We recently atten­ded the  Fede­ral Minis­try of Eco­no­mic and Cli­mate Action´s inau­gu­ral Startup Sum­mit in Ber­lin, and we were genui­nely impres­sed and moti­va­ted by the coor­di­na­ted efforts to fur­ther sti­mu­late the pro­li­fe­ra­tion and growth of start­ups in Ger­many. The announ­ced initia­ti­ves, such as the WIN-Initia­tive through its com­pre­hen­sive package of mea­su­res to sup­port the con­di­ti­ons neces­sary for inno­va­tion and growth capi­tal, will make a meaningful posi­tive impact in the Ger­man startup eco­sys­tem. We were also impres­sed by the coope­ra­tion across various fede­ral minis­tries and poli­ti­cal par­ties, with active par­ti­ci­pa­tion from the Chan­cellor, the Minis­ter of Eco­nomy and Cli­mate Action, and the Minis­ter of Finance along with the heads of many of Germany´s lar­gest corporations.

We did, howe­ver, notice that among the many atten­dees, start­ups them­sel­ves were not well repre­sen­ted. It is our view that in order to achieve the best out­co­mes from the ini­ti­tia­ti­ves, it is impe­ra­tive that all par­ti­ci­pants in the eco­sys­tem under­stand start­ups as being uni­que young com­pa­nies that are start­ing some­thing up, not as an object that is a goal unto its­elf, or a check­box on a govern­ment goal track­ing sheet. Start­ups should be and must remain the pri­mary and key actors in the eco­sys­tem, achie­ving importance through their own accom­plish­ments while being sup­ported by other stakeholders.

The invest­ment com­mu­nity, which includes natio­nal and regio­nal govern­ments, should aim to ensure that inno­va­tive com­pa­nies which are making meaningful breakth­roughs and addres­sing important pro­blems are able to secure the fun­ding they need to fur­ther their pro­gress. It should not work the other way around where a fun­ding amount or num­ber is set, and the invest­ment com­mu­nity tries to create start­ups and fund them hea­vily to meet the pro­grams´ goals – that would be the tail wag­ging the dog, and would only create pro­blems and increase the risk of gene­ra­ting losses.

In a time when Start­ups are cele­bra­ted more than ever, the foun­ders them­sel­ves must also prac­tice awa­re­ness and self-con­trol in order to avoid sli­ping into the trap of fee­ling suc­cessful merely because they are a ‘Startup™’. Some tell­tale signs of this dan­ger occur­ring are defi­ning trac­tion as recei­ving posi­tive feed­back from poten­tial future cus­to­mers, or mista­king social media acti­vity for busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment. In its most extreme ins­tances it can some­ti­mes feel like start­ups are spen­ding more time being a ‘Startup™’ than actually going about the busi­ness of start­ing some­thing up.

It is under­stan­da­ble that under the immense pres­sure to suc­ceed with a new idea and how chal­len­ging it can be to make meaningful pro­gress in the mar­ket, com­pa­nies some­ti­mes find ersatz goals to cele­brate. As long as this cele­bra­tion remains in the realm of moti­vat­ing the team to keep dri­ving toward the real goals it has healthy aspects. Howe­ver, once this cele­bra­tion cros­ses the line of defi­ning suc­cess in ways that are not meaningful to the objec­tive, it is a sign that a com­pany has lost its com­pass and is ena­mo­u­red with its mere exis­tence and not with impactful progress.

We are for­t­u­nate to be inves­t­ing in Thü­rin­gen, where foun­ders usually come from a tech­ni­cal back­ground, have deve­lo­ped meaningful inno­va­tions and are pas­sio­nate about brin­ging their idea to the world. In our expe­ri­ence, foun­ders of tech-based com­pa­nies are less vul­nerable to the siren calls of the many mar­ket par­ti­ci­pants who have no skin in the game and who want to pro­mote them­sel­ves by asso­cia­ting with start­ups. Thü­rin­gen tech foun­ders main­tain focus on their goals and stay in the busi­ness of actually start­ing some­thing up –  and we fully sup­port that.

Your bm|t Team