“The start-up scene is changing Berlin, and this is important to Der Tagesspiegel. With this scholarship we want to enable entrepreneurial talent to implement their ideas professionally and to move our city forward,” explain Der Tagesspiegel editors Stephan-Andreas Casdorff and Lorenz Maroldt.

“The EMBA program at ESMT provides fundamental, practice-oriented management and leadership skills that can give young entrepreneurs a decisive edge,” says Zoltán Antal-Mokos, Dean of Degree Programs at ESMT. “Participants can implement what they have learned in the classroom directly, while drawing upon the expertise of an internationally recognized faculty.”

Applicants for the scholarship must meet the general admission requirements of ESMT and additionally submit a letter of motivation, explaining how the program will promote the development of their company.

The Executive MBA program lasts 18 months and concludes with the degree of Master of Business Administration. Participants continue to work during the program, which includes special tracks on “International Management” and “Technology and Innovation”.

If you are interested in the program, find more info here:
http://www.esmt.org/info/scholarship

-  S45  S+U Bundesplatz
    Getting off: S+U Bundesplatz
    U9 à Osloer Straße
    Getting off: U Berliner Straße

- Bus X7 à U Rudow
   Getting off: U Rudow
   U 7 à S+U Rathaus Spandau
   Getting off: U Berliner Straße

Airport Tegel (TXL):

- Bus X9 à S+U Zoologischer Garten
    Getting off: U Jakob-Kaiser-Platz
    U7 à  U Rudow
    Getting off: U Berliner Straße

Berlin Hauptbahnhof:

-  S7 à S Potsdam Hbf
    Getting off: S+U Zoologischer Garten Bhf
    U9 à S+U Rathaus Steglitz
    Getting off: U Berliner Straße

Business Model
The heart of it all. If you still haven’t obtained the answers to these simple questions, you have spent too much time on frills & features and need to get back to the basics:

1. Who is your customer?
2. What is your core value proposition?
3. What are your key activities?
4. What are your revenue streams?
5. What is your cost structure?
6. Who/what are your key partners/resources?
7. What are your distribution channels?
8. What is your roll-out strategy?

Customer Validation
Test test: Have you taken the proper steps to ensure that the people who matter (your future customers) support and reinforce your assumptions? Think of Customer Validation as ‘evidence’ to back up the core structure of your ‘theory’ (your Business Model). The more feedback you gather (quantity), the more this feedback comes from your specific target market (quality), and the more you’re able to actually integrate this feedback into the Business Model and product development (execution), the better.

Execution
The nitty gritty: What has your team been able to actually build over the weekend? Even the strongest Business Plans are useless in the hands of those who cannot properly execute them. Getting as far as possible in the development of your product/prototype not only helps give Judges a tangible vision of what the final product could be, but proves your strengths and skills as a team. This is what truly matters: investors don’t invest in ideas so much as teams.

(edited by Aisha Serres, thank you so much!)

Recently a few people have asked us about the pitching process at Startup Weekend Berlin, so we decided to explain how it works: Friday evening everybody will have the chance to pitch an idea that they would like to work on over the weekend. Every pitch will be limited to one minute long. This keeps the process fast moving and makes it much easier to listen to many ideas. We encourage all attendees to pitch. It’s a great chance and you will probably regret not getting up after the weekend. But you are not required to present an idea. Usually about 50% of the attendees pitch friday night. Maybe you want to present the idea that you are currently working on and you are looking for co-founders or just randomly think of a business idea on your way to swB.  The more ideas we have floating around the better the weekend.

Take a few minutes to think about your pitch. What do you want others to know about your idea after the minute pitch? You should start with telling the audience who you are. Explain your business idea in a few key sentences (In one sentence if you can!). What is the problem that you want to solve? What is your solution to solve that problem? In the end let the attendees know what you need to move forward with you idea (i.e. Designers, Developers, Marketing people, etc.). What kind of skills are required to progress over the weekend? After all the pitches are done, just be open to discussions about your project and start getting together a great team.

Also you are not required to pitch in English if you don’t feel comfortable, but we encourage you to pitch in English because we will have people at the event who don´t speak German! We keep most of the communications about the event in English because we want to be open to our international guests. They make the event more awesome. If you would still like to pitch in German, no problem! We are sure to have somebody to take the time to translate for the attendees that are not fluent in German.

After all ideas are presented the attendees can pick their favorites. Then teams are formed around the ideas – usually around 10 – 15 Teams get formed. This is a very open process. Sometimes people can’t find a team to work with and they still start coding and build a great product to show on Sunday night. Or teams form around ideas that haven’t been picked as the crowds favorites – you see, this is a very open process!

You are very welcome to pitch your startup with your team and work on it over the weekend. Of course we can’t promise that more attendees will join your team, but we have seen teams do this very successfully at past events. All the teams will present their work Sunday night in front of the jury.

We hope that we could answer some of your questions. Just let us know via FB, Twitter or email if you have more.

Hope to see you at swB12,
Your swB12 Team!

(edited by Aisha Serres, thank you so much!)

Startup Weekend is no ordinary event. It’s where like-minded entrepreneurs gather for a weekend of company creation. In 54 hours, you take an initial idea from the Friday night pitches through to a mind- spinning startup company on the Sunday night.

Don’t be mistaken by thinking it’s just for developers!  Its marketing maestros, design gurus, business development wizards, legal geniuses, and the specialist of startups – the jack of all trades coming together as one, creating a harmony that can only be envied by the corporate world.

OK – so that may be slight sales mode, but it truly all about bringing together the knowledge of the local entrepreneur scene, and helping those in need to find their feet in the world of startups.

Friday night is all about networking and the pitches. Those with an idea, and are brave enough to stand in front of 150 strangers give their 1 minute elevator pitch to the crowd. The ideas that people like, and want to work with then get created. From there on, within 48 hours you have to deliver a product and business plan that can stand up to the harsh light of day. Mentors will be on hand throughout the time to help you fine tune the idea that was only conceived 12 hours ago, into a working company with huge potential profits in 36 hours.

Sounds intense? It is!

Sunday night is where the jury panel comes in. Seasoned professionals that have been through the startup mill many times over will scrutinize and find the holes in the plan to evaluate the chances of real world succession.

What’s next? Well, it’s all up to you. Startup Weekend can only help you start your dream. It’s up to you to live it out.

Go on, what are you waiting for? Head over to the ticket section HERE to find out for yourself what it’s all about!