TechCrunch Berlin Venue:
ZANOX.de AG
Stralauer Allee 2
10245 Berlin
Schedule:
3pm: Tea/Coffee
3.20pm: Introduction by the Chairman, Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch Europe
3.25pm: Speed Speech: Lukasz Gadowski, Team Europe, “Competing with US players”
In 2002 Lukasz Gadowski founded Spreadshirt.com (currently ~300 employees worldwide, backed by Accel Europe) and was the co-founder of the Social Network “StudiVZ” (sold to Holtzbrinck in 2007, today Germany’s largest website). At the beginning of 2008 Gadowski moved from the Spreadshirt Board of Directors to the Supervisory Board, where he is now chairman. Lukasz is an active internet investor since 2006 and has a portfolio of over 60 internet companies across geographies and stages (for example imagekind.com, rapleaf.com, panfu.de, zlio.com, dawanda.de, amiando.com, imedo.de, toksta.com, apomio.de, epuls.pl, netzathleten.de). Since 2007 he was involved in the creation of numerous Internet companies, for example Brands4Friends.com, MisterSpex.com, Absolventa.com, Triphunter.com, Playnik.com as well as Kaeuferportal.de. In September 2008 Lukasz launched ‘Team Europe Ventures’ which combines his existing portfolio. Within the new entity he plans to scale and expand his activities – among other towards investments in later stages and more international focus.
3.45pm: Panel Discussion: “German innovation and Entrepreneurialism”
Debate topics:
– Do German tech companies have what it takes against outsiders launching into the market?
– Management and marketing in Germany: What’s the situation?
– Does Germany have a Silicon Valley or a Silicon Valley mindset capable of creating the next Google/Skype?
Panelists:
Paul Jozefak is a Managing Partner at Neuhaus Partners one of the leading early-stage VC firms based in Germany. Prior to this, he was an Investment Director for Europe at SAP. Here he was in charge of the European region for SAP Ventures with more than 200 million Euro under management. From 1998 until 2000, in his function as Business Development Director Europe at Davis Polk & Wardwell, he accompanied the IPO’s of corporations such as Software AG, Freenet, Travel24 and comdirect. Starting in the mid-90s, Jozefak built up his expertise as a consultant for the software branch at Andersen Consulting.
Inma Martinez Stradbroke Advisors
Inma Martinez is one of the world’s leading digital media strategists, described by Fortune and Time magazine as one of Europe’s top talents in Human Factors and Social Engagement through technology. Switching a career in the financial markets at Goldman Sachs and The Institute for Infrastructure Finance, she joined Cable & Wireless in the mid-1990s to form their New Technologies Advisory, specifically focused on the Internet and IP services. Co-founder in 1999 of Escape Velocity, a 3i-funded AI software company in the early days of mobile services and selected by Lehman Brothers, in 2006 she founded Stradbroke Advisors, a digital media and fund raising consultancy working with Venture Capital firms (3i, Index Ventures), large corporations (NOKIA Finland, Blyk, BBC, MTV Networks, HP, IBM) as well as Web 2.0 startups and film and TV production companies. She is also an Advisor to the EU Technology Commission.
Stephan Uhrenbacher is the founder and was the executive director of Qype. On Germany’s largest assessment portal for local news, its users exchange tips and recommendations about stores, service providers, gastronomy and free time activities all over Europe. In the late 90s Uhrenbacher established the travel portal TravelChannel for Gruner+Jahr. In subsequence followed the supervision of the Northern European market for Lastminute.com in London and he created the reorientation of Bild.de for Axel Springer. At the despatch pharmacy DocMorris he was responsible as its COO for the growth of the corporation in 2003.
Hans Penz, is the CEO and founder of Couch Tycoon. The Hamburg based start-up financing community allows start-up founders to raise their first 20k $ online without a big business plan or a filed investment proposal and enables everyone to become a venture capitalist for only 100 $. Prior to CouchTycoon he worked as technical due diligence consultant for private investors in Munich after he co-developed and licenced a proprietary data transmission technology which allows to send short messages through GSM networks for free. His career as entrepreneur started in to highschool when he founded my first company, an advertising agency which was specialized in youth advertising.
Markus Berger-de León, was appointed CEO of studiVZ, the largest German social network, on 1st March 2009. Prior to his current position he served as CEO of MY-HAMMER AG. From 2002 – 2007 he worked for Jamba, the leading provider of mobile content and entertainment services. During his last two years at Jamba he served as Managing Director, taking overall responsibility of the Jamba business unit. Markus has also previously acted as CTO and COO of a software company that he co-founded, where his responsibilities included establishing IT-driven business-to-business procurement services for customers across Europe. Berger-de León holds a degree in business administration from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz, Germany. Additionally, he studied at the Columbia Business School and at Plekhanov in Moscow. Currently Markus still holds the position of CEO of the Abacho AG and supervisory board Chairman of the MyHammer AG. Berger-de León is an authority on mobile, media, web 2.0 and convergence topics and frequently speaks on mobile services and content, digital entertainment, mobile technology and industry convergence.
4.30pm: Tea/Coffee break
4.50pm: Speed Speech: Christian Geissendoerfer, CEO, Yoose.com on “Bootstrapping”
Christian has had various marketing and sales experiences in the enterprise software and IT environment. His professional experience includes developing “routes to market” strategy and lead management work at IBM for the EMEA geography across brands and customer sets as well as two years as a sales representative for Lotus Software in France (selling to financial institutions). Based on his interest and experience with mobile enterprise solutions, he has started in 2008 his own venture in the mobile marketing and advertising space. YOOSE offers a mobile couponing platform to reach the right person with the right message at the right time and right place. YOOSE was a Seedcamp finalist in London in September 2008 and launches its service in Berlin in June 2009. Christian is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish and holds a Diploma in Business Administration form the University of Bayreuth. He participated in INSEAD entrepreneurship classes with his venture, was leading the entrepreneurship club and the European Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program with INSEAD and IESE, while his wife attended INSEAD for her MBA.
5.10pm: Startup Pitch Competition (for a review of the last four see here)
Skobbler
Tolingo
Doctr
Stylight.de
kontoblick
kaufDA.de
Asgoodas.nu
Paperc.de
Studdex
Platogo
6pm – 8pm: Informal networking over drinks
Startups Judging Panel
Dwight Cribb is the founder and Managing Director of the executive search firm Dwight Cribb Personalberatung. Since 1998 he is an influential advisor of Germany’s leading new media firms in management searches and HR questions. Together with his team he is responsible for around 80 management placements per year in the German new media sector. The Hamburg born Briton studied Marketing with Psychology in Scotland and obtained an MBA with a specialisation in international business. Prior to entering the executive search field Cribb worked at innovative firms in the fields of electronic business information (Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing) and video conferencing (PitcureTel). Dwight Cribb is also the Chairman of the Aravati Global Search Network, a network of twelve owner managed executive search firms in Europe, North America and Asia and Co-Founder of myynto, an HR outsourcing firm. Together with his Partner Maren Freyberg he is an early stage investor and has recently invested in Cliplister, Tolingo, Spreadyo and Carsablanca.
Paul Jozefak
Inmaculada Martinez
Stephan Uhrenbacher
Thomas Hessler, CEO , Zanox
Our sponsors and partners:
Location sponsor: ZANOX.de AG is a global market leader for performance-based online marketing and has established a strong presence in all core markets around the world. More than 2000 prestigious international companies rely on the zanox affiliate network and sector-specific expertise in all sectors where innovation is taking place. Affiliate programmes provide companies with global solutions for efficiently marketing their products and services on the internet. zanox attaches great importance to the quality and the continuing development of its affiliate sites, whose owners are in addition being motivated by fast and transparent compensation. zanox’s international focus is strengthened by its Global Alliance Partner (GAP) programme. Furthermore, in May of 2008, the GAP Campus opened its doors at zanox headquarters in Berlin to serve as an international meeting point for developers and designers.
Media Partner: Gründerszene is the magazine for founders and people interested in founding a company. On a regular basis Gründerszene publishes news and expert content, dealing with the branch. Hands on reports and technical essays shall inspire founders and help them to implement their visions. Gründerszene explicitly wants to foster the passion and the respect towards entrepreneurship among young founders and experts of the branch.
Video partner: sevenload is a social media network for internet television and user generated content. Every channel on sevenload offers independent, intelligent and creative content from users producing their own content as well as professional production companies. sevenload was founded in 2006. sevenload is a global social media platform for photos, videos and interactive show formats. sevenload enables users to manage and share their photos and videos online for free. The site offers an array of different interactive internet shows in various languages and categories. In addition, some of the available channels are from famous and popular artists and musicians.
Strategic partner: Seedcamp is an intensive week long event held in September in London targeted at young entrepreneurs from across EMEA. Seedcamp have set it up to provide seed funding and world-class connections for startups. September 2007 marked the first Seedcamp Week and group of funded startups. September 1009 will mark the third.
Drinks Spornsor: Dwight Cribb Personalberatung was founded in 1998 to provide executive search (headhunter) services to new media clients. The Hamburg based firm is responsible for around eighty high profile new hires in the industry each year. From the outset working with start-ups has been an important part of the business and Cribb in some cases offer “consulting for equity” arrangements to particularly promising start-ups wishing to recruit top-level talent whilst conserving cash. Talk to Dwight Cribb about your plans at Techcrunch Berlin.