What it takes to start a business Students develop business ideas at the Entrepreneurship Spring School

For one week, students from Technische Universität Braunschweig and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences worked on creative business ideas as part of the Entrepreneurship Spring School. They were given a comprehensive insight into the topic of entrepreneurship and start-up culture. On 24 February, seven teams presented their business models, of which the best ideas were awarded prizes. Many of the student teams placed a special focus on the topic of sustainability in their ideas. The business ideas presented included, among others, a concept for vending machines with healthy quark dishes, a water turbine that generates energy from rainwater, a concept for the simple measurement of rooms and a business model to bring discarded clothing back into the fashion cycle.

An important part of the Entrepreneurship Spring School is the imparting of knowledge in start-up-relevant areas such as leadership, marketing, negotiation techniques, raising capital, finding investors and business model innovation.

The participants learned first-hand from the practical expertise of founders and entrepreneurs, which went far beyond pure technical knowledge, and thus gained important insights into the start-up ecosystem. This year, the three Braunschweig start-ups Aeon Robotics, BeSu.Solutions and Foqus spoke to the students about their start-up process and gave important tips for their own start-up. In addition, relevant players from the regional start-up ecosystem were invited to give important impulses in expert presentations. They included Richard Borek and Simona Westhoven from borek.digital of the Richard Borek Unternehmensgruppe, Mathias Siemann from Siemann Personalentwicklung & Beratung UG, Britta Kokemper-Söllner and Constanze Geishauser from the Business Angel Netzwerk Banson e.V and Dr Ralf Koch from Salzgitter AG.

Three innovative business ideas were honoured by the expert panel

At the final event, all teams presented their business models and impressed the panel of judges with their diverse ideas. This expert panel presented awards to three particularly convincing business models.

First place went to the team with the idea for a “QUARK-O-MAT”. With a vending machine concept for healthy and protein-rich quark dishes for on the go, they were able to stand out positively at the pitch event and even provided the panel of judges with a first prototype for the delicious end product. Second place went to a business model for a water turbine that – installed in rain gutters – is also intended to enable private individuals to produce energy from their own rainwater. The third-placed team is pursuing the goal of using sensors to make it possible to measure rooms with millimetre precision, quickly and easily, even for laypeople.

The panel of judges included Stephanie Reimann (Head of Global Venturing & Startup Cooperation at Volkswagen AG), Richard Borek (Richard Borek Unternehmensgruppe), Dr. Michael Goldapp (founder of the company LINEAS, mentor and business angel at Banson e.V.) and Professor Dr. Reza Asghari (Head of the Entrepreneurship Hub). The prizes were sponsored by the Richard Borek Unternehmensgruppe.