The Female Founders Academy, a cooperation project between the universities of Bayreuth, Mannheim and Passau, took place for the third time (11.03.24 - 14.03.24 in Mannheim). The aim of the event is to sensitize female students, academic staff and interested women to the idea of founding a company and to provide them with initial knowledge in the areas of ideation, business modeling, prototyping and pitching. And with great success: five interdisciplinary teams developed promising business ideas in Mannheim. From an app for efficient and sustainable vacation planning to a platform for single parents and an innovative safety tracking option for children. "We are very proud of the participants for what they have achieved in such a short time," says Prof. Dr. Suleika Bort.
The participants were accompanied not only by experienced coaches from the universities, but also by successful female founders and experts. For example, the participants had the opportunity to talk to the founder Weihua Wang from myBuddy and be inspired by her talk. In addition, the participants were able to network with the female founders and start-up consultants from GIG7 in Mannheim.
In addition to the Female Founders Dinner, this year's highlight of the Female Founders Academy was once again the exciting final event, at which the participants were able to present their idea to an experienced jury consisting of Birka Wolf (Deputy Leader Female Entrepreneurship GIG 7), Janina Hack (start-up consultant for the city of Mannheim) and Aad-Henning Harsveldt (auditor and start-up expert from KPMG). The winning team was also announced in the new premises of KPMG Mannheim. The team has developed a platform on the topic of "cycle-oriented lifestyle". Congratulations to them! "We hope that we were able to motivate all participants to consider founding a company," say Nelly Rahimy and Kevin Koziol.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our main sponsor REHAU New Ventures, which is supporting the Founders Academy for the second time and making it possible in this form.
You can find more information about the Female Founders Academy here.