 finalists will receive office space, free resources based in Massachusetts, lab space, legal advice… So if you have a good idea and 195USD (before May 15) or 295USD, you should apply to accelerate your start-up! You will need to submit an elevator pitch (I guess for the shortlisting) and answer some questions about your startup, and thats all you need… Good luck to all participants and do let us know if you apply!

Visit the MassChallenge Official Website

or Read more to see the invitation email we received:

Von den Zinsen leben

Ein Kommentar von Simon Tuechelmann

Das scheinbar magische Wort ‚Nachhaltigkeit’ wird gern benutzt, um Zukunftsentwicklungen zu beschreiben. Die tatsächliche Bedeutung dieses Begriffs scheint dabei nicht jedem geläufig. Denn ökonomisch ausgedrückt bedeutet Nachhaltigkeit, vom Zins des Kapitals zu leben – anstatt von Kapital selbst.

Nachhaltigkeit erstreckt sich allerdings nicht nur auf wirtschaftliche Aspekte. Der Begriff wird als Drei-Säulen-Modell verstanden. Er umfasst neben der ökonomischen Säule auch die ökologische und die soziale Säule. Erst wenn das Prinzip des Vom-Zins-Lebens auch für ökologische und soziale Aspekte gilt, kann man von Nachhaltigkeit sprechen.

Eyjafjallajokull and Tony Fernandes… see the connection?

by Daniel Alonso

These last days I have been extremely impressed by the forces of nature, and the chaos that an air travel ban can cause to Europe and the world. However what surprised me the most, were the stories I heard. I am quite happy to be reminded that people (in business) are not necessarily greedy by default, like the financial crisis led me to believe. (read more)

Is there something like a perfect age for starting a business?

By Daniel Alonso

Here is the Abstract of a paper I wrote with Katharina Müller. I want to know what do you think regarding this interesting topic. Do you believe there is a perfect age to start a business? or in other words, how does age influences when starting a business? Hope you enjoy the abstract and introduction and if you are interested in reading the whole study, do not hesitate to contact me or leave a comment!

What role does age plays when starting a business? Is there something like a perfect age for starting a business? In recent years there has been a trend in which young people decide to engage in entrepreneurial activity during or shortly after their studies, instead of joining the job market in order to acquire experience. But, does age plays a role in entrepreneurial activity? The decision to start a business can be triggered by different characteristics at a young and an old age; however the profile of the entrepreneur tends to remain stable at different ages. Through the qualitative data of 6 interviews, we found out that the personality of a young and an adult entrepreneur has the same main characteristics, however the decisionto minimize risk is what leads a person to start a business at a younger stage of their lives.