Alexander Grau, Start-up-ecosystem project manager StartHub Hessen 
I am exploring the international start-up scene since 2018. While I was studying, I already organized own start-up events, explored the international start-up scene with my YouTube vlog and gained a lot of start-up experience in my own marketing agency. As a mentor, I help start-ups with marketing and business model development. I have been actively supporting the start-up ecosystem in StartHub Hesse, the start-up contact point with the Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH, for a year. With a holistic view of the start-up world, I will help you with the planning of your own start-up and with giving you suitable network contacts. 

Tomas Herzberger, Digital marketing & growth hacking expert  

Julia Kümper, CEO VentureVilla Accelerator GmbH, Ventreneurs GmbH i.Gr & Match-Watch GmbH  

Julia Kümper has been the founder and managing partner of the Match-Watch GmbH since 2015. She received the New Work Award from XING and was named a role model entrepreneur by the BMWi in 2018. Julia became managing director of the VentureVilla Accelerator GmbH in 2018, and has since been even more intensively involved with the topics of female founders, venture capital and role models. She is interested in the design of work and living spaces as well as the strengthening of diversity in all its facets. Her latest foundation is the Ventreneurs GmbH, a blended value incubator that rediscovers and develops start-ups and forms of participation. 

One year ago, the State of Hesse founded the StartHub Hessen as the first point of contact for Hessian start-ups. Hessen Trade& Invest is the promoter.   My focus in the team is on financing and funding. Most of all I provide initial orientation when start-ups do not know who to turn to and see how I can present the topic even more clearly to start-ups. (We have just put a funding portal online with relevant funding offers for start-ups. Here they can find the most important grants with the respective contact person.) I originally come from the PR and marketing sector and once founded a start-up for lawn care. That’s why I know the concerns of founders and start-ups. 

Lucas Lobmeyer, CTO & Co-Founder New Motion Labs 
Lucas (28) grew up in Central Hesse. After a master’s degree from the University of Capetown his way led him to London, where he became a part of the start-up New Motion labs. The company opened a location in Central Hesse recently. As CTO of the company and managing director for the location in Central Hesse, Lucas accompanied the start-up from the idea to the product launch. The company was part of the Plug & Play format in Stuttgart and is currently listed in the Deep Tech 500 Start-ups. Lucas will speak on the subjects of product development and prototyping and he will also be a mentor to you. He would like to share with you his experiences and enthusiasm for pitching. 

Michael Lukaszczyk, Co-Founder & CEO GraphCMS 
Michael Lukaszczyk is co-founder and CEO of the Giessen based software-as-a-service start-up GraphCMS, whose journey began at the first start-up weekend Mittelhessen in 2016. GraphCMS builds a content management system, that enables a comfortable integration of digital content on all platforms. A financing round was recently concluded. Michael will support the start-up-weekend teams in the areas of tech, marketing and business development. 

Anna Lena Rupp, Business unit manager Ads&Friends* 
As a business unit manager at Ads&Friends*Anna Lena supports start-ups and SMEs from all industries in positioning their services and products in the target group. She is the specialist for modern mixed marketing and together with her team she always finds the right mix of branding, performance and content creation – whether online, on social media or out-of-home. The focus is always on finding a sustainable solution for every advertising project. 

Noel Zeh, Partner Alstin Capital 

Noel Zeh has been a partner at ALSTIN CAPITAL since june 2020 and has been in the start-up-environment for almost 20 years. He knows best how he supports founders on their path to success: He has already successfully founded and sold companies several times; the first in the field of e-commerce during his studies in 2002. From 2013, he also passed on his broad experience as a founder as an active investor. Among other things he accompanied the logistic start-up PackLink with fundraising and internationalization. With his LITTLEROCK vehicle he invested in seed-phase tech companies around the world. For this purpose, together with his LITTLEROCK team, he developed a special founder scoring, which analyzed 19 KPI’s to assess the founding team. 

Thomas Peter, Funding advice, economic and infrastructure bank Hesse 
We advise start-ups and companies on the wide range of funding opportunities form the state, the federal government or the EU. This is important, so that the money gets where it should. The founders can contact the funding advise of the State of Hesse at WIBank, free of charge, individually and independently.   

Apart from the regular program the WiBank will be available to you on May 29th from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.. You can meet them in the advice lounge for a direct exchange and advices on the right financial aids for your business model. 

Martin Lacroix  

Martin is the initiator of the event and brought the Start-up Weekend to Central Hesse in 2016. He is active in various roles in the Rhein-Main start-up ecosystem and engages as a mentor for start-ups. Martin advises Universities and start-up centres, while he also works on his own start-up. 

Prof. Dr. Nils Madeja, Management degree program digital business, THM 
Nils Madeja is professor for digital business at the THM in Gießen, where he heads the master's course of the same name. His work focuses on digital business models and digital transformation and he is also interested in the German-Japanese cooperation. Before becoming a professor, Nils was a venture-capital investor for over 8 years; altogether he has more than 20 years of work experience in the digital sector. Nils has a degree in electrical engineering (Dipl.-Ing) from the University of Kiel and a degree in business administration from the WHU. 

Michael Schmidt, Head of Department Efficiency & Productivity, elkamet 
My name is Michael Schmidt, rooted in beautiful Central Hesse, I am the head of the efficiency and productivity department at the medium-sized company Elkamet Kunststofftechnik GmbH in Biedenkopf. In addition to the task of optimizing processes and procedures, I dedicate myself to opening up new fields of activity. With approaches from a wide variety of management and working methods, I support and promote the company culture with regard to future opportunities. Before that, I worked in a managerial position for Johnson Controls for over 20 years, most recently as a as a site manager. It is my passion to improve life and with this intention I would like to provide the participants of the event with a good starting point for their projects. 

Carolin Wagner, Co-founder & managing director STATION 
Carolin Wagner is the managing director and one out of three co-founders of STATION. STATION stands for start-ups and innovation. With the digital regional news and networking platform, she is at the ear of the start-up ecosystem in FrankfurtRheinMain and beyond the region.  She also organizes the event Start-up SAFARI FrankfurtRheinMain since 2017. Carolin Wagner is networker and community builder. She shares her expertise as a mentor or jury member of numerous programs and as a speaker at events. Carolin also enjoys being involved as a presenter at an event in order to further expand the network and to find new ways to strengthen the ecosystem. 

Tristan Herbold, Managing director of Entrepreneurship Cluster Mittelhessen  

Tristan Herbold studied business administration with the focus on finance & entrepreneurial management. After his time as head of the HR department he became the managing director of Entrepreneruschip Cluster Mittelhessen (ECM) in 2018. The ECM is the university-wide start-up center of the Justus-Liebig University in Gießen. With numerous third-party funded offers, it supports more than 35.000 students and employee from all departments at JLU who are interested in founding a company. As a lecturer at JLU Tristan holds entrepreneruship seminars and has performed many jury and expert activities. As the managing director of ECM he has already accompanied more than 50 start-ups.  

Genevieve Larsen, CEO advanced food GmbH and founder of “selbstkreiert” 
My name is Geneviev Larsen, freelance graphic designer, founder of two start-ups, author and blogger since 2018.  With my project “selbstkreiert” I show my more than 50.00 followers my idea of a balanced and intuitive nutrition, fitness and a healthy life-style. Always in focus: the family, enjoyment and the fun of exercise. To share my experience and knowledge I advise companies on social media campaigns under the brand of Advanced Food GmbH and accompany them throughout their entire social media development.  

Nils Seipel, Founder flux-impulse & manager Makerspace Giessen 
I have been active in Gießen since 2015 and together with Johannes Scmidt I founded the creative agency flux-impulse. We structure workshops, design communication and are active in several projects ourselves.  One example is the open workshop “MAGIE - Makerspace Gießen”, for which we take on the project management. Together with our partners TIG, THM and JLU our offers are also aimed at founders and companies – from the first material test to the prototype, almost anything is possible with us. Technologies are my passion – whether programming, AI or 3D printing. In addition, I have been working as sustainability consultant for several companies since 2017. 

Isatu Waag, Founder & former CEO ecozoins , lecturer at THM 

Isa studied business administration and agricultural economics in Gießen. After that she worked for a middle-sized company which plans and implements renewable energy projects, for several years. She founded her own company in 2016. Isa was CEO of the green Fintech ecozins until the end of 2020. These days she is concerned with the following question: “How do we want to live and work in the future?”. On her blog “Lahn&Pegnitz” you can follow how she is developing innovative usage concepts for listed properties. In addition, Isa is a lecturer for strategic corporate planning at the THM (StudiumPlus) and a mentor for Central Hessian start-ups.