On Saint Nickolas (06/12/18) around 29 participants coming from young companies, (almost) spin-outs, universities and bigger players spent the afternoon with CLIB2021 and the Interreg North-West Europe project BioBase4SME in the Maxhaus in the old city town of Düsseldorf to learn about success factors of founding a startup.
All invited speakers gave valuable insights and tips on their work with and for startups. The workshop started with an introduction into the project BioBase4SME, which offers support for SMEs in North-West-Europe through diverse actions and services. The project coordinator Tanja Meyer from the BioBase Europe Pilot Plant visited CLIB to talk about the diverse supports SMEs can receive from the project. Peter Kallien (b.experts GmbH) talked about his long-standing experience in founding and supporting biotech startups on their way into the market. He gave many hands-on examples from his advisory activities at the b.experts GmbH. His talk was followed by insights on funding possibilities and venture capital given by Dr. Juri Bach from the High Tech GründerFonds (HTGF). He provided the audience with information on assessment criteria and procedures from investors and the HTGF in particular. The corporate and tax law specialized attorney Ulrich Bruns (Bruns Rechtsanwälte) leaded the participants through the diverse opportunities of legal company forms and their advantages and risks. Several examples from his long-year experience in supervising startups loosened up his presentation. The talk session was closed by a successful founder - Daniel Grünes from aquila biolabs GmbH. He did talk about the experiences he and his team made during founding, financing and developing a biotech startup and provided the participants with valuable tips on what to consider during founding.
After the talks the participants headed towards the Christmas market of Düsseldorf to enjoy a mulled wine and stimulated discussions. CLIB thanks all speakers and participants for this very successful forum event.
