Entrepreneurship: Supporting talented startup Erasmate.com

Posted by admin on Apr 9, 2010 in Entrepreneurship & Business | 2 comments

Ok, this is a more personal call. I need your help! I need you to help me support a great, young, talented, and ambitious student company win a €35.000 competition. Erasmate.com just launched and can use 35k to further finance their awesome web-portal, which helps students find accommodation when going abroad.

The Erasmate.com team is competing with several other but has a great opportunity to score first place as they are currently on 2nd or 3rd place and only a couple of votes from slam dunking this.

How can you help?

In order to get the 35k they need the most votes on the initiative’s website (LIOF Yeah)

1. Go to www.erasmate.com/35k - Just vote for them by
2. Press the grey “Stem” button,
3. Put in your name
4. Put in your email address
5. MOST IMPORTANT: You will get a mail from “SoapBox” in which you will have to click the confirmation link!

Unfortunately, the voting-website “SoapBox” is currently only available in Dutch. Please make sure you click the link as the team lost some valuable votes already to this.I am personally supporting these guys and with your help they might make it to number one. I would highly appreciate it if you would invest about 2 minutes of your time to support young talent.

Also, feel free to forward this to as many people as you like. I know the team works very hard and they appreciate your help a lot! Many thanks from my side already for your support!

Conference: Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship 2009 – The Conference

Posted by admin on Dec 1, 2009 in Conferences | 2 comments

On 20th of April 2009 the Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship 2009 started for the very first time and I was one of the lucky ones to attend the premiere. The overall intent was to promote the entrepreneurial spirit at Maastricht University since it is still a topic that plays a rather small role. There is a newly created Master program done by the Department of Organization and Strategy but the driving force behind the topic is the Maastricht Center for Entrepreneurship.

The week started as a “joint venture” of the MC4E and a group of very motivated and eager students. The wealth of ideas by the students and the strong support by the center were amazing when I witnessed it the first time at a meeting about the week. Having this strong team definitely made the event the success that it was. The “week” was able to draw some top-notch speakers, entrepreneurs, and interested students to Maastricht, which enabled everybody to experience the topic of entrepreneurship first hand.

“The Four Day Workweek”

In contrast to other events the “week” really was almost a whole week. The event was kicked-off on Monday with an introduction to the topic and a rather diverse offering; workshops, interviews, lectures, and networking sessions just to name a few segments. In the morning a keynote speech was delivered by professor for entrepreneurship, Head of the MC4E, and CEO of Maastricht University Investment Fund (UM Holding), Prof. Dr. Jan Cobbenhagen.

He talked about the importance to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities everywhere – not just in business – to make the world a better place. He immediately convey his enthusiasm for the topic onto everybody. This was especially valuable for all students that came to explore the topic for the very first time.

My Favorite Speakers

On of the most interesting speakers for me personally was Mark Korzilius the founder of German restaurant chain Vapiano.

Vapiano combines freshly made authentic Italian cuisine with semi-fast-food approach of delivery. There is a video (only in German) that describes the concept very well. Mr. Korzilius’ speech was remarkable since he also added personal side notes, which allowed the audience to look behind the scenes concerning Mr. Korzilius’ approach to business. He told the audience not only about Vapiano’s great success but also how he decided to sell the long-standing family business (150 years!!!) and end the family tradition to the displeasure of many. Mr. Korzilius made it very clear that some decisions are very hard to make. Furthermore, he gave some real life, applicable business advice like not to conform too quickly to advice of other but always to ask for it. His main mantra for managing a firm is to believe in your ideas and be very attentive when people tell you that something is not possible – according to him if people bash your idea you are on to something.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxjPVQdwNEc]

Dieter Stempel was another business person who definitely left an impression with everybody.

His casual and light-hearted style of talking about his business certainly reminded or showed everybody that business is serious but it does not mean that you have to let it get to you. His main advice was to go out in the world and find something that you are convinced of and that you have a passion for before locking yourself up in a 9 to 5 job in which you cannot grow personally and professionally.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJeWnZw3ayM&feature=related]

My Favorite Workshop

I have never seen fellow students more moved by a workshop or presentation before in my time at Maastricht University and other universities. The workshop done by Boris M. Riek about life and entrepreneurship challenged the participants to re-think what they know, assume, and learned.

This exercise was very intense in the way that a lot of people were confronted with their own assumptions and the finding that maybe often there is more to it than what things seem at first sight. Although this might sound very basic and straight forward it is for sure easier said than done. The highlight of the workshop was the ripping of a student’s 50 Euro bill by Mr. Riek just to show how much “value” we attach to a piece of paper. For me personally this went hand in hand what Mr. Korzilius said about finding new ways and doing things that everybody opposes. To explore new opportunities one has to go beyond what one knows and feels comfortable with.

So, would you go next time?

I can only answer this question with a crystal clear “YES”. Since the 2010 edition of the event is already in preparation I am very much looking forward to it. This time the students are actually organized in a newly created organization called Momentum Maastricht. The team now counts more members than ever before and I am certain that it is going to be a valuable event for everybody. For that matter Momentum Maastricht also has a cooperation with both, prestigious and longstanding “Idealab” from German WHU and RWTH & AC.E’s tech-oriented “Aachen Technology and Entrepreneurship Conference”.

(Photos: courtesy of Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship 2009)