Meet the Jury, Mentors & Orga Crew:
JURY: Marco Winzer
Meet Marco on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Marco Winzer is partner at High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). He has been with HTGF since its foundation and has helped to establish the fund. The economics graduate has many years of experience in financing start-ups in the life sciences industry and has supported a number of start-ups all along the value chain of the ‘Venture Capital Model’ – from seed financing to successful exit.
If you run a high-potential, tech-driven early stage start-up and are fundraising, make sure to check out Europe’s most active seed investor HTGF. With around EUR 900 million in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge almost 600 start-ups since 2005.
JURY: Stephanie Birkner
Meet Stephanie on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Stephanie Birkner’s (apl.Prof.Dr.) passion is to empower and support those that thrive to create with and for everyone a sustainable future. She holds a doctorate in the field of consulting research and is trained as psychology focused personal coach. Her profil combines social science approaches in the context of digital transformation (e.g. with focus on topics like entrepreneurial mindsets and identities) with ICT and natural science (public) health perspectives on gendered innovation. As CVO of the Oldenburg based Zukunft.Unternehmen gGmbH - a place for co-working, collaboration, innovation & incubation - she supports innovation communities and ecosystems to foster entrepreneurial diversity.
Among many, one field of interest is health. Stepanie has multiple publications on the health topic and is involved in the two health focussed EU projects that aim to forster innovation transfer from science to industry and cooperation with startups: EurHealth1Health https://www.eurhealth-1health.eu/de/ and health-i-care https://www.health-i-care.eu 
JURY: Edgar-John Vogt
Meet Edgar-John on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Edgar is a PhD trained scientist and health innovator with an entrepreneurial spirit 15+ years working in government, non-profit and public research institutions in Europe and the United States. Edgar is now the Company Scout for Life Sciences at German Accelerator providing strategic guidance to help startups accelerate and scale globally.
His international network is multifaceted across a wide array of industries. Through interactions and collaborations with scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, and relevant ecosystem stakeholders, Edgar gained a deep understanding of how science translates to innovation and novel, disruptive business ideas. He managed an international, cancer-focused graduate school at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. He also was a project scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, where he led innovative projects in female health published in high-impact journals (Nature Communications).
Areas of expertise: project management in healthtech and femtech, strategy consulting and business development for startups, mentoring and coaching, co-innovation, collaboration, international network, communication.
MENTOR: Susanne Klein
Meet Susanne on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Dr. Susanne Klein is Director of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) chapter in the State of Bremen.
Susanne has many years of experience in the healthcare industry and has been with TK since 2000, most recently in a leading role in the design of special forms of care, digital care offers, the innovation fund and several project with health startups.
At TK, she is a major promoter for startup-corporate-collaboration, innovation & digital solutions.
As a mentor for health startups, Susanne provides a huge network as well as top notch expertise in the healthcare industry.
MENTOR: Carolina Gomez Rodriguez
Meet Carolina on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
WATCH OUT if you have a startup idea with an interface between SPACE & HEALTH / MEDTECH!
At Startup Weekend Bremen HEALTH you have the chance to win individual coaching & support to get application ready for the ESA BIC Northern Germany application deadline in August 2021.
Carolina Gomez Rodriguez is Support Manager at ESA BIC Northern Germany and especially looking to mentor & support teams & ideas that aim to use space technologies for their HEALTH/MEDTECH startup idea or have an interface to the space industry.
ESA BIC Northern Germany is the space business incubator in the State of Bremen. This space incubator – part of the European Space Agency’s network of 29 centres across Europe – is set to take on 15 startups from Bremen and a further 15 from other federal states in Northern Germany by 2021. ESA BIC Northern Germany will provide startups with 24 months of support to establish their businesses.
Current incubatees at ESA BIC Northern Germany are Drift + Noise, Planblue, Helios Aircargo Network, Die Astronautin, Evoblade, Navato Aerospace & Valispace.
Among other fields, ESA BIC Northern Germany is supporting space-enabled MedTech startups.
Check out https://www.esa-bic.de/ng/ for their incubator program.
MENTOR: Esteban Bayro-Kayser
Meet Esteban on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Dr. Esteban Bayro-Kaiser is Co-Founder & CEO of Bremen-based startup WearHealth.
Esteban is an expert in AI, Sensors, Wearables (e.g. fitness wristbands, heart rate monitors, smart watches, smart shirts) & Business Modelling. He can share hands-on experience on founding a HealthTech startup and about the ups & downs in the run of events.
Founded in October 2015, WearHealth´s vision is to help people all over the world to live and work more safely and healthily with cutting edge technology.
The initial approach was to help health insurance to track & analyze data from wearables to provide digital personal health assistants to their customers. This solution didn't work out due several factors in the market, so Esteban and his team hit the startup path of trial & error to validate a scalable business model for WearHealth.
Today, WearHealth has grown to a current headcount of 16 people and helps industrial companies improve the safety, health, and productivity of their workers by identifying emergencies and hidden risk factors in real time by using Artificial Intelligence and Wearables / IoT. This enables employers to better manage critical situations and prevent accidents, incidents and absenteeism at the workplace.
MENTOR: Eva Schobert
Meet Eva on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Eva Schobert is Co-Founder of HERODIKOS.
Herodikos tackles the problem of tight medical budgets for exercise therapy. Even though physical exercises would be the optimal therapy for many diseases, or at least an important part of it, it doesn't Play a big role in the current Health System.
The Herodikos app closes the gap by enabling physicians and therapists to create an individual exercise therapy plan for the patient with little effort. The early integration of an personalized, app-based therapy plan doesn't only save time, but also supports the patient's motivation. Patient adherence is maintained through follow-up appointments and multi-modal treatment options.
The app can be used in medical, physio- and psychotherapeutic practices and clinics.
Before founding Herodikos, Eva has worked as resident physician in trauma surgery, orthopedics, internal medicine, and orthopedic & ontological rehabilitation.
MENTOR: Tobias Krick
Meet Tobias on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Tobias is Co-Founder of Healthcare Innovations, a platform to connect decision-makers from companies, clinics, research and science with the aim to accelerate the run of events for healthcare startups by identifying innovations in the healthcare market, developing them together and implementing them in a practice-oriented manner.
Plus, Tobias runs the Healthcare out-of-the-box podcast and is an active networker on LinkedIn with more than 10k people following his posts about innovation & startups in the healthcare industry.
Besides his entrepreneurial & influencer career, Tobias is working as research associate in Public Health / University of Bremen, and is writing his PhD on innovative technologies in care.
Being part of Generation Y, Tobias loves to think idealistically & outside the box.
Tobias wants to increase his impact on the health system & enjoys to empower people who want to heal sicknesses in the healthcare system.
MENTOR: Oliver Ahlbrecht
Meet Oliver on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Oliver Ahlbrecht is Co-Founder & CEO of Bremen-based app development agency Convelop . With the experience of more than 100 projects in the past 12 years, Oliver has an awesome expertise in how to make apps.
Plus, in 2015 Oliver co-founded indiControl - and liquidated it in 2020 due to inadequate longtime success. indiControl was an administrative automation & digitization startup in the healthcare industry. The indiControl App enabled doctors to gain an overview and insight into the economic situation of their practice without much effort. Intuitively, anytime and anywhere. During the indiControl run of events Oliver has gained a great wealth of experience & a large network in the healthcare landscape. Believing that failure is just a bump on the road to success, Oliver is keen to support aspiring founders who are aiming for an app-based health startup at Startup Weekend Bremen HEALTH.
MENTOR: Irene Bejenke Walsh
Meet Irene on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
As a venture coach and expert in investor communications, Irene has been a fixture in the European start-up community for the past 18 years, helping more than 800 start-ups across all tech sectors to raise funding.
Her experience ranges from advising start-up companies in the pre-seed, seed and series A stages as well as accompanying IPOs.
Irene founded her consultancy firm, MessageLab, in London in 2000 and made a mark for herself by developing and running the pitch format for London Business Angels, the UK's largest business angels network, for several years with seven pitch sessions per year, which was well received by investors and with over 70% of the companies receiving funding.
Irene currently works with the most successful incubator in Europe, imec in Belgium, as well as the ING Fintech Village, and, more recently, has become involved with New Space coaching the first two cohorts of "Seraphim Space Camp" in 2018, Europe's first VC-led Space Accelerator.
Irene started her career in business journalism for "The Wall Street Journal" and CNBC television before moving into tech PR and starting her own business.
Female entrepreneurship is close to her heart and she worked for several years as a mentor for Astia, a global organisation offering support to female entrepreneurs.
Irene continues to be a freelance lecturer specialising in entrepreneurship, investor communications and pitching skills at three universities: Imperial Business School, London; Danish Technical University Business School (DTU), Copenhagen and Jacobs University, Bremen.
MENTOR: Rüdiger Süss
Meet Rüdiger on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Rüdiger is a passionate expert on Space & Tech startups - technically and how-to set them up - following his motto „empowering founders to bring their innovative idea alive."
He is a Senior Strategy Analyst for innovation and strategic risks at the Think Tank as well as the coordinator for setting up institutes in the area of space, aeronautics, energy, transport, security and digitalization of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In a private mission as a startup mentor at the Founder Institute Chapter Cologne/Bonn and a former mentor at the EU's Copernicus Accelerator as well as an active business angel, he is literally helping startups to „bridge the sky and crossing borders“ - reaching out for the stars.
Rüdiger's relationship with the startup community in Bremen was born as a participant of the Valispace team at Startup Weekend Bremen SPACE in 2015, and grown as a Mentor of Startup Weekend Bremen SPACE 2019 and in the Jury of the Startup Pitch Night Bremen in 2020.
At Startup Weekend Bremen HEALTH, Rüdiger is happy to mentor teams with a focus on tech - especially, if the focus is on an interface between HEALTH and SPACE ("space-enabled health/care startups“ f. ex. telemedicine, robotics, ...).
MENTOR: Horst Hahn
Meet Horst on LinkedIn
Horst is an expert in medical imaging, digital transformation and the role of artificial intelligence in medicine.
He is works as a professor for Medical Imaging at Jacobs University Bremen and as Institute Director at Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS in Bremen.
In 2014, he was selected as one of Germany's Digital Heads because „[…] he ensures that doctors make the best possible use of computers, enabling them to detect diseases earlier and treat them in the best possible way. His goal is nothing less than to revolutionize medicine. […] Horst Hahn has contributed significantly to the establishment and success of what is probably the world's largest independent research center in the field of medical image computing, headquartered in Bremen.“
Embedded in a worldwide network of clinical and academic partners, Fraunhofer MEVIS develops real-world software solutions for image and data supported early detection, diagnosis, and therapy. Strong focus is placed on cancer as well as diseases of the circulatory system, brain, breast, liver, and lung. The goal is to detect diseases earlier and more reliably, tailor treatments to each individual, and make therapeutic success more measurable.
Horst believes in partnerships, networks, and plattforms to develop new methods & technologies and as a major pathway for them to enter the clinical routine. Global collaborations with both large established companies as well as newly established #startups and medium-sized private companies represent a significant share of Horst’s work at a Fraunhofer MEVIS and are a major pathway for their technologies to enter the clinical routine.
Thus, Horst is happy to help new ideas and ambitious minds grow by sharing his expertise and his network in the Healthcare Industry.
MENTOR: Christoph Weiss
Meet Christoph on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Christoph Weiss is owner & managing director of the family business BEGO Group, a dental MedTech specialist founded and headquartered in Bremen in 1890.
Today, BEGO employs 500 people and is one of the worlds‘ leading dental companies providing cutting-edge technologies and processes for the manufacturing of dental prosthetics and implantology.
Christoph has managed to lead the BEGO Group as one of the most innovative German companies that is known for an innovation empowering company culture and for pioneering innovations e.g. in 3D printing systems, CAD/CAM and laser technologies. Thus, BEGO was awarded twice in 2008 and 2016 as one of the TOP100 innovative SME companies in Germany.
Christoph is deeply rooted in the economy & politics of Bremen & beyond. He has served as Head of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce from 2013-2016, has leading roles in various institutions, and is currently member of the Bremen state parliament.
As a mentor at Startup Weekend Bremen HEALTH he wants to help new health startups ideas grow and to accelerate the teams with his know-how and network – especially, if you have an idea with an interface to the dental industry or 3D-technology.
MENTOR: Dino Zirwes
Meet Dino on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Dino Zirwes works as Investment manager / authorized signatory (www.nwk-nwu.de) and start-up consultant of Sparkasse Bremen AG. He brings over a decade of experience in private equity and start-up business as a corporate client advisor at Sparkasse Bremen to the coaching. With his experience, Dino supports the Bremen start-up scene, coaches pre-seeded startups at various start-up weekends, is co-organizer of the Macher Messe and always has a free date in the calendar for Bremen startups.
MENTOR: Kostja Hausdörffer
Meet Kostja on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Quo vadis, founder? Are you experiencing heavy seas along your founding process?
Thanks to Starthaus - the start-up service offered by the #StartupStateBremen - founders have a free OneStop contact point.
Kostja works for the Starthaus Bremen as a startup consultant and has expertise in building business models and in the field of Business Development. He can also provide a network into small and medium-sized companies in Bremen as well as to the municipality of Bremen.
He is driven by curiosity, likes to explore new ideas and to talk about traveling around the globe.
MENTOR: Manfred Peschka
Meet Manfred on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Manfred is Co-Founder & Managing Director of Bremen-based MedTech Startup Purenum. Purenum is a spin-off from Fraunhofer-IFAM and develops biocompatible adhesives for medical use. As part of a BMBF project (GO-Bio 6 "mediNiK"), an adhesive was developed that can be used to glue together and remove previously intangible kidney stone fragments after lithotripsy. In addition to the work on certification of the kidney stone adhesive, Purenum is developing adhesives for other medical indications. Purenum GmbH was founded in 2017 and started R&D operations in mid-2018 after successfully attracting investor financing and subsidies.
MENTOR: Jan Elsner
Meet Jan on LinkedIn | Facebook
Jan Elsner is a founder in the field of digital dermatology and currently part of the Vision Health Pioneers Incubator in Berlin. He does his Ph.D. at the chair of entrepreneurship (LEMEX) at Uni Bremen, driving forward the Inno-Quarter Project – an EU project helping entrepreneurs to validate social and sustainable startup ideas at events and festivals in SWE, DK, NL, BEL & GER. Having coached various student startups and Inno-Quarter participants, he is happy to assist when it comes to business development, concept validation and pitching startup ideas.
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Felix Rohde
Co-Founder Homevoice
Meet Felix on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Digitizing Real Estate Management! The Bremen-based Startup Homevoice offers a smart tool that helps property managers automating their processes.
Felix Passion is architecture and communication with people. At Homevoice, he takes care of Business Development & Marketing and has lots of tips & tricks in store.
And as the winner of the startup Pitch Night Bremen (06/2018), he knows exactly how to bring his statement from the stage into the minds and hearts of people.
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Katrin Oellerich
Freelance Consultant, Coach & Pitch Trainerin
Meet Katrin on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Dr. Katrin Oellerich works as a freelance trainer, coach and lecturer u.a. in the field of startups and entrepreneurship.
Katrin took part in the Startup Weekend Bremen 2017 and since then she is active in the bremen-startups.de Orga Crew herself - so she has a lot of backround knowledge and experience with people in these settings.
Katrin is an internal coach at Startup Weekend: she always has an open ear for team conflicts, questions about pitching or anything else!
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Rebekka Tegtmeier
Consultant Digitale Strategie & Innovation
Meet Rebekka on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Rebekka participated in the Startup Weekend Bremen 2017 and won the first place with her team. The idea was to develop a self-sufficient TinyHouse and pair it with an AirBnB platform to develop rural sustainable tourism. The project continues to be worked on, a prototype of the Tiny House was presented to the public in mid-2018.
Since that Startup Weekend, Rebekka helps with the events of bremen-startups.de and co-organizes the Startup Weekend Bremen.
As a digital consultant at BTC, she deals with innovation processes and creativity methods.
At Startup Weekend, Rebekka will be happy to help you if you have mental blocks, need creative impulses or feedback.
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Nils Sprenger
Co-Founder of PSST+PENG
Meet Nils on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Nils supports bremen-startups.de since the very beginning (which is Oct 2015).
In 2018, he transformed his passion into profession by founding PSST+PENG, a young illustration & design agency.
He is exited to work with founders and the creative implementation of their ideas.
At a Startup Weekend, designers become heroes - you'll notice this when there is no one in a team with design skills. But do not worry: Nils is ready help :-)
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Jonas Fromme
Ideation & Pre-Seed Startup Coach
Meet Jonas on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Jonas is committed to lower entry bareers for starting entrepreneurs in the local innovation ecosystem of Bremen since 2016. Today he coaches in lean startup operations, investor pitch and business model design. He regularly organizes free 1:1 sessions for starting solopreneurs, teams and pre-seed startups in kraftwerk city accelerator bremen and facilitates the Open Innovation Cycle with Starthaus Bremen as a lean validation journey to prepare your idea for an incubator.
At Startup Weekend Bremen, Jonas is happy to help with e.g. any questions regarding the startup weekend itself, a short explanation of any canvas/pitch template, tips on government structure in public services or information on available channels in the local startup ecosystem for customer validation.
MENTOR: Céline Rohlfsen
Meet Céline on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Céline is committed to building good and social enterprises. By that she means enterprises and start-ups that dare to question their values and the overall aim of their business. Another passion of hers is sustainability and her path to creativity. She herself has participated in the Start-up Weekend twice – loves to pitch, win podium positions and create deep connections with others.
She will be happy to help you on any matters related to the mission of your enterprise and on good teamwork. Moreover, she is familiar with the tools that will help you validate your business model.
Céline works as a freelance business consultant for creativity, new work and sustainability and is in the steps of founding her own business together with a partner to make sustainability more easily accessible for millennials.
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Jasser Saad
Meet Jesse on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Jesse studied Media Informatics at the University of Bremen and loves everything that has to do with coding, design, digitization, innovation & startups.
Participating at Startup Weekend Bremen 2017 has set him on fire and since then he participated in a dozen other Startup Weekends and Hackathons.
Since early 2018, he has been part of the bremen-startups.de volunteer crew and he is currently developing his own business for modern development and design of websites.
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Christopher Ahlers
Co-Founder & Product Owner at Homevoice [ORGA CREW COACH]
Meet Christopher on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Digitizing Real Estate Management! The Bremen-based Startup Homevoice offers a smart tool that helps property managers automating their processes.
As a business engineer, Christopher is responsible for process planning and control at Homevoice, and oversees its business processes.
Meet Lisa on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Mert Mengü
Social Media & Online Marketing Consultant / SEO Account Manager @ 42DIGITA [ORGA CREW COACH]
Meet Mert on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Mert is in the finals of his business informatics studies at the University of Bremen. During his studies, he specialized in start-up management and built up a self-employment as a social media and online marketing consultant.
Since March 2019, Mert works as a SEO Account Manager at Bremen-based startup 42DIGITAL.
He loves positive thinking, his fellow human beings & communication and beats the fire when pitching, building presentations, developing SEO or social media strategies.
ORGA CREW & MENTOR: Danilson Dala
Crew Member @ bremen-startups.de, Startup and Innovation Enthusiast, Germany - ChinaStudent at Hochschule Bremen
Meet Danilson on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Danilson is currently studying Business-Sinology at Hochschule Bremen. Before, he has helped building up the Z-Innoway startup accelerator in Bejing (http://www.z-innoway.com/) and Startup Grind Bejing (https://www.startupgrind.com/beijing/).
Danilson is a passionate biz development & networking guru who knows how to approach the right people for the right task.
Meet Marjan on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
ORGA CREW / LEAD ORGANIZER: Jan Wessels
Founder of solvertec & bremen-startups.de
Meet Jan on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Jan founded & failed solvertec (2013-2015), a startup to automate the debugging of digital chip designs.
He initiated bremen-startups.de in Oct 2015 as a grass root driven approach to connect the startup community in Bremen & beyond.
#Bremen #Startups #FromFoundersForFounders
bremen-startups.de organizes startup community events like Startup Weekend Bremen, Startup Fail Night Bremen, Startup Pitch Night Bremen, Startup Pitch Night Oldenburg, Startup Speed-Networking Bremen, Startup Weekend Bremen WOMEN , Startup Women Meetup Bremen, Startup Weekend Bremen SPACE , Macher Messe Bremen, Startup Quiz Night Bremen, Startup Job Night Bremen & Startup Weekend Bremen HEALTH.
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FACILITATOR: Johannes Reindl
Supporting companies with their digital transformation | Storage @Dell Technologies | Global Facilitator @Techstars
Meet Johannes on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Hey people!
My name is Jojo; I'll be one of your facilitators for this event. I got my first contact with SW back in November 2017 where it changes my life on the stop. My goal is to create the best SW experience for you.