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