The Speakers of Startup Camp Berlin 2012

This is a preliminary list, so check back often to get the latest updates:
Fabian Heilemann – Co-founder/CEO at DailyDeal GmbH. Theme: Panel member – Clones: value or waste?
Ron A. Hillmann – Co-founder/CEO at 10START GmbH (Yachtico.com), BVP Berlin Venture Partners GmbH. Theme: Panel member – Clones: value or waste?
Speaker Startup Camp Berlin 2012: DriveNow CEO Andreas KottmannAndreas Kottmann, CEO at DriveNow GmbH & Co. KG. Theme: TBA.
Prof. Tobias Kollmann – Professor, BA at Universität Duisburg-Essen, Lehrstuhl für Entrepreneurship. Theme: E-Business Generator Model; Panel member – Clones: value or waste?
Christoph Kappes – Co-founder/CEO at Fructus GmbH. Theme: TBA


Dominik Faber – Co-founder/CMO at softgarden GmbH. Theme: TBA
Matthias Hornberger – CFO at Kizoo AG. Theme: TBA
Samuli Siren – Investment Manager at K – New Media GmbH & Co. KG. Theme: TBA
Julia Soergel – Co-founder/CEO at Yolk GbR. CampChamp jury
Jens Tönnesmann – Author at WirtschaftsWoche. Theme: Panel member – Clones: value or waste?
Christoph Gerber – Co-founder/CEO at Lieferando.de. Theme: TBA
Oliver Beste – Partner/Co-Founder at FoundersLink GmbH.
David Khalil: eDarling David Khalil – Co-Founder/CEO at eDarling.de & betterDate.de.
Conrad Fritzsch – Co-founder/CEO at Tape.tv GmbH.
Edial Dekker – Co-founder/CEO at Gidsy GmbH
Ehssan Dariani – Founder/CEO, BA at Gruschel GmbH. Theme: TBA
Ijad Madisch – Co-founder/CEO at Research Gate GmbH. Theme: Going research to entrepreneurship & Why Berlin
Ramzi Rizk – Co-founder at EyeEm Mobile GMBH.
Marc Korthaus – Co-founder/CEO at SysEleven GmbH. Theme: The cloud and its benefits
Axel Fries – Co-founder/CEO at YouCue GmbH. Theme: How to sell
Dr. Horst Joepen – CEO at Searchmetrics GmbH. Theme: Internationalisation
Andreas Reiffen – CEO at crealytics GmbH. Theme: Profit Driven Search Marketing
Stefanie Hoffmann – Co-founder at aka-aki networks GmbH. Theme: TBA
Itamar Weiss – VP R&D at Upcload GmbH. Theme: TBA
Julia Derndinger – CEO at Imedo GmbH. Theme: TBA
René Maudrich –Founder/CEO at Fastbill GmbH. Theme: Startup Tour
José Matías del Pino – Co-founder/CEO at Ondango. Theme: From V-Check 2011 to CampChamp 2012. What happened?
Ahmet Emre Acar – Co-founder/Partner at Ingosu. Theme: Design Thinking
 Bastian Koch – Co-founder/CEO at [ *] keksbox - marketingagentur GbR. Theme: Money doesn't make you happy. How founders can keep their team and themselves motivated.
Nico Hagenburger – Founder at Hagenburger GmbH. Theme: Usability
Jan Hendrik Senf – Freelance consultant at Social Media Marketing Berlin. Theme: Social Media Marketing
Stefan Haas - Freelance trainer & consultant. Theme: Agile management- und development methods
Shermin Voshmgir – Founder/GM, Cinovu. Theme: Start-up Do's and don'ts - insights into our learning curve after one year of doing business.
Toni Klätke – Founder at textsave. Theme: SEO im Jahre 2012 – Techniken, Tipps, Tricks für eine erfolgreiche Optimierung
Anke Reinert, Freelance coach at Reinert Training. Theme: Sales processes and offline communication basics.
Dirk Holzapfel – Co-founder/CEO at Bitcrowd UG. Theme: Agile Management- und development methods
Christoph Beck – Co-founder/CEO at Bitcrowd UG. Theme: Agile Management- und development methods
Benjamin Übel – Co-founder/CEO at Userlutions UG. Theme: Usability
Gregor Groß – Co-founder/CEO at Tigr Solutions GmbH. Theme: Lean Startup / Lean Methodologies
Matthias Patz – Freelance coach, www.matthiaspatz.de. Theme: Lean Startup / Lean Methodologies
Jorge Reyes, Freelance Consultant. Theme: The top 20 mistakes in SEM (SEA) and how to avoid them
Stefan Wolpers – Co-founder at Entrepreneurs Club Berlin. Theme: Scrum in distributed teams or near-shoring at its best.

Startup Camp Berlin 2012 – 16. and 17. March 2012

Die Location für das Startup Camp 2012: Die alte Victoria Versicherung, heute die MD.H, Berlin-Kreuzberg

In recent years Berlin has become known as the Startup-Mecca of Germany. Entrepreneurs and VC’s, local and foreign, flock to the city and as a result we’ve witnessed the birth of an already impressive, but steadily growing entrepreneurial ecosystem. After only one previous event, we’re proud to say that Startup Camp Berlin has already made a name for itself as a not-for-profit event that successfully captures the entrepreneurial spirit of Berlin and brings together some the most renowned thinkers and doers of Germany and beyond. The organization of the camp is in full throttle, so more info is soon to come. For now we’re happy to announce that

Startup Camp Berlin 2012 will take place on 16-17 March at the Mediadesign Hochschule in Kreuzberg.

Entrepreneurs Club Berlin e.V. and media.net berlinbrandenburg are excited to once again co-host the conference. Lessons learned in 2011 have led to an improved format:

  • Friday, 16 March will be a full conference day with a focus on more experienced entrepreneurs.
  • Saturday, 17 March will be dedicated to up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
  • Those of you who deserve to go, but have little to give can apply for a scholarship.

Ticketshop:

Tickets are once again available via amiando:

Presentations and workshops:

The SCB12 has an awesome program in stall for you, among others covering the must-have topics:

  • Law (contracts, term sheets, investments)
  • Funding, Taxes
  • Online marketing:
    • Affiliate marketing
    • SEO, SEM
    • Mobile marketing
    • Social media marketing (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Monitoring)
    • PR for Startups
  • Best leadership practices (e.g. agile management, design thinking, recruiting)
  • Software developement:
    • Offshoring und nearshoring
    • Software frameworks (e.g. Magento)
    • Agile development methods (Scrum).

To tackle German‘s fear of failure, that still stands in contrast to the successful startup mentality of the U.S., we’re bringing you a special track dedicated to failing.

Organisation & input by you:

Startup Camp is a not-for-profit initiative that depends on the help of a few remarkable volunteers. If you’re keen on contributing to our 10-person team we’d be happy to welcome you aboard. There’s much to do:

  • Blog
  • Facebook, Twitter
  • Helping hands at and after the event
  • You name it.

We’re also always happy to receive hints or introductions regarding sponsoring, workshops and awesome speakers.

Stay up to date:

Join the newsletter, RSS-Feed or follow us on twitter @ecbln.

Sponsoring:

Startup Camp offers a great way for companies and individuals to give back, make interesting contacts, promote themselves and much more. Seize the opportunity and contact Sascha Schubert (schubert[at] entrepreneursclub [dot] de) or Stefan Wolpers (wolpers[at] entrepreneursclub [dot] de) for more info. (Translation by Wilken Bruns and Andree Huk)

XMas Brunch of the Enterpreneurs Club Berlin on December 4th, 2011

4.12.11: 12 Apostel, Weihnachtsbrunch des ECB

Do you like to meet the entrepreneurs of the Berlin startup scene?

Then join the ECBrunch of the Entrepreneurs Club Berlin on December 4th, 2011, from 10 o'clock on. We meet at 12 Apostel in Charlottenburg:

  • What: ECBrunch XMas edition
  • When: December 4th, from 10 o'clock on
  • Where: Bleibtreustraße 49, S-Bahn station Savignyplatz
  • Cost: 18€ incl. juice, coffee and prosecco
  • Registration: by email to Sascha.

My Apple Moment: LaserWriter Printing Chemical Structures [1987]

Update, October 6th, 2011: R.I.P. Steve Jobs…

Apple LaserWriter I - the first PostScript laser-printer

Probably, a lot of people still remember their “Apple” moment. The moment when they realized how much fun technology can be if you don’t have to study computer science or be hacker at heart. If you can use technology simply to be creative, more productive or just get done with annoying tasks.

My Apple moment was back in 1987, when I printed for the first time on an Apple LaserWriter I – the first decent PostScript laser-printer available. At that time, I was studying chemistry at the University of Hamburg and writing lab protocols was a real pain. Real desktop publishing had yet arrived to ordinary PCs as the Atari ST 520 I was using back then.

So, all the formulas, chemical reactions schemes or molecules had to be drawn by hand. When the protocol wasn’t accepted it had to be redone. I was spending a lot of time on trying to adapt the printer drivers of my Atari to my needs – but I never managed to do so in a satisfying way. Anyway, then I had a chance to use one of the very few Apple Macintoshs that were available at the time in the chemistry department. And it took me less than 15 minutes, PageMaker and a single copy of a LaserWriter to get me completely hooked on Apple.

Since that time, I have been a loyal customer of Apple–even in the dark ages 15 years ago, when the Diesel almost killed Apple. I didn’t become a chemist, but I have been spending my professional career in information technology, software and the Internet ever since. During that time, I founded 2 companies, both of which invested in Apple technologies; must have been more than 100 units so far. And I am still using all major product-lines: iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac and iPod.

Am I a fan-boi? Nope. But I always have and I always will value the usability and stability of Apple products. The resulting gain in productivity is so high that Apple has always provided a good return on investment. And looking good doesn’t hurt either, does it?

That’s what I am personally grateful for all that Steve Jobs contributed not just to Apple.

Recommended links:

Our Top 10 most unforgettable Steve Jobs video moments by TheNextWeb.

Steve Jobs: Parting Quotes For Today's Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine.

Video: Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh. (USA only.)

Your First Startup – By Sarah Prevette

Your-first-startup
An excellent presentation by Sarah Prevette, the founder of Sprouter.com, an online platform facilitating knowledge exchange between startups and business leaders. The deck summarizes all the experiences I made myself: from the excitement in the beginning, the frustration that is inevitably, the risk of falling in love with the solution and not the problem, the cash problems etc. etc. My favorite slide is number 14 of 23: “BTW: a customer is Someone who gives you money.” - enjoy:

Reid Hoffman: Entrepreneurship Rules of Thumb

Good video with Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn on his Entrepreneurship Rules of Thumb. The video was shot at the Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture given at Stanford University Reid's rules of thumb include:

  • Disruptive change, go for a significant, high impact
  • Aim high for the big gain, a global impact
  • Build a network around the company for intelligence, resources etc.
  • Plan for good as well as bad luck: rise to the occasion, find opportunities, have a plan B and plan C (if is's not working at all)
  • Maintain flexible persistence: balance "having a vision" vs. "listen to customers, be adaptive"
  • Rules of thumb are notrules of physics.

Jerry Colonna in Berlin on September, 9th: "Berlin Entrepreneurs Raising Capital from US Investors"

Berlin Entrepreneurs Raising Capital from US Investors - Jerry Colonna beim ECB

If you happen to be in Berlin on September 9th, 2011, don't miss the breakfast with Jerry Colonna at the ECB-Breakfast event of the Entrepreneurs Club Berlin e.V. – Berlin's tech startup-scene network.

Jerry Colonna is one of the best-known venture capitalists from the USA. He partnered back in 1996 with Fred Wilson and founded Flatiron Partners, that became invested in companies like comScore Networks, Geocities, New York Times Digital, PlanetOut, Return Path, Standard Media International or Starmedia. Today, Jerry is working as a life coach, among others for portfolio companies of Union Square Ventures. Besides the breakfast-event at ECB, Jerry will on September 10th, 2011 also have his workshop Disappearing Into The Fire: Surviving the Startup Life that Fred Wilson commented on:

“One of my all time favorite blog posts about entrepreneurship is the Disappearing Into The Fire post written by my former partner Jerry Colonna. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and go read it. Jerry has been a highly successful VC, then disappeared into the fire himself, and emerged as a fantastic CEO coach who I recommend so much he can't take any more clients right now. So he's responding to that problem by cloning himself. Well actually not quite. Jerry is starting to do workshops so he can help more entrepreneurs and CEOs.” Jerry blogs on The Monster in Your Head and twitters via @JerryColonna.

Now, Jerry will on

September 9th, 2011 starting at 9 a.m.

talk about the potential of Berlin-based startups to get funding from US investors:

The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem:
Berlin Entrepreneurs Raising Capital from US Investors

. The event will take place at Frannz Club inBerlin, Schönhauser Allee 36.

Registration

Registration fee is between 12 € (Early Bird) and 20 € (Late Bird) incl. VAT and transaction costs:

Google+ – Finally, The Long-Awaited “Facebook-Killer”?

Google+Did Google yesterday present its long-awaited Facebook contender? Admittedly, the last two years haven't been kind to Google; Facebook seems to have gained the lead in the competition:

  • Facebook now absorbs more and more time of normal Internet users at the expense of Google and other services
  • At the same time, Google's own ambitious (social) projects like Buzz or Orkut lack the critical mass
  • Facebook's share of display advertising increases steadily
  • The cooperation between Microsoft and Facebook starts bearing fruit, particularly when it comes to Bing's social search
  • The ever increasing presense of Facebook's social widgets and its Open Graph API has become a major threat to Google's business model as Facebook can target significantly more precise now (tip: watch the videos of the European HACK Facebook tour)
  • Latest battle-ground: location, places & daily deals. Local online marketing is–with regard to the failed Groupon take-over and its mobile strategy (➞Android)–an essential part of Google's future positioning
  • Facebook Credits have become an accepted virtual currency, at least for digital goods and social gaming.

And now Google+: not another social network, but a social communication layer to Google services, that shares a lot of the look & feel with Facebook, e.g. design elements, notifications or a news stream to share location, photos, links or videos. Google+ focusses on the targeted sharing of information, thus compensating partly Facebook's advantage of having access to profile and relationship information:

  • Circles: groups of friends, easy to set-up and administer
  • Hangouts: a group-chat with up to 10 participants
  • Sparks: an algorithm for recommendations and content – probably an early version of Eric Schmidt's serendipity engine.

Will Google+ suffice to compete with Facebook? Doubtful in my eyes, or as Fast Company put: Just a splash, not a wave. What is your opinion? Related posts: