Seventeen finalists made it to the final round of applications before the German-American jury of German Accelerator Tech. Seven promising tech startups, including two from Munich, were honored at the "Celebrating Innovation" event at Berlin's Radialsystem V in front of 400 invited guests. Starting in July, they will work with German Accelerator Tech to advance their US expansion in Silicon Valley and New York.
For the 14th time, German Accelerator Tech presented a selection of the most innovative German tech startups and the participants of its support program at the flagship event "Celebrating Innovation." After Andy Goldstein, CEO of German Entrepreneurship GmbH, opened the event as host, the German Accelerator Scouts revealed Konstantin Krauss and Nicolas Hantzsch what the “secret recipe” is to make it as a startup in the USA:
“Do your homework beforehand: funding, team, product-market fit, and success in the home market.”
“'Fail fast' is the principle”
For the CEO of the program in New York, Christian Busch, it is also a question of mentality:
"In the US, innovations happen naturally—people are open to new things and just do things. 'Fail fast' is the principle,"
says Busch.
Silicon Valley CEO Dirk Kanngiesser added:
“By definition, companies in the US have higher ambitions from the start than those elsewhere.”
Southeast Asia also attractive for startups
The CEO of the new program, Claus J. Karthe Since March of this year, the German Accelerator from the Singapore hub The strategic partners of the German Accelerator, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, DB Systel, Deutsche Bank and Deloitte Digital, announced the seven new participants in the Class of Fall 2018, which begins in July: Oculyze, Meshcloud, vectorflow, VICAMPO, Stoyo, middle and SimScaleThe latter are already active in the USA:
"The majority of our key partners are in the US, one of the world's most relevant markets. To quickly advance our strategic expansion, German Accelerator Tech was recommended to us by several alumni,"
describes SimScale CEO David Heiny the motivation for participating in the program.
Networking from day 1
Stephan Kühr participated in the German Accelerator Tech Program in Silicon Valley with his company 3YourMind at the end of 2016. He advises all participating startups:
"Prepare well and make appointments in advance. And then network from day one. Use the other startups on site, share your challenges, and what's working well."
For Kühr, the contacts made through German Accelerator Tech were particularly relevant, as they later became customers – four at the time have now grown to 26. The company now has a location in San Francisco and one in New York.
Rooms, coaching and much more
A major journey begins for the seven new startups in July: German Accelerator Tech supports the young companies in Silicon Valley and New York with office space, coaching from top-class mentors, an extensive network of potential investors, customers, and partners, as well as regular events. A further incentive for the companies is the new partnership officially announced on April 26th with more than 20 well-known companies such as Google, Amazon, WeWork, and Stripe, which offer the startups their support through a package of tools and services valued at a total of $340,000.
Looking at the results of recent years, a clear success is evident: The support program, which has existed since 2012, includes 160 alumni companies and offers access to more than 150 mentors in the USA. Over 90 percent of the startups that received support from German Accelerator Tech in their US expansion are still in business.
