ZU Start-up Team

MIT Global Startup Workshop 2011

zustartup — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:22:29 +0000

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

zustartup — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:18:38 +0000

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

zustartup — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:11:35 +0000

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

zustartup — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:39:09 +0000

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!

This is the information we received from the organizing team, and we want to share it with you! The ZU Sart-up team is not associated with the Intel Challenge 2010 in any way.

Bulgarian Institute for Management and Technology (BIMT) in cooperation Intel Education initiative has taken the responsibility to run a Business Plan Competition in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – part of the worldwide competition IBTEC (Intel Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge) sponsored by the technology giant Intel. IBTEC is a joint project of Intel and Berkeley, University of California aiming to give students, alumni and local entrepreneurs the opportunity to work together to turn innovative ideas into successful businesses. The event involves teams from several countries from the CEE region: Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary, Poland Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, Czech Republic Greece and Serbia.

1. Intel Challenge 2010 now accepting entries!

Do you have a startup idea that you would love to pitch to Silicon
Valley entrepreneurs and investors?

Intel Challenge Europe is looking for the best technology entrepreneurs to participate in the competition by July 1, 2010.

Eligibility requirements:

- You only need to submit 1-page executive summary to apply.
- We accept projects from students or recent graduates of any level of
formal academic study.
- All team participants must be adults under the laws of the country
of origin of participants

- The submissions must be in English

2. Prizes

You can win cash prizes and a trip to participate in the global US$25K Intel + Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge at the University of California,
Berkeley.

As a participant, you will receive coaching from local and US mentors, access to webinars and feedback on your idea from experts.

3. Eligibility

- We accept projects where participating students or recent graduates of any level of formal academic study (bachelor, bachelor’s degree or graduate), at least one team member must comply with this requirement. Scholars can participate and support the team.

- All team participants must be adults under the laws of the country of origin of participants.

- Projects must be in working prototype stage.

- The projects must have a business plan in English.

Proposals should be directed to the development of technologies that may include, but are not limited to the areas of wireless computing, digital home, enterprise and consumer software, energy, nanotechnology, semiconductors, digital health and biotechnology.

4. Participate Today

Ready to participate?

Submit your entries today Challenge Europe

It would be great to hear from participating teams! Good luck to everyone! The ZU Start-up team

We need your help for the MassChallenge competition!

zustartup — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:49:56 +0000

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)

Did you know that every time you use headphones you waste the astounding 3D-immersion capabilities of your auditory system? We have developed technology to record and share videos with 3D sound using portable devices. Everyone can listen to it! Our international team of creative engineers and businessmen will be joining the growing market of smartphone and computer apps and accessories. It is time to share and enjoy breathtaking 3D sound.

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

zustartup — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:53:18 +0000

“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.

The desire to become financially independent was one of the main drivers behind the entrepreneurial activity of René Köhler. Already with 14, he started trying out different ideas, trying to find out how to generate money. From restaurants to trading shares he had a very active youth in the business world. Failing grades in math and latin led him to quit school, and influenced by his father who owned a bike shop, he started selling the same bikes online. Fahrrad.de started in 2003 with 2 employees and a simple, very basic HTML website where people could order bikes online. Surprisingly enough, fahrrad.de had a turnover of 400,000EUR in his first year of operations. With a lot of hard work and the addition of fitness.de, the store has grown to have its own brand, and is expected to generate 29,9 millions this year (the owner and CEO is turning 28 this year).

I know you might be thinking that his achievement was simply to build a successful store, but the store is not exactly the impressive part of this story. What amused me the most, is the fact that he managed to keep investors away, and to raise the money (millions) through bank loans. Why did he stay away from VC, business angels and such? Simply not knowing that they existed. This forced him to find a creative way to get the banks to give him money, and his ignorance about the existence of such entities in 2003, paid off very well. Not compromising any shares, and thus having the power to handle the store with his vision. Asked if he would risk all his stuff and probably personal bankruptcy by taking huge credits from the bank again? The answer was yes, even though he said he might be tempted by the idea of raising money through investors, he believes investing is a tricky game, and has taken companies away from young entrepreneurs. The process between entrepreneurs and investors is a cycle he said:

You have an idea and go to an investor, he likes it and tells you that your idea is worth half a million, thus he gives you 250,000 and you give him half of your company. The investors speed up the development of your idea, through networks and other resources until the money runs out. You go back to your investor and say, we need more money, he says your idea is now worth one million this ill give 250,000 again and you give me a 25% more… it goes on an on until the you have no say and suddenly realize you have sold your company away, and what you build is not yours anymore.

It might be or might not be that way, however if you are raising money, it might be a good idea to find a creative way to get money, that does not involve VC or such entities. If you manage to do it that way, it will pay off. After all, it is much better to create shares and own them, that to create shares and give them away.

I woud like to finish with one of his concluding remarks, an answer to the question of his feelings about being a successful young entrepreneur and his plans to continue as a serial entrepreneur. His answer was something along these lines: “During all this time I didn’t learn any languages, never shared a flat nor worried about taking a student loan to go to college… like most of my friends did. I had to work hard and did not have the time to go to parties. I missed out on some parts of my youth, and if I keep doing this forever I will never be fulfilled as a person”. After the 3 hours session, I watched Mr.Köhler leave the ZU in his loud car, as I stood still contemplating about the exciting and bitter part of being a young successful entrepreneur.

(By the way if you are interested in opening an online store and do not have too much cash, you should check out OsCommerce an open source highly customizable shopping cart solution for your Website)

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

zustartup — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:23:42 +0000

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:

Global Startup Competition

April 2010

The MassChallenge Startup Competition
officially launched on April 14th
and we want you involved!

What is MassChallenge?
MassChallenge is a non-profit devoted to helping entrepreneurs win. On April 14, MassChallenge launched a global startup competition with $1 Million in prizes to accelerate the launch and success of high-impact new businesses.

What do entrants get?

Every entrant receives training, feedback, PR and networking support via expert volunteers from partner organizations.

Around 100 high potential finalists receive intensive mentorship and free resources based in Massachusetts, including office space, lab space, legal advice and targeted introductions to customers and funding sources.

A dozen or more winners will receive cash awards of $50-100K toward launching their businesses and will enjoy enhanced PR and privileged access to top investors.

There are no strings attached – MassChallenge does not take an equity stake and does not impose any restrictions on winners.

How can I enter?

You can enter by creating a team account on our website and filling out our online entry form before June 11th. Learn more about here: How to enter

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us atcontact@masschallenge.org.

How else can I get involved?

There are a number of ways you can get involved. You can be a mentor, judge, sponsor, or volunteer.

To get involved, sign up on our website at: Get Involved

The ZU|Start-up team is in no way connected to the MassChallenge Startup Competition, however we think it is a great oportunity and encourage you to participate!

Von den Zinsen leben

zustartup — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:03:10 +0000

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.

Eine nette Idee. Doch ihre Umsetzung im täglichen, harten Wettbewerb scheint sehr fragwürdig, auf Dauer vielleicht sogar unmöglich. Trotzdem haben viele große Unternehmen inzwischen begonnen, nachhaltig zu wirtschaften: Sie wollen nicht mehr direkt aus Geld, Arbeit und Umwelt ihre Gewinne erzielen. Ihre neue Grundlage sind die Zinsen dieses ‚Kapitals’.

Nachhaltigkeit in der Praxis: Kostensenkung bei Walmart

Der amerikanische Einzelhandels-Riese Walmart hat sich 2005 entschlossen, eine nachhaltige Entwicklung anzustreben. Seit vier Jahren verfolgt das Unternehmen spezielle Ziele: Der Konzern will beispielsweise nur noch erneuerbare Energien nutzen und keinen Müll mehr verursachen. Auch wenn diese Ziele weit gesteckt sind und nicht innerhalb von fünf Jahren erreicht werden können, ist die Richtung der Unternehmensentwicklung klar definiert.

So prüft Walmart durch so genannte ‚Audits’ bei seinen Zulieferern, ob diese sich an ethnische Standards halten oder steigert die Effizienz seines eigenen Logistikbereiches durch eine bessere Koordination und die Einführung von Hybrid-LKWs. Diese Maßnahmen senkten die Kosten des Großkonzerns erheblich und seien außerdem das einzig richtige und verantwortliche Verhalten, sagt zumindest der bei Walmart eigens vorhandene Nachhaltigkeitschef Matt Kistler.

Als Unternehmen braucht man also nur Willen und Mut, sich solch ein ehrgeiziges Ziel zu setzen. Verfolgt man es dann allerdings nicht konsequent genug, droht ein immenser Imageschaden.

Der Blick dahinter: Die Beweggründe nachhaltigen Handelns

Dass Nachhaltigkeit umsetzbar ist im Wettbewerb, lässt sich nicht nur an Walmart belegen. Es drängt sich allerdings Frage auf, was die Firmen zu diesen Schritten bewegt. Denn aus reinem Altruismus werden die Shareholder-Value orientierten Konzerne Nachhaltigkeit nicht umsetzten. Nachhaltiges Handeln bietet den Unternehmen allerdings die Möglichkeit, die Abhängigkeiten zwischen ökonomischen, ökologischen und sozialen Effekten auszuschöpfen – und damit ihre eigene Effizienz und Profitabilität zu steigern.

Ein positiver sozialer Effekt bewirkt gleichzeitig einen positiven ökonomischen Effekt. Geht ein Unternehmen mit seinen Mitarbeitern respektvoll um und zahlt faire Löhne, steigt die Produktivität. Ein besseres Unternehmensergebnis wiederum kann die Mitarbeiter unter Umständen noch stärker motivieren. Sicher lässt sich diese Vereinfachung nicht auf alle Arbeitsbereiche anwenden. Walmart geht jedoch mit gutem Beispiel voran.

Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften muss also nicht kostenaufwändig sein. Gleichzeitig bietet es die Möglichkeit, ein Unternehmen für die verschiedensten Steakholder attraktiver zu machen: Für die Mitarbeiter ebenso wie für zukünftiges Fachpersonal, für die Kunden genauso wie für die immer sensibleren Kapitalgeber.

Eyjafjallajokull and Tony Fernandes… see the connection?

zustartup — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:58:51 +0000

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)

My amusement began in Reykjavik and moved further east. As soon as the volcano started erupting, back in march, Icelandic entrepreneurs, a lot of them evacuated from their homes tried leveraging the eruption to its most offering volcano tours, volcano tacos, volcano flights… Clear sign of how people can turn everything into cash, and make the most of an inconvenient situation…

I know, that has nothing to do with what I want to share today. It starts with couchsurfing, maybe you know the service already (if not check it out http://www.couchsurfing.org/), people letting strangers crash their couches. Now, I thought people would take advantage of the airtravel crisis, cash in an extra buck, and charge their visitors (being opportunists, kind of like the Icelandic entrepreneurs), however they allowed and even helped their guest feel at home. I have a friend that during his journey from Finland to Germany, crashed 3 different places, and did not have to pay a cent for this. This was the case for many people that instead of paying money for a hotel, decided to meet the locals.

After hearing his story I was impressed, and I wondered if companies, could work the same way, think past the cash and interact in a similar way with their competitors. Every time I think about a company, or building one, the word heartless pops in somehow. I have heard you must be a little cold to build up one, and I have heard some cold advice (for example, hire slow, fire fast). That is why it surprised me to read on cnn the following headline: “Lotus boss offers F1 rivals solution to European travel nightmare”. It is the sporting industry, but hey it is a good sign, and it is not that often that I read about rivals helping each other. What was even better was to read about who the “Lotus boss” is (My first reaction of course was to google Tony Fernandes, and I recommend you to do the same). Tony Fernandes, is a Malaysian entrepreneur and the CEO of AirAsia (Thus offered his airline to help the other teams). He is an interesting entrepreneur, self described (twitter bio) as the: CEO of AirAsia, Founder of Tune Group, Entrepreneur, West Ham fan, Principal of Lotus F1 team; Dreamer. Just go to Wikipedia (or click here), and you’ll get a nice overview of his life.

It is good to hear about good entrepreneurs, inspiring stories… but it’s even better when those stories do not only cross your mind but trigger some sort of action. I hope you enjoy reading about him, if you only know Tony Fernandes as the “Lotus boss”.

Daniel Alonso is currently studying Corporate Management and Economics at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. He graduated with a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Jacobs University in 2008.

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

zustartup — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:12:44 +0000

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.

It has been seen that entrepreneurship tends to be a young’s man game (Lévesques, 2006). People engage themselves into starting a business at an early age, more often that at adult stages of their lives. It would be redundant then to engage ourselves into the task of investigating when is more likely to start a business. Rather we focus the following paper into addressing the question what is it that motivates an individual into taking the decision to become an entrepreneur. In other words, what are the forces driving such decision at a young and an adult age. This will lead us to understand why some individual decide to never join the labor market, or why do some of the join it to leave it once they are ready to start their own business.

So is there a perfect age of starting a business? This question is addressed from a different angle in this paper, namely, why an individual does takes the decision to start a business at a given stage of his or her life. This paper is written under the underlining statement that starting a business is an intentional act (Gartner in Lévesques, 2006), and therefore this decision is taken consciously and motivated by several triggering factors that will be explored below.

In order to succeed in our task, three questions need to be answered: 1) Do the main characteristics associated with people that take the decision to start a business differ between young and adult individuals? The answer to this question will allow us to understand if the process to take a decision is affected by age. In other words, to see if the profile of an entrepreneur is the same regardless the stage of his life in which he decided to start a business. It has been argued that the risk factor is one of the reasons why entrepreneurs decide to start a given company at an earlier point of their lives (Lévesques, 2006), thus it is valid to assume, that the profile of entrepreneurs is the same at a young and adult age, and that risk aversion is then one of the main reasons why not so many adults become entrepreneurs. It order to prove this assumption question 2) Are Young entrepreneurs more risk averse than adult entrepreneurs? Need to be answered. Finally a 3rd question is explored, 3) Do working attitudes have more influence on adult entrepreneurs than young entrepreneurs when taking the decision to start a business? The answer to our 3rd question allows us to explore one of the main differences between young and adult entrepreneurs: adult entrepreneurs decided to join the labor market and in most of the cases have more work experience than the young entrepreneurs.

In order to provide an answer to the aforementioned questions the following structure will be followed. First we will start with a theoretical background that will enable us to define the characteristics of entrepreneurs as explored by other researchers, and thus the ones that we were looking for when making the interviews. Secondly the method and sample will be discussed, as well as the profile of the 6 interviewees. Finally our findings will be presented, together with the impact and limitation.

If you are interested in reading the whole study please contact the ZU|Start-up team

Daniel Alonso is currently studying Corporate Management and Economics at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. He graduated with a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Jacobs University in 2008.