START Berlin

is the official drink sponsor for the Road to START Summit on January 23 at . 🍾

Thanks to their pioneering logistics, tech expertise, and innovative spirit, flaschenpost is revolutionizing delivery services across more than 190 cities. They’re bringing delicious drinks right to RTSS Berlin!

A big thank you to flaschenpost for ensuring no one goes home thirsty.

If you haven’t already, grab your ticket now to enjoy refreshing drinks while watching Berlin’s hottest pitch competition!

🔗 Ticket link in bio

📸 flaschenpost

What does it take for founders to secure early-stage investment?

Last Friday, we had the chance to visit and dive into the world of early-stage venture capital, guided by Alan, a Partner at Antler based in Berlin. 🚀

Alan, who has extensive experience in building and scaling tech businesses—including his role as MD and Co-Founder at Westwing, one of Europe’s successful e-commerce IPOs—shared key insights on how to validate your idea effectively and what investors, especially angel investors, look for. He also opened up about the risks that angel investors take when backing early-stage startups and reflected on some of his own past mistakes that taught him invaluable lessons before achieving success.

Our top four takeaways for founders looking to secure funding are:

💡 Validate your idea early by solving real problems and getting customer feedback

▶ Understand the risks your investors are taking and build trust through transparency

👀 Build momentum around your startup, creating urgency and excitement

🤝 Rejections aren’t the end of the road—use them to refine your approach and stay connected with investors.

A big thank you to Alan and Felix from the Antler team for making this happen! 🙏

Pro tip: Make your pitch deck readable in 2 minutes. 💡

As START Berlin, we attended to WHU IdeaLab last week! This conference is one of Europe’s leading conferences on startups and entrepreneurship, entirely organised by 12 students from WHU. Taking place for the 24th time this year, it is renowned for offering a platform for the exchange of ideas and visions between students, academics, entrepreneurs and VCs. 🚀

Here are some highlights from our team:

* The day kicked off with an inspiring speech from Jochen Schwill, the Founder and CEO of Next Kraftwerke (which he successfully exited to Shell). Now, he’s onto his next venture with SpotmyEnergy. ⚡

* We attended to a workshop by HTGF, led by Max Bergmann, discussing financing options for startups—from bootstrapping to VCs. He also is the owner of the pro tip we have. 🚀

* McKinsey’s QuantumBlack AI consulting session surprised us with an engaging case-solving activity 🧠

* Last, but not least: Daniel Jung’s talk! He’s a legend for many of us who grew up with his math videos on YouTube — he joined a panel on Building Your Personal Brand, which was truly insightful. 🔍

The event was packed with startup and company booths, including McKinsey, Flaschenpost, Burda Principal Investments, Upsters, RedBull, and more. And a special shoutout to LANCH for the delicious lunch, including Happy Slice and GoDumpling 🍕🥟

Special thanks to IdeaLab team for their hard work and see you next year! 💫

🚀 In this week’s weekly news- we are happy to share that space is booming for German startups!

Here are some fun facts:
- Costs down by 80-90%, with SpaceX cutting payload costs by 50x!
- 3,000 satellites launched in 2023.
🌍 LiveEO’s Impact:
- Deutsche Bahn monitors tracks via satellite.
- 29% of farmers use satellite data for crops.
📈 SpaceTech Market:
- Worth €9-17B by 2022, growing 10%+ annually.
- Phases: Launch (SpaceX), Data Collection (Capella Space), Data Analysis (LiveEO).

🌟 Future: AI and machine learning will transform space data. More satellites and tech innovations ahead! Follow us for more updates! 🚀✨