On October 23th, Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Kniejski, Managing Director of INI-Novation GmbH and Business Developer in European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) was invited as a speaker in an “Entrepreneurs in eCommerce” event in Cologne: “Start-ups in the Internet economy – the European perspective”.
In front of start-ups, coaches and accelerators, Dr. Kniejski presented his approach for the development of business models and business plans at all stages of a company development process, from start-up to international expansion. “In particular, we dedicate to enter the so-called ‘soft landing’ process,” explained Dr. Kniejski, “by supporting start-up companies with an expert network and providing them the help in their efforts to enter international markets and to overcome the early stage challenges of existing barriers.”
Dr. Kniejski presented three support initiatives that are available for all eligible start-ups:
• TESLA (Transnational Ecosystem Laboratory & Actions) project
With the support of partner organisations from Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands cross-border access-to-market opportunities are offered. The goal is to drive the internationalization of start-ups faster, giving them access to important export markets in the European Union.
• LILA- Lab web platform
LILA Project is a user feedback platform. It helps the entrepreneurs on their very first stage of product development by providing feedback from targeted users. Start-ups can test their inventions in different stages of their development, even when it is still an idea. Through LILA Labs markets in France, UK, Luxemburg and Germany can be approached. Key to the success is not the platform itself, but the successful networking of partners and the strong groups of user communities behind the LILA platform.
• EIT Digital Accelerator
Assistance is provided to later stage start-ups and scale ups that have already market evidence to show.. On this stage, the start-up is striving for internationalization. Therefore, the EIT Digital network provides the supported scale ups access to market, to experts and to investors on matchmaking events. Support measures in all of this three activity lines can even be provided outside Europe. As Wolfgang Kniejski replied on an entrepreneur’s question: “This is generally possible and we already created success stories. However, it depends on the personal networks and of the quality of the network partners of every business developer.”
*All materials for this event can be downloaded through:
https://e-commerce.eco.de/2015/events/start-ups-im-e-commerce.html
*The Press info is published also here:
http://ini-novation.lilaproject.eu/en/blog/start-ups-in-the-internet-economy-workshop-in-cologne
Press Info
Darmstadt, October 2015
English