From September 17 through 19, students from the second cohort of the Master in Entrepreneurship Program (MiE), founded in 2017, visited a series of companies in Berlin as part of their Sprint2Berlin course. Sprint is a method developed by Google Ventures partners to elaborate and test viable business ideas in the course of just a few days. An important part of the course is to gain up-to-date insights from start-ups, investors and corporates in Berlin and to build up a first network.
Working under the direction of Professor Dr. Christoph Hienerth, the students formed teams and developed initial business models of their own. The course provided training in problem analysis, brainstorming, competition and customer analysis, and the development of new business models and their operational realization. The module included not only practical learning content but also visits to already successful start-ups in Berlin. Among other things, the students heard lectures at Zalando, Porsche Digital Lab, Scaling Spaces, Audibene, Le Wagon and Caroobi, providing them insights into each start-up’s business model and success factors. Many of today’s most successful start-ups in Berlin were founded by WHU Alumni.
The MiE Board Meeting was also held at Zalando on September 19. Well-known founders, managers of successful larger companies, investors and international researchers were on hand at the meeting. The agenda included information on the still-new MiE degree program and the various start-up activities at WHU. Managing Director Monika Hauck also reported on the plans and goals of the new WHU Entrepreneurship Center.
Rounding off the Board Meeting were remarks by keynote speakers Daniel Jung (YouTube star in mathematics), Oscar Jazdowski (Silicon Valley Bank) and Andreas Antrup (Vice President Data and Advertising at Zalando).