Entrepreneurship is rarely part of the curriculum in German schools. Events that encourage young people to put their ideas for solving problems into practice by founding a startup are therefore all the more important. This was precisely the aim of the first Young Makers Festival on June 27 at the Factory Hammerbrooklyn. It used a series of examples to show that it pays to just go for it.
An eventful day for the founders of tomorrow
The Young Makers Festival is a project of the Ministry of Economics and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and is implemented by the business development agency Hamburg Invest as part of the Young Makers Hamburg umbrella initiative. The event was designed for students from the 7th grade onwards as well as their teachers. Over 250 registrations were received, three quarters of which came from the potential entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Throughout the day, they were offered a varied programme at the stands of 15 educational initiatives, as well as various panels and keynotes.
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution,” said moderator Roger Zimmermann, founder of Next Entrepreneurs, as a strategy for founding a startup. What is meant by this? First and foremost, it is important to identify a real problem and look for a solution. However, this may well change in the course of the development process. The young participants were advised to simply try things out. The risk is low, especially for students, as they are not financially dependent on quick success. They can find support in many places, for example at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, which advises on how minors can also start a business. Or at the Fab City Hamburg locations, where prototypes can be produced.
Three startups founded by schoolboys as role models
The best startup ideas often come from a personal experience. A panel with three founders who had started their careers while still at school provided good examples of this. A friend of Victor Neumann's had fallen into debt, not least because he lacked basic knowledge of money matters. Victor then founded Invest it!, bringing financial education into schools. Julian Risse didn't find traditional career advice helpful, so he developed the StickTo app. It uses the swipe principle to show which training and study courses might be of interest. Kai Bertrand got by his grandmother, who was ill, to look into the situation of people in need of care. The result is Gemeinsam Jung, a platform for finding everyday helpers.
The day ended with the presentation of a painting that symbolised the entire Young Makers Festival. It was a collage that was created on site under the guidance of the startup Paint & Connect. On the one hand, it showed the diversity of individual ideas and spontaneous creativity. And on the other, that the best results are achieved through networking and collaboration.
