Like A Boss – How to successfully found a start-up during and after your studies
Dreamflat online rental marketplace
Berlin center. It is surprisingly quiet in the offices that house the start-up Dreamflat. The only noises are clacking computer keyboards and vibrating smartphones. Huge, black monitors sit on two desks facing each other. In front of each large screen there is also a smaller laptop that is connected to the large computer screen. “So that the screen and the work surface are larger,” explains David Barnowsky (26), one of the four founders and managing directors. The Dreamflat team is always online. The blue and white search mask of a world-famous social network flickers constantly on most screens. In the case of Dreamflat, the connection to Facebook is essential. Once you have logged in here, the shared apartment marketplace offers an overview of which friends, acquaintances or fellow students are currently offering a room. This allows you to get a quicker impression of the person renting out rooms and at the same time you can search for shared rooms among your wider circle of friends and acquaintances. “When looking for a room in a shared apartment, we focus primarily on the people, the roommates and not just on the apartment. The price, size and location of the room are behind the question of who actually lives there,” explains Dreamflat co-initiator Daniel Frese (23). After studying business administration in Munich, he founded the start-up in Berlin in September 2012 together with former students David (business informatics), Florian Purchess (26, IT) and Ernests Karlsons (31, IT).
Barnowsky and Frese developed the idea for their company together in the summer of 2011, after they had been looking for apartments and shared apartments for a long time. “That annoyed both of us, so we looked at the market and the competitors and after a few weeks decided that we wanted to start a business,” says Frese.
The steps towards your own independence are uncertain and shaky. Frese and Barnowsky were largely in a safe position when they founded their company because they founded the company after completing their studies. But ten percent of students in Germany still take this step in the lecture hall and run their company parallel to their studies. Flexibility, resilience, perseverance, the willingness to achieve something and good planning in advance are required.
VISMATH math platform
It's an undertaking in which you sacrifice a lot and learn a lot about yourself in return, says Anne Kahnt. When Vismath was founded in 2010, Kahnt was in the seventh semester of her mathematics studies. The aim of the platform is to make mathematics more tangible and understandable using geometry craft sheets, 3D models or kits. They tried to compensate for the entrepreneurial inexperience that she and her fellow students and co-founders Tobias Pfeiffer and Simon Krohn had when they founded the company with knowledge from their studies. “You face so many challenges at the beginning. “But you gradually learn the missing knowledge in practice,” says the young entrepreneur.
Every course of study is a good basis for venturing into self-employment. There you are trained to quickly learn things yourself. “This ability helps immensely when starting a business,” says Kahnt. Starting a business while you're studying hardly seems unreasonable, but Kahnt warns that the time frame often changes due to your studies and the company. “If I hadn't founded a company, I would have finished my studies by now. You have to be honest about that.”
YOOVE Segway rental
Hendrik Schneider, who founded Yoove with his colleague Fabian Paul in March 2009, also had these experiences. A start-up that rents out Segways in Berlin and Potsdam. Schneider only deregistered in October 2009. During the eight months, he did a balancing act every day in order to coordinate his studies at the Berlin Media Academy with his work and the company. “90 percent of my life has been my studies and my work. “You should be a little careful in this process,” says Schneider. “You lose around 50 to 75 percent of your social contacts and that should be clear to everyone if they decide to start a business during their studies.” Time was Schneider's most important factor at this stage of his life. “Every day only has 24 hours and you try to use as much of it as possible.” For Hendrik Schneider, the heart of every venture is the planning, which at Yoove took a full nine months. To do this, students should seek timely and adequate advice. Offers from university institutions can also be useful here. The young entrepreneur advises: “You should absorb the knowledge and know-how of the lecturers and professors and always ask! After all, that’s what the lecturers and professors are there for.”
Whether students are entrepreneurs depends mainly on their willingness to take risks. For Schneider, founders are lateral thinkers who are active, creative and curious. “People who don’t let themselves be told anything from above,” is his summary.
10 tips for starting your own business:
1. The team
2. Time & Planning
3. The will
4. Ask questions and ask experts.
5. Absorb knowledge
6. Flexibility
7. Network
8. Read, research, plan
9. Accept criticism.
10. Perseverance and willingness to achieve something
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Like A Boss – How to successfully found a start-up during and after your studies Dreamflat online shared apartment marketplace Berlin Mitte. It is surprisingly quiet in the offices that house the start-up Dreamflat. The only noises are clacking computer keyboards and vibrating smartphones. Huge, black monitors sit on two desks facing each other. In front of every large screen there is an additional
