Founding a Startup: Insights, Programmes & Sharing Experiences

At the HWR Berlin University Day, on 28 May 2026, you will gain practical insights into start-up programmes from 10:30 to 12:00 (in room B 4.01) and have the opportunity to exchange ideas with startups from the Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB) – the entrepreneurship centre of HWR Berlin.

Entrepreneurship is highly valued at HWR Berlin: numerous alumni have built successful companies, making use of the incubator’s offerings along the way.

Among other things, the Startup Incubator Berlin provides co-working spaces at the CIC near Görlitzer Park, where founders work together and learn from one another. The offering is complemented by workshops, events and funding programmes that accompany the journey from idea to market readiness.

In this session you will learn everything about the opportunities the Startup Incubator Berlin has to offer and get straight into conversation with startup teams who share their experiences.

Agenda

• Introduction to the Startup Incubator Berlin & the programmes (10 min)
• Presentations and insights from the startups (4 min per team)
• Individual exchange in a fair-style format with the startup teams

Startup Teams

Klappt
Klappt is a career platform for universities. It helps students find suitable entry-level positions, prepare role-specific CV and cover letter drafts, and arrive better prepared for career counselling. Career centres save time on recurring basic questions and gain aggregated insights into students’ needs, skills gaps and employer interests.
klappt.ai

Mini Movers Club
Mini Movers is a social and sports club for families. With sports courses, community formats and genuine encounters, they create space for movement and connection.
https://www.minimoversclub.de/

lastdecades
lastdecades is a Berlin-based vintage and secondhand fashion startup founded in 2020 by Carlo Wengler during the pandemic. What originally began as a small online side business alongside his studies developed within a few years into a growing online shop for curated vintage sportswear and Y2K fashion in Germany. Today, lastdecades combines e-commerce, social media marketing, creator collaborations and sustainable fashion culture.
https://lastdecades.de/

Tourist Helpline
Tourist Helpline, a community of more than 300,000 travellers, is developing into an innovative marketplace that directly engages travellers and delivers offers to them. The platform connects, in particular, German mid-sized travel businesses with rapidly growing international markets.

Rumour
Rumour is not your classic restaurant recommendation platform. NO filter chaos, no fake reviews. Find restaurants based on mood, context and trusted recommendations – that’s all you need.
https://t.me/join_rumourberlin

Debias
Debias helps companies understand why their target audience isn’t converting. We analyse the psychology of the target audience and translate the results into concrete design recommendations for website and product. This makes it easier for companies to win the right customers and retain them in the long term.
https://debiaslab.com/

We look forward to your visit!

Calling Future Female Founders

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The Startup Incubator Berlin started its new support program EXIST Women with a batch of ten impressive female founders which had been selected at the Pitch Night in January. Their startup ideas range from AI solutions, Tunesian product imports, high-end e-commerce or SAAS solutions up to a health app and an institute focusing on diversity management.

We are proud to have strong partners with the Berliner Sparkasse and WLounge as well as the Business Angel Club Berlin Brandenburg e.V. to support us with the program. In addition, we collaborate with other universities in Berlin and share our events and workshops for female founders.

To extend our support beyond our participants in the EXIST Women programm, we dedicate our two-week Lean Startup Sprint (February 20th – March 1st, 2024) to future female founders and host a female-only edition. The free program includes several workshops, coaching, peer learning and a UX-Testing. You will learn all about prototyping, marketing and branding, “Attitude as a Super Power” or financial planning.

All female founders out there are very much invited to join our network! Register for the free Lean Startup Sprint right away:

Lean Startup Sprint Female Edition

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Federal Funding for the Expansion of Startup Culture at the Berlin School of Economics and Law

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For the first time, the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) receives federal funding through the EXIST programme to expand its successful startup activities. The university strengthens its profile as an entrepreneurship hub.

At the Gründungsradar 2018 of the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft, HWR Berlin emerged as one of the best universities of applied sciences in Germany. The university is now receiving financial support from the EXIST funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) to further develop its startup network.

“We are very pleased about the approval of the subsidies and are taking advantage of the opportunity that the EXIST programme / potentials offer us within the framework of the EXIST startup culture programme to sharpen the profile of our entrepreneurial activities,” says Christian Gurol, Head of Startup Incubator Berlin, the startup centre of HWR Berlin. In the six-month concept phase, four defined fields of work will be prepared with targeted measures to promote startups, before these are then implemented in the project phase.

Gurol foremost sees strength and potential in entrepreneurship education, the university as Startup Incubator and in active relations to Berlin’s economy and international partners. The entrepreneurship network of the university relies on

• the establishment of an international entrepreneurship campus as a contact point for international and internationally-oriented students,
• the integration of incubation and education with the aim of further developing common methods and offers of teaching and startup support,
• to expand the cooperation network sustainably, to develop partnerships with the regional economy quantitatively and qualitatively, and
• economic sustainability by developing a business model for entrepreneurship activities.

“The Berlin School of Economics and Law has continuously promoted entrepreneurship education and thinking in all areas of study and research over the past 18 years,” emphasises Prof. Dr. Sven Ripsas. The professor for entrepreneurship at HWR Berlin refers to the successful founding centre of the university, which was repositioned five years ago and aligned with the lean startup principle. Two years ago, the new startup campus of the Startup Incubator Berlin opened at the Siemens AG site in Berlin. In cooperation with established companies and the BIT6 network of Berlin’s universities of applied sciences, an important innovation centre has been created in the founding capital.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, president of HWR Berlin, says: “Our students and our teachers benefit from the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking in all areas of practice-oriented teaching and research at HWR Berlin. We create the framework to enable creative startup teams to develop together with established companies and thus offer a focal point for knowledge transfer between universities and industry,” says Zaby.

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