We recently attended the Fed\u00aderal Min\u00adistry of Eco\u00adnomic and Cli\u00admate Action\u00b4s inau\u00adgural Startup Sum\u00admit in Berlin, and we were gen\u00aduinely impressed and moti\u00advated by the coor\u00addi\u00adnated efforts to fur\u00adther stim\u00adu\u00adlate the pro\u00adlif\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion and growth of star\u00adtups in Ger\u00admany. The announced ini\u00adtia\u00adtives, such as the WIN-Ini\u00adtia\u00adtive through its com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsive pack\u00adage of mea\u00adsures to sup\u00adport the con\u00addi\u00adtions nec\u00ades\u00adsary for inno\u00adva\u00adtion and growth cap\u00adi\u00adtal, will make a mean\u00ading\u00adful pos\u00adi\u00adtive impact in the Ger\u00adman startup ecosys\u00adtem. We were also impressed by the coop\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion across var\u00adi\u00adous fed\u00aderal min\u00adistries and polit\u00adi\u00adcal par\u00adties, with active par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpa\u00adtion from the Chan\u00adcel\u00adlor, the Min\u00adis\u00adter of Econ\u00adomy and Cli\u00admate Action, and the Min\u00adis\u00adter of Finance along with the heads of many of Germany\u00b4s largest corporations.<\/p>\n
We did, how\u00adever, notice that among the many atten\u00addees, star\u00adtups them\u00adselves were not well rep\u00adre\u00adsented. It is our view that in order to achieve the best out\u00adcomes from the ini\u00adti\u00adtia\u00adtives, it is imper\u00ada\u00adtive that all par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants in the ecosys\u00adtem under\u00adstand star\u00adtups as being unique young com\u00adpa\u00adnies that are start\u00ading some\u00adthing up, not as an object that is a goal unto itself, or a check\u00adbox on a gov\u00adern\u00adment goal track\u00ading sheet. Star\u00adtups should be and must remain the pri\u00admary and key actors in the ecosys\u00adtem, achiev\u00ading impor\u00adtance through their own accom\u00adplish\u00adments<\/strong> while being sup\u00adported<\/u> by other stakeholders.<\/p>\n The invest\u00adment com\u00admu\u00adnity, which includes national and regional gov\u00adern\u00adments, should aim to ensure that inno\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive com\u00adpa\u00adnies which are mak\u00ading mean\u00ading\u00adful break\u00adthroughs and address\u00ading impor\u00adtant prob\u00adlems are able to secure the fund\u00ading they need to fur\u00adther their progress. It should not work the other way around where a fund\u00ading amount or num\u00adber is set, and the invest\u00adment com\u00admu\u00adnity tries to cre\u00adate star\u00adtups and fund them heav\u00adily to meet the pro\u00adgrams\u00b4 goals \u2013 that would be the tail wag\u00adging the dog, and would only cre\u00adate prob\u00adlems and increase the risk of gen\u00ader\u00adat\u00ading losses.<\/p>\n In a time when Star\u00adtups are cel\u00ade\u00adbrated more than ever, the founders them\u00adselves must also prac\u00adtice aware\u00adness and self-con\u00adtrol<\/strong> in order to avoid slip\u00ading into the trap of feel\u00ading suc\u00adcess\u00adful merely because they are a \u2018Startup\u2122\u2019. Some tell\u00adtale signs of this dan\u00adger occur\u00adring are defin\u00ading trac\u00adtion as receiv\u00ading pos\u00adi\u00adtive feed\u00adback from poten\u00adtial future cus\u00adtomers, or mis\u00adtak\u00ading social media activ\u00adity for busi\u00adness devel\u00adop\u00adment. In its most extreme instances it can some\u00adtimes feel like star\u00adtups are spend\u00ading more time being a \u2018Startup\u2122\u2019 than actu\u00adally going about the busi\u00adness of start\u00ading some\u00adthing up.<\/p>\n It is under\u00adstand\u00adable that under the immense pres\u00adsure to suc\u00adceed with a new idea and how chal\u00adleng\u00ading it can be to make mean\u00ading\u00adful progress in the mar\u00adket, com\u00adpa\u00adnies some\u00adtimes find ersatz goals to cel\u00ade\u00adbrate. As long as this cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion remains in the realm of moti\u00advat\u00ading the team to keep dri\u00adving toward the real goals it has healthy aspects. How\u00adever, once this cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion crosses the line of defin\u00ading suc\u00adcess in ways that are not mean\u00ading\u00adful to the objec\u00adtive, it is a sign that a com\u00adpany has lost its com\u00adpass<\/strong> and is enam\u00adoured with its mere exis\u00adtence and not with impact\u00adful progress.<\/p>\n We are for\u00adtu\u00adnate to be invest\u00ading in Th\u00fcrin\u00adgen, where founders usu\u00adally come from a tech\u00adni\u00adcal back\u00adground, have devel\u00adoped mean\u00ading\u00adful inno\u00adva\u00adtions and are pas\u00adsion\u00adate about bring\u00ading their idea to the world. In our expe\u00adri\u00adence, founders of tech-based com\u00adpa\u00adnies are less vul\u00adner\u00ada\u00adble to the siren calls of the many mar\u00adket par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants who have no skin in the game<\/strong> and who want to pro\u00admote them\u00adselves by asso\u00adci\u00adat\u00ading with star\u00adtups. Th\u00fcrin\u00adgen tech founders main\u00adtain focus on their goals and stay in the busi\u00adness of actu\u00adally start\u00ading some\u00adthing up \u2013 and we fully sup\u00adport that.<\/strong><\/p>\n Your bm|t Team<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We recently attended the Fed\u00aderal Min\u00adistry of Eco\u00adnomic and Cli\u00admate Action\u00b4s inau\u00adgural Startup Sum\u00admit in Berlin, and we were gen\u00aduinely impressed and moti\u00advated by the coor\u00addi\u00adnated efforts to fur\u00adther stim\u00adu\u00adlate the pro\u00adlif\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion and growth of star\u00adtups in Ger\u00admany. The announced ini\u00adtia\u00adtives, such as the WIN-Ini\u00ad\u00adti\u00ada\u00ad\u00adtive through its com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsive pack\u00adage of mea\u00adsures to sup\u00adport the conditions [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,250],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-16643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-en","category-insights","tag-insights-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}