Lunch together was followed by a bit of exercise and fresh air for body and soul. And while we were already visiting Brunsbüttel, we naturally wanted to take a look at the locks of the Kiel Canal. Tour guide Bettina Plug showed us how the ships enter the world’s busiest artificial waterway from the North Sea and told us a lot of background information about the construction of the canal at the end of the 19th century and about the new lock chambers currently under construction.
The second part of the masterclass focused on startups in crisis: flatround, downround or exit – how do investors react? Robert Marx from Osborne Clarke Partnership mbB reported on the development of startup financing in Germany. Despite strong market uncertainties, there is still a high willingness to invest, even if the sums per deal have decreased. While VC investors are becoming more cautious and have a lower willingness to make new investments and are even more scrutinizing during due diligence, Osborne Clarke does not currently see any change in investment behavior among business angels. Finally, three Baltic Business Angels gave us insights into the challenges they faced in the ventures they supported and the solutions they finally found.
After the participants could retire to their hotel rooms, we had a dinner together in a cozy and entertaining round and made were still late into the night in convivial round together.
Saturday started with a keynote speech by Diana Heinrichs. Diana is CEO and founder of Lindera. With her team, she has developed AI-based 3D motion analysis to prevent falls in old age and digitization of orthopedic assessments. Previously, she spent six years at Microsoft Germany. She took us on her journey to self-employment and talked about the challenges of female founding.
At the end of each Masterclass, we always hold a matching event, so this time, too, our members got to know five startups from a wide range of industries and exchanged ideas about possible collaboration and support at a get-together.