On August 16, we had the pleasure to welcome a delegation from South-Asia in our Accelerate Spaces. Besides an introduction to the German startup scene we also gave some insights into the Stuttgart startup community.

1. Startup Community
insights – Stuttgart
and the region
Kathleen Fritzsche
Accelerate Stuttgart & StartUp Stuttgart
Twitter: @kathl_fritzsche

2. Hey, I‘m Kathleen
• 2010: First Startup Weekend
• 2011: Co-founded StartUp Stuttgart
• 2012: Co-Founded Accelerate Stuttgart
• 2013: Startup Weekend Facilitator

3. A startup is an organization formed to search for
a repeatable and scalable business model.
A business model describes how your company
creates, delivers and captures value.
(Steve Blank, What‘s a startup? First principles.)
What‘s a startup in the first place?
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

4. Startup Communities
(Brad Feld)
Feeders
• Politics
• Universities
• Investors
• Mentors
• Service Providers
• Corporates
Leaders
• Entrepreneurs
• Members
Photo: © Marcin Ryczek

5. • Strong automotive sectors & industries
• Big corporations & SMEs
• Traditional engineering know-how
• Hardware/ Internet of Things initiatives
• Strong Health/ Pharma research
Southwest Germany has…
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

6. • Stuttgart (600.000 inhab.)
• Karlsruhe (300.000 inhab.)
• Mannheim/ Heidelberg
(300.000/ 150.000)
• Heilbronn (120.000 inhab.)
Startup communities
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

7. • 2010 – First Startup Weekend Stuttgart
• 2011 – Launch of StartUp Stuttgart
• 2012 – Accelerate Stuttgart
• 2013 – Startup Weekend B2B
• 2014 – 2 Startup Weekends, Startup Stuttgart e.V.
• 2015 – 2 Startup Weekends,
First accelerator program by Accelerate Stuttgart
Stuttgart community – The story

8. • Writing about our startups & startup ecosystem
• Organising events for entrepreneurs
• Connecting people & building a community
What StartUp Stuttgart is doing
www.startup-stuttgart.de

9. • ~ 100 active startups
• Our Blog: 5000 unique visits/month
• Biggest Events
– Startup Weekend: ca. 100-120 attendees
– Founders‘ BBQ: ca. 100 attendees (monthly)
– Startup Lunch, Hardware Meetup, Leancamp...
Our community in numbers
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

10. A few startup examples
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

11. • 2013:
– Regiohelden (? by Bertelsmann, Mountain Super
Angel, netSTART Venture)
• 2014:
– Simpleshow ($5.4m by Japanese investors)
– Smoope (€ 500.000 by HTGF)
– Mauz & Wauz (? by private investors)
– Abusix (Karlsruhe) (? by TargetPartners)
Investments (examples)
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

12. • 2013:
– edelight exited to Burda (undisclosed)
• 2014:
– Teamviewer exited to Permira ($1.1b)
– HockeyApp exited to Microsoft (undisclosed)
• 2015:
– Autonetzer exited to Drivy (undisclosed)
– RegioHelden exited to Ströer (undisclosed)
Exits (examples)
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

13. • Local patriotism ties people to their cities and
communities
• Some good initiatives by institutions to attract
talent to entrepreneurship
• Lots of money involved in Southwest Germany
(needs to find its way to the startups)
• Close-tied network
• A lot can be done with a few bottom-up
initiatives
Advantages of a small community
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

14. • Students and employees are more interested
in entrepreneurship but orienting towards
bigger cities (e.g. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich)
• Corporates want to get involved but will take
more time  Berlin first
• Institutions try to maintain their ‚power‘
• Very traditional funding structure
 big money is in bigger cities
Struggles of a small community
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de

15. Startup Community
insights – Stuttgart
and the region
Kathleen Fritzsche
Accelerate Stuttgart & StartUp Stuttgart
Twitter: @kathl_fritzsche
www.accelerate-stuttgart.de