As they do every fall, the judges for the Sparkassen Founder’s Award gathered on November 26 in the Sparkassen Association’s main conference room to exchange ideas and share information. Of the approximately 50 judges, more than 30 were in attendance.
This year, for the first time, the perspective of Baden-Württemberg’s startup incubators was taken into account; I was able to use my 45-minute presentation to outline the structures of the TFU and the ideas of startup incubators in general, in order to convince the other judges of the value of our program. I also took the opportunity to highlight the most common misunderstandings in the collaboration between entrepreneurs, banks, and consulting services. In my view, these primarily involve differing perspectives regarding expectations, risks, obstacles, sales intensity, and attitudes toward planning and consulting.
There is still a lot to do, and the business incubators in Baden-Württemberg are actively helping out!