Looking back, dated two days after the summer school.
A business model in one week: JugendUnternimmt Summer School
A special prize from Jugend forscht sent me to a founders' workshop week in Erfurt. Our team took first place in the pitch competition at the end.
I did not apply for this week. I won it. At the regional round of Jugend forscht in February, one of the special prizes was a place at the JugendUnternimmt Summer School, a workshop week on founding and marketing in Erfurt.
So from 22 to 26 July 2024, a few weeks after my Abitur, I worked with tools a research project does not ask for. Business model canvas. Cost structure. Target market. The week is run by STIFT, the Thuringian foundation for technology, innovation and research, together with the Internationale Martin-Luther-Stiftung and the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung.
The format is simple. You get the tools at the start of the week, you build a business model with them, and at the end you pitch it to a jury of experienced founders.
The idea we pitched was 48 hours old when the week began. We filled in the canvas, worked out what the thing would cost, looked at the market, and turned all of that into a pitch. The jury gave us first place.
For me the result matters less than the change of question. With PneuNet, the question for a year and a half had been whether the model works. This week the question was who would pay for something and why. That is a different kind of proof.
Note added later: the next pitch came in December 2024, at the E-Challenge of HPI Engine.