Stuttgart Accelerator Program: fintogether

The Stuttgart-based startup accelerator fintogether is launching and we're there live: Every week, you'll find an insight into the startup stories, the workshops and the program processes here. All information about the first batch, which startups are participating and what fintogether offers them can be found in our article about the start of the program.

After exciting and intense months of workshops, mentoring and the intensive development of their business models, the start-ups are approaching the end of the program and thus the imminent conclusion of their (pre-)seed round. The last weeks are focused on the preparation for the big demoday. Here, the teams will present their current status to investors and the public. For this, the startups use the time to optimize pitch decks and financial plans, start actively searching for business angels and prepare their first MVP for market testing.

Week 8

Workshop Start-up Evaluation, Achim Dümpelmann from EY

In this workshop, the start-ups learned which criteria are used to evaluate young companies and how to derive a potential purchase price. How does one approach investors? What are the specifics that play a role in the valuation of a fintech? These are just a few of the relevant questions that were addressed in this workshop.

The Startup Evaluation workshop helped us a lot to understand the perspective of an investor and which key figures are important to get a positive valuation.

Tobias Prinz, Pinsl

Week 7

Workshop Business Angels & Funding with Dr. Gesa Miczaika from Auxxo Capital

Gesa Miczaika summarizes for us what business angels are and what matters to them: "There are many different types of investors. These include business angels, who typically enter at the very early stage of a startup. Angels' motivations for investing in the startup space are manifold. Examples include high return potential, access to the startup world, or staying on top of current trends and technologies. Angels are often individuals or organized in groups and also underwrite convertible loans. In principle, all types of companies are potential investment candidates for business angels. Often the focus is on high risk and high potential (>10x returns as target) and disruptive technologies as well as large, growing markets. The due diligence (examination of the company) of angel investors can vary widely. Since they are typically early-stage investments, they often invest before a product or service is marketable. Among many factors, due diligence examines, for example, the founding team, the market, timing, and product-market fit. In addition, governance rights are also relevant. These include, for example, the possibility of taking a board seat, the right to participate in future financing rounds and the so-called liquidation preferences. Special attention is paid to the CapTable. The founders must still hold sufficient shares in their company. For the start as an angel investor it is recommended to make the first 1-2 investments with experienced angels or to form syndicates. Active networking is especially important to get as much information as possible as well as access to potential investments.

"Since with an angel investment you commit to the startup for several years, the personal fit between founders and investors is especially important."

Gesa Miczaika

Financial planning for startups: Dr. Julius Tennert, Startbase

For an idea to become a true startup, it is important that founders address the issue of finance early on. Only capital makes it possible to win customers, manufacture products and provide services professionally. Banks, business angels and venture capital investors therefore ask at any time what it costs to put an idea into practice. However, first-time founders in particular find it difficult to give a concrete answer to this central question. Why is that the case? "It's actually quite simple: if you know what you have to do, you also know how much money you need. But many first-time founders have a hard time doing just that because of their lack of experience, especially if they're coming straight out of university," says Fintogether coach Dr. Julius Tennert, who offers founders in the Accelerator program a workshop on financial planning.

Financial planning is not about Excel or accounting skills, but about project management. That's why founders need to work primarily on their project management skills.

Julius Tennert

His tip for founders: Make a to-do list, describe each to-do in as much detail as possible, and then think carefully about how long it will take to do it, what still needs to be purchased, and where you need outside help. In planning, hours then become employees, purchases become investments, and help becomes consulting costs.

Week 6

Data Privacy: Mona Pirouz, EY

The topic of data privacy affects all of us, including startups. In the workshop "Data Privacy" with attorney Mona Pirouz, startups will learn the basics of data privacy, legal regulations, and what they need to pay attention to specifically as startups.

Data protection should not slow down new technologies, but ensure that users' data is protected and therefore secure.

Mona Pirouz, EY

Week 5

Founders Lounge with founder Max Willert, HYRE.

Max shared his journey with Hyre Talent, the key milestones and most importantly what he learned along the way that may be relevant for other founders. Especially on the topic of funding rounds with crowd funding, first business angels from approach to negotiations and a VC round as well as finding and hiring employees, there were many questions and answers.

Regulatory Foundations for Start-ups: Kristian Borkert, JURIBO

In the workshop with Kristian Borkert, lawyer at Juribo, the start-ups learned about the most important regulations for start-ups and where they can affect them. Especially as a fintech start-up, there is an incredible amount of regulations to consider. This is shown by the amount of instances alone that oversee all of this. These include banks and financial service providers (EBA, Bafin, IHK), but also payment service providers (EBA, Bafin) and insurance service providers (EIOPA, Bafin, IHK). Many fintech startups require a banking license for their business model. However, getting one is not as easy as it seems at first glance.

If the business model can be implemented without a banking license, it's great. If not, you should think about how you can design the conditions to avoid your own license.

Kristina Borkert, JURIBO

In order to acquire such a banking license, one must meet several requirements, such as several years of professional experience, high free capital, dealing with the issues of money laundering, compliance and the Bafin. An alternative to start your own business quickly is "banking as a service" or to get started as an IT consultant. Service providers such as Solarisbank provide support here and offer companies the opportunity to run their business via their license. For starters, it's always easier to build on an existing license rather than apply for your own. If you are in this field, read up well and get advice so that you can successfully enter the business world with your startup.

Week 4

SAP TechDay, Tino Albrecht and Jan Gutknecht, SAP

After a short intro of the SAP Startup Programs by Tino Albrecht and Jan Gutknecht, we went straight into the topic of the day: Building blocks of successful startups. From their experiences with customer engagements and the exchange with investors and accelerators, Tino and Jan realized that the success of a company depends on the one hand on the developed service/product, but on the other hand also on the successful scaling of a functioning and stable organizational and operational structure.

It is important for the long-term success of a start-up to invest in the development of structures and processes as early as possible. Otherwise, after the product market fit, you will be running after your own success and will not be able to scale.

Jan Gutknecht, SAP

Founders often focus on the product and the service. Equally important is not to miss the point of equipping the company with the right structures, capabilities and business processes. To put it metaphorically: While you have been rolling a heavy stone ball up the hill for a long time (symbolic of building the product/service), you are running behind it when you are over the crest of the product market fit and Sales, Service, Accounting, etc. are suddenly faced with completely different volumes of orders.

With a timely focus on scalable business processes and a well-structured organizational structure and the selection of the right partners, you can counteract this. At the same time, building a solid IT architecture at an early stage reduces technical debts and your own infrastructure does not stand in the way of scaling. In the afternoon, individual sessions were held with each start-up of fintogether Batch One. Topics such as presentation of the product/service, discussion of the business model and networking were covered. Finally, there was a feedback round with a cold beer.

Week 3

Business Plan Development: Eric Heintze, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research, University of Stuttgart

A business plan is central for every freshly founded company. At best, it should answer the crucial questions: What products and services will be offered? What strategy is the company pursuing in the market? What are the opportunities and risks? What are the prospects for economic success? The business plan must then be used to convince investors. The expert Eric Heintze gave the fintogether participants some basic tips for their own business plan: for example, focusing on early adopters at the market launch. With the entrepreneurship expert, the founders also went through their own pitch decks and looked for potential for improvement.

Foundation for agile working: Mandy Gardemin and Christina Korber, Lime & Paper.

"Foundation for Agile Working" was the name of one of the workshops this week. Agile working describes the way of working that enables companies and also teams to adapt to rapid changes, to react at short notice and thus to work successfully. In essence, then, it means greater flexibility, faster action, and a willingness to think and work innovatively instead of sticking to outdated processes. To achieve this, bureaucratic hurdles must be removed to make room for more dynamism. But what are the basics, how do you create a foundation so that agile working works? In this workshop, the start-ups worked out their purpose, vision and mission, as well as their values and a strategy. The purpose they developed should help them to get up at 6 a.m. every Monday morning and continue to work on their own goals. The strategy directs the focus on the essentials, on which one should concentrate in order not to lose the thread.

Brand Positioning and Brand Building: bilekjaeger

During the workshop "Brand Positioning and Brand Building" with our partner bilekjaeger, the start-ups analyzed their logos and the visual language in their appearance. It was looked if the target groups were formulated and classified correctly and how to be flexible despite changes in the market. The start-ups' websites, presentations and pitches were also scrutinized with regard to the choice of words and a more comprehensible presentation of the business model.

Week 2

Online marketing: Jan Hendrik Reichenbacher, Startbase

A good KPI depends as little as possible on external parameters or coincidences. Instead, it should be as good as possible in calling the team to self-responsibility and making them hungry for success.

Jan Hendrik Reichenbacher

The beginning of the second week was all about marketing. In a workshop, founder and marketing expert Jan-Hendrik Reichenbacher taught the teams the basics of online marketing. In a direct exchange with the expert, the teams were able to scrutinize their own marketing concept and adjust the strategy if necessary, for example to address the right target group. In a short time, the founders were able to identify and correct typical mistakes they had made, such as faulty code that prevents a start-up from being found on Google.

Elevator Pitch Training: Dirk Lehmann

The best pitch is already inside you!

Dirk Lehmann

How can you prepare your pitch even faster and achieve better results at the same time? Is it possible to do that in just one day? In his intensive workshop, pitch trainer Dirk Lehmann teaches how to inform your audience, but also how to get your target group to act and get the support you need. The teams learned how to present properly and thereby generate enthusiasm among the audience. For example, how do you introduce your startup in one sentence? Being clear about such things helps to define your target group more clearly, Lehmann's tip said.

Week 1

Business modeling: Dr. Franceso Pisani, EY

The Business Modeling Canvas and the Value Proposition Model are among the basic analysis tools for every young company. Of course, our founders know this as well. But even with such approaches, getting it right is not so easy. Which is why Dr. Francesco Pisani from EY came to the Accelerator right at the start of the program to give a workshop on the topic. In an exchange with Pisani and the other start-ups, the participants worked out what their business models are. The goal: to quickly incorporate many different perspectives and feedback loops in order to derive concrete recommendations for action at the end.

The opening of the workshop series with the topic of business modeling was a great start to the Accelerator program. We had another fundamental review of both our value proposition and our business model.

Simon, founder of @ShareStudy

Low Code, No Code: Sarah and Marco Berger, The Biberei

Software development poses significant challenges for many organizations: It takes a relatively long time, it is often cost-intensive, and there is often a lack of necessary development capacity. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to develop software faster, more efficiently and, if necessary, without - or at least without extensive - programming knowledge? One answer to this wish is: low-code development. Low code does not refer to the quality of the code, but to the code creation. The majority of code in low-code development is generated by configuration using a low-code platform. The proportion of manual code development is small compared to the amount of code configured, i.e. "low". The promise of no-code development, on the other hand, is that all code is configured and manual code generation becomes unnecessary. In the "Low Code, No Code" workshop with Sarah and Marco Berger from Die Biberei, startups learn how to implement projects cost-effectively without extensive IT knowledge.