WoMenventures Summer School – Successful Start of a New Course Series on Entrepreneurial Diversity

A fellowship of the Stifterverband enabled to launch a new course series on  “Entrepreneurial Diversity” at the Freie Universität Berlin and Charité. The first round, entitled “WoMenventures”, focused on women’s perspective on entrepreneurship and involved role models of successful female entrepreneurs who shared their experiences and coached the first batch of 25 students and scientists.

The first challenge was to address the highly diverse backgrounds of the participants with different levels of knowledge on entrepreneurial thinking and acting. The solution was an online course that I have designed with great support of my colleagues Marie Matthes and David Rössler. The course playfully guided the participants step by step for two months through the individual elements of a business model and encouraged them to work on their own business ideas. The content elements were illustrated by the case study of the fictitious founder Clara.

After having completed the online course, all students and scientists participated in an interactive summer school to deepen and test their new knowledge in practice. Of the nine business ideas initially submitted, five were tested and further developed in interdisciplinary teams.

All teams received theoretical and practical input on topics such as value proposition, minimum viable product, financing, legal forms and pitching. In addition, they were coached by successful founders (i.e. Dr. Sophie Chung (Qunomedical GmbH), Jessica Krauter (buah GmbH), Anne Kahnt (vismath GmbH), Anna-Lena Gerber (SitEinander), Dr. Johanna Richter (Agbe e.V.) and Dr. Kathrin Weiß (tausendkind GmbH). At the end of the summer school, all teams pitched their business ideas to a jury consisting of Katja Thiede (juggleHUB Coworking), Teona Chubinidze (The Place Berlin), Alexa Danelski (re.adjustme) and Stefan Hanke (Digital Entrepreneurship Hub)).

After the first successful realization, the course series is going to be developed further and established at Digital Entrepreneurship Hub. Further impressions of the Summer School can be found on the Instagram channels of Freie Universität Berlin (fu_berlin) and WoMenventures (wmnventures).