Our Program

We have composed a robust program of workshops and community events designed to deliver to you the knowledge you need to build your own startup. The entire SPARK program can be found below!

Events

Mandatory

show less

Our Kickoff and Demo Day are SPARK’s biggest events! It is mandatory to participate in both. For further information regarding the Kickoff and Demo Day take a look at the descriptions below.

Workshops

Mandatory

show less

Workshops always take place on weekends and it is our goal to provide you with startup knowledge. They are always held by a professional speaker and cover important entrepreneurship topics. It is mandatory to participate in at least three workshops, however we highly recommend to participate in all of them since they are the foundation of the program and the milestones. All workshops will be held virtually.

Community Events

Voluntary

show less

Besides the Workshops that will take place during the weekends, we wanted to create a second format that gives our participants the possibility to come together as a community to get to know each other, to exchange ideas, inspirations and discuss questions. Therefore, we host Community Evenings, where you will get to chat with experts, the Foundersclub members and the other teams on topics such as what it takes to work great as a team, online marketing in the age of social media, what legal questions are relevant for you as founders and much more. Community events will alternate between being online and in person.

See our program below.

Kickoff

04.11.2023
9:00-13:00

show less

At the kickoff every person with an idea is invited to pitch in front of the audience. At a next step, other participants can express their interest to join a specific idea.

We iterate the process until we have complementary well-rounded teams. This process is very common and used at most startup hackathons.

Problem Solution Fit:
In-Person

08.11.2023
18:00-20:00

show less

Platz der Universität 3, HS 1108 KG

Community Event:
In-Person

09.11.2023
19:00

show less

TIK, StuSie ( downstairs )

Recap & Feedback:
In-Person

15.11.2023
18:00-20:00

show less

Platz der Universität 3, HS 1108 KG

Market:
In-Person

22.11.2023
18:00-20:00

show less

Platz der Universität 3, HS 1108 KG

Community Event:
In-Person

23.11.2023
19:00

show less

TIK, StuSie ( downstairs )

Business Model Fit:
In-Person

29.11.2023
18:00-20:00

show less

Platz der Universität 3, HS 1108 KG

Pitch:
In-Person

06.12.2023
18:00-20:00

show less

Platz der Universität 3, HS 1108 KG

Community Event:
In-Person

07.12.2023
19:00

show less

TIK, StuSie ( downstairs )

Traction:
In-Person

17.01.2024
18:00-20:00

show less

Platz der Universität 3, HS 1108 KG

Demo Day:
In-Person

20.01.2024
10:00 - 14:00 (9:30 Einlass)

show less

The Demo Day will take place at HS 3219, 2. OG, KG 3 (Platz der Universität 3, 79098 Freiburg) and will be a hybrid event but we encourage everyone to participate in person! The Demo Day is the grand finale. In order to pitch at the Demo Day you need to meet the four milestones as a team. You'll hand in a market analysis, draft a small business plan, create a website landing page, and submit the pitch deck.

There will be many people from the startup ecosystem. Among others there will be investors, entrepreneurs, researchers and many more. This event is public, feel free to invite your friends and family.

Roles

Throughout our startup competition you will expand your capabilities and develop new skills. The complementary composition of a team is the cornerstone of its success. You may fall into one or more of the following roles within your team.

Creatives

show less

Creative minds play an an important role in every project. Your vision and creativity, and aesthetics are invaluable to a growing team. You study media management, design, theater, fashion or something comparable or you're a self taught designer? Then this category is for you!

Techie

show less

After a while you will see that an idea alone is not enough. What really matters is the execution. Tech students have the required skillset to transform a fantastic idea into our reality.

Business People

show less

You have the mind for business. You see logistics and economics, as well as understand how a team best functions. You search for sources of money like public grants, impact investors, or traditional VCs. Good businesses strive for self sufficiency, as a startup your goal is to make that happen one way or another!

Green Minds

show less

Our planet and all of its natural resources are the basis of our survival and wellbeing. You are certain that we need to do more to protect our environment! You have an ecological vision, you study environmental, ecological, biological or related subjects and want to work towards a greener future? Then please, go ahead, and apply in this category!

Socially Active People

show less

The human condition fascinates you. Behaviorisms, societal norms, and psychology are among your fields of interest. You are keen to innovate socially and change the world!

Wild Cards

show less

The X factor is hard to describe, you bring something separate and mysterious to your team. Your thinking is out of the box. You command a diverse skillset. You’re keen to bring your ideas to life. This category is for those applicants who are looking for a new challenge. All backgrounds are desired as long as you're enthusiastic about changing the status quo!

Your Mentors

We will connect you and your team with a seasoned, successful and local entrepreneur with special expertise. Your mentor will have exactly the knowledge that you need to start a company from scratch. Throughout the competition they provide you with insights, connect you to their network and help steer you towards success. Team-Mentor matching will take place during the Kick-Off event.

George Randolph Howie

« Founder and CEO of Black Diamond Software »

show less

George Randolph (Randy )Howie is a CEO and entrepreneur, a Gartner management consultant, and an operating partner for emerging robotics startups. After having founded and run Black Diamond Software for over twenty-five years, his latest robotics venture, Archytas Ascendant, has brought his career full-circle, having earned a degree through the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, then started his career in robotics, AI, and the related digital transformation of jet engine compressor blade manufacturing for Pratt & Whitney.

Jan Geffroy

« Lawyer »

show less

Moritz Weil

« Weil Technology »

show less

Jeffrey Himmel

« Founder and Founder CEO of The Artco Group (AGI) »

show less

Jeffrey Himmel spent the better part of four decades in the steel industry and was the founder and CEO of international trading company The Artco Group (AGI), a steel plate rolling mill American Heavy Plates (AHP) and the Hannibal Industrial Park in Clarington, OH. Jeffrey studied Central European History and Economics at Connecticut College in the US and at Freiburg in the mid-to-late seventies. Since 2008 he started and has led Uni-Freiburg’s alumni presence in North America which became Friends of Freiburg, North America. Friends of Freiburg strives to develop a two-way relationship between the University and its alumni as well as engaging in fundraising for the university. More recently Friends of Freiburg has taken steps to be of service to current students and looks forward to developing this effort going forward.

Nikolai Sexauer

« Network Manager FWTM »

show less

Nikolai has general experience in incubating and guiding new projects and startups through their first pitfalls in different sectors (also social sector). He can provide you support in the market research about customers or target groups (i.e. with Design Thinking), challenge and validate your idea, help you innovating in business models with different approaches and tools and help you on your way to find the adequate business model (especially for social impact startups).

Florian Schneider

« Lawyer »

show less

Florian is a lawyer and privacy officer within an international Healthcare organization. He has deep knowledge in IT- and data protection law. A couple years ago he founded his own Startup in Freiburg. Ever since he has been very active in the field of Entrepreneurship, for example by having a mentor role at an accelerator in Hamburg.

Dr. Eleftheria Egel

« Co-founder and product strategist of an early-stage Edtech social startup & business mentor for aspiring female entrepreneurs »

show less

In this role, I lead my female clients to bring their vision to life. Being a fervent community supporter, I provide counsel, pitching guidance and assistance with fostering a mindset geared towards success in Founder Institute in Germany. I also co-launched the initiative #SheHustlesAfrica in Nigeria with the indigenous NGO AKAWI to assist local women entrepreneurs to solve business challenges and grow. My motto is: Stop being afraid of what can go wrong. Start thinking of what can go right

Andreas Lieb

« Lawyer and Co-Founder/CEO of Xandar »

show less

Andreas is a lawyer with a focus on corporate law and finance and gained work experience with law firms in Freiburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. He is an alumni of Foundersclub Freiburg, president of JCI Freiburg and mentor for multiple accelerator programs in the region. In 2023 he co-founded his own startup: Xandar Law Tax Solutions.

Awards

What would a startup competition be without awards! We award prizes in three categories: Sustainability, Scalability and Social Impact. Every winning team receives a cash prize of 1000€ with the exception of the overall best startup which will receive a prize of 2000€

Sustainability

Spnsored by Friends of Freiburg North America

Freiburg is the Green City and of course there is a Green Award! For ventures that show that a good business model is compatible with nature and the responsible use of resources.

Scalability

Spnsored by Black Forest Business Angels

For those who believe that the sky is the only limit! We award one team that proves that their product can disrupt a whole industry in a short period of time. Other people play, you scale.

Social Impact

Spnsored by FWTM Freiburg, Social Innovation Lab

Your mission is not to maximise profits, your mission is to create value for your target group. You have an unstoppable thirst to better the world we live in. We think this is awesome!

Overall Best Startup

Spnsored by Black Forest Business Angels and FWTM Freiburg

Testimonials

Hannah Böhme

CEO of FWTM + Jury Member SPARK 2020

show less

I was very impressed by SPARK 2020! The Kickoff, all the workshops, the Demo-Day, briefly, the entire program was very professional and well organized. The Demo Day really showed great results and it was impressive to see what progress the participating teams made during the 12 weeks. We are very happy to be part of SPARK again and encourage all students to sign up for this years competition!

Thomas Völk

Contestant: neobon

show less

We have received many softskills, a huge network, a great mentor, who did a great job supporting us at all time and we have learned to work in a structured way on our idea.

Team: 'Nice step by step advance, great network with many mentors, Sprints were good (we did not expect this!), structure and continuous help were pretty important for us.

Jonas Auras

Contestant: BesenKammer

show less

Our idea did not exist before SPARK, so we started from scratch and had the opportunity to learn a lot in many different fields like Business Model Canvas, finance and building your own website. In addition it was a great experience to combine different skills from all our teammates.

...you can expand your network and receive a lot of business knowledge.

Manav Madan

Contestant: PapSamurAI

show less

I could’t believe that was organized by students, you guys were so professional and everything was so well organized.

SPARK is a great initiative for students who want to do more rather than just study. And it is also so culturally important that you get to meet so many people from so many backgrounds, you work with them, you figure out solutions on the way. I definitely recommend to all my fellow mates, go for this. You learn more than what you can learn in a boring classroom.'

Organizers

We here at the Foundersclub Freiburg, a local student initiative for green and social entrepreneurship, seek to inspire students to innovate, create, and foster the green & social entrepreneurial spirit. We offer workshops and talks by experts and founders on topics important in the startup ecosystem, as well as host networking events and competitions.

Most recently we organized and ran the biggest startup talent matching in our region, Unternehmenslust. Our members come from diverse backgrounds and each wants to create value for the local startup ecosystem and learn how to become impactful entrepreneurs themselves.

Learn more about us on our website: foundersclub-freiburg.de

Learn more about Baden Campus on their website: badencampus.de

Patrons

Standing on the shoulder of giants. We are humbled by the support of these two outstanding personalities in the making of this venture. We will benefit greatly from their network, their expertise and their passion for innovation.

Martin Horn

« Politics »

Lord Mayor of the student town Freiburg im Breisgau

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein

« Science »

Principal of Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg

Apply

Are you ready to embark on your startup adventure?

Partners and supporters

A huge thank you to our partners and supporters:

show less

As a management and marketing company of the city of Freiburg, Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co. KG (FWTM) sees itself as a service provider, lobbyist, mediator and organizer for the city and the region. It organizes trade fairs, congresses and events in various event locations in Freiburg and is represented as an organizer of international trade fairs all over the world. FWTM cooperates with numerous partners with the aim of further developing Freiburg as a business location in order to ensure the city's attractiveness for citizens and guests. In this context, the synergy effects resulting from the bundling of the individual business areas are of great advantage. On behalf of the city, it brings the economy and tourism sustainably forward, brings people and interests together, creates experiences for citizens and guests, makes Freiburg known nationally and internationally, finds trends for the future and sets impulses.

show less

The Black Forest Business Angels e.V. is a community of successful companies and managers from the extended Region of Freiburg whose goal it is to extend their know-how and networks to Startups with the clear goal of ultimately investing in companies. The Black Forest Business Angels regularly organize pitch-events where promising Startups can introduce themselves and network with interested investors. This has led to many successful deals in the past.

show less

Our mission and purpose as Friends of Freiburg University is to support international exchange of students and scholars, and to promote joint educational and research programs between the University of Freiburg (formally known in Germany as Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) and American universities. We build and foster relationships between the University of Freiburg and its alumni living in North America and establish partnerships with private donors and foundations.

show less

The >SMART> GREEN ACCELERATOR and the Social Innovation Lab are part of Grünhof GmbH respectively Grünhof e.V.

The >SMART> GREEN ACCELERATOR is one of the leading Startup Accelerators for the Green Economy in Germany. With innovative funding programs it accelerates startups in the fields of Green Energy and Green Industry and innovates organisations by implementing purposeful startup cooperation.

The Social Innovation Lab brings together people, organisations and skills. It provides Social Startups with a space to work, workshops, innovation programs, coachings and a network to develop innovative solutions for social challenges.