Berlin, October 10, 2024 - The SIBB Incubator 2024 got off to a flying start, and we are overwhelmed by the energy and commitment of our new startups. But what exactly are we doing in our startup funding?  

Our journey began with an excursion to the Havelhöhenweg in Berlin-Grunewald, where the teams met each other for the first time and we walked and talked for hours in an inspiring wood and river setting. This team building initiative was a great starting point for the intense kick-off week that followed.

We started with a kick-off workshop with an overview about program goals, structure and formats. This was followed by a community lunch and an introduction of the Startups to the SIBB Team. They pitched their ideas, so everyone was updated on what they are working on. We also made sure in our "Get-your Setup Right Session" that all digital tools that we use we well implemented and set up properly. In addition,  program manager Etta Dannemann helped to set goals and create realistic time frames in her "Plan your incubator time workshop", and we had even more get-to-know formats in this first week.

Having this intense kick-off week helped a lot to create a community out of 17 single participants that like to learn from each other, support themselves with feedback and feel like they are in the same boat. We hope that our startups already feel at home, can concentrate on their projects now and know how to navigate in the incubator setting.

Kick-off for our expert workshops was the Lean Startup Bootcamp held by Daria *Dash* Markova. The Lean Startup method is one of the essentials of every startup, and that's why it is at the very beginning for us.

We support the resilience and efficiency of our teams in several aspects: with the OKR method, introduced with a workshop by business coach Urte Zahn. Together with her colleague Josephine Belke,  Urte as the co-founder of Quilabs, also held a workshop on selfcare and attitude, as mental health is an important topic to us. 

The first month was dedicated to research on users, customers and their problems. We started with Tina Dreisicke. Tina taught the teams user-centricity and helped them tailor their products to the needs of their target groups. The workshop was very well received and the teams started with user interviews.

We continued to focus on customer empathy. Conducting customer interviews and processing them with structured methods posed a challenge, that Tina also navigated well in her Post-Research Sensemaking Workshop. In parallel, the teams conducted many interviews to describe their identified problem in detail and test their assumptions, which culminated in a workshop about the persona method, also with Tina.

The first monthly coaching sessions with Urte Zahn as a head coach already took place as well - over 10 months she will help our teams to overcome their challenges and create a strong team.

In the meantime, Onsite-Coach Etta Dannemann checked in from time to time to give sparring to the teams regarding their task management, their outreach materials, and concepts. She and project manager Mario Liebrenz also check-in regularly to give sparring to traction efforts and product versions. 

In the middle of the month, the teams also presented their way of doing interviews to each other.  Interestingly, the use of AI tools to support customer interviews has become a standard now, time flies really quick. We will see what these new tools bring to the incubator and are curious, what the teams make out of this. Regarding the feedback sessions: we do this community feedback reflection on a monthly basis- an important part of the SIBB Startups Community.

We, the SIBB Incubator 2024 team, are very happy to see the motivation, speed and engagement with which the participants are pursuing their goals. The teams already had to navigate a storming first month, just like founder life is, and we look forward to the next months. 

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sibb-startups/

Gefördert durch das Berliner Startup Stipendium - finanziert durch das Land Berlin und die EU.