BBS Wirtschaft 1 Ludwigshafen (2017)
The Company Gateway
Winning solution of the YES! 2017
The German economy signifies quality. The German economy signifies productivity. But sadly, nowadays, it does not signify innovation. Statistics show that the number of companies founded in Germany decreased from 428.000 in 2012 to 378.000 in 2016, a total decrease of 12%. Looking back ten years ago, there were 25% fewer companies founded in Germany in 2016 than in 2007.
Our idea, Company Gateway, will grow the startup economy in Germany and support innovative new firms. Company Gateway will be a governmental organisation and it will:
- Help entrepreneurs set up a company in one easy step
- Support Start-Ups in finding venture capital and insurances for their business
- Provide business advice and support through a 24/7 online service centre
- Run training courses, forums, workshops and networking events for employees
- Host an annual innovation competition for businesses
- Provide access to HR support for startups
- Create an online platform for entrepreneurs to present their business idea and find clients
The Advantages
- Help entrepreneurs set up a company in one easy step by having a ‘one step’ method for setting up a company, startup founders will save a lot of money and time – meaning they can be more innovative business owners than getting overloaded with paperwork. Currently, if you set up a Limited in Germany (e.g. GmbH) costs up to 2500€ can occur and it takes on average nine days. Company Gateway would combine the complicated steps to found a company and make it possible to found a company in less than a day and with costs below 100€.This simplification of the founding-process is necessary to make Germany a competitive Start-Up location and to keep innovative potential founders staying in Germany with their business.
- Support Start-Ups in finding venture capital and insurances for their business
- In a recent HHL-Delphi-Study, 42% of the experts said that finding capital is a severe hurdle for start ups. Company Gateway will support start-ups to find venture capital, find other shareholders and get a loan from a bank. This will decrease risks aversion and as a result, businesses will feel less nervous about their company failing. Our insurance advice service, which will help startups to find necessary and essential insurances for their business.
- Provide business advice and support through a 24/7 online service centre
- Run training courses, forums, workshops and networking events for employees
- Host an annual innovation competition for businesses
- Provide access to HR support for startups
- Create an online platform for entrepreneurs to present their business idea and find clients
Company Gateway will decrease risks aversion and due to that also the critic by the society if your company fails.
Company Gateway will reduce risks due to:
- the widespread area of events offered, Network events will make it easier for the company to find customers and build up connections, training courses will impart valuable knowledge for both founders and their employees
- the offer of an HR Service, to ensure a good relationship at work and to maximise efficiency and productivity due to a well-functioning HR structure of the startup
- simplifying the process of finding venture capital due to its service offers in this aspect
- providing an online platform which makes it easier for startups to find partners/customers/staff
- the 24/7 accessible online service centre which will support startups at any time
Company Gateway will support innovative businesses additionally due to an annual competition at which the most innovative startups of the year can win funding for their business.
The company with the most sustainable production plan also has the possibility to win funding for improving their production plan further.
Photo: YES!
The Team
To get new innovative power in Germany, we need young companies with new ideas. The formation of start-up companies is the key to Germany’s sustained success. We need massive changes in this area. YES! offers the possibility to provide new approaches for this change.
Adrian Roth
Photo: Team BBS Wirtschaft I Ludwigshafen
In order to get new innovative power in Germany, we need young companies with new ideas. The formation of start-up companies is the key to Germany’s sustained success. We need massive changes in this area. YES! offers the possibility to provide new approaches for this change.
Benjamin Döring
Photo: Team BBS Wirtschaft I Ludwigshafen
Hey, I am Benjamin Döring and I participate at the YES! project to develop concepts through which Germany will become a more attractive location for innovative Start-Ups being founded.
Felix Degen
Photo: Team BBS Wirtschaft I Ludwigshafen
My name is Felix Degen. I take part in the YES-project because I’m very interested in economics. I’m looking forward to researching about national innovation strategies and develop solutions with my project partners.
Felix Mutter
Photo: Team BBS Wirtschaft I Ludwigshafen
In my spare time, I love to play football and drums. I also do a lot of sport because it is a good compensation for the school. Besides my spare time activities, I’m also interested in politics because it’s very important for our future.
The Company Gateway is a solution to the following topic:
National Innovation Strategies (2017)
Technological progress through innovation is probably the most important driving force of the productivity (and in turn welfare) growth of developed economies. What happens, however, when it becomes increasingly difficult to develop new, groundbreaking ideas that increase our productivity and promote economic growth? In Germany, we observe that the innovative strength becomes increasingly concentrated in a few industries, such as the automotive and chemical industries. At the same time, other sectors, for example, the software industry, was never really competitive on an international level. A similar specialization also takes place at a regional level. Companies in some regions of Germany, especially in the south, are highly innovative and contribute strongly to overall economic growth, while other regions are stagnating.
The topic was introduced by the following researchers:
Florence Blandinières
Florence Blandinières is a researcher at ZEW’s Research Department “Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics”. Her main research interests are technological change, science and technology studies, as well as knowledge transfer applied in the health sector. She was a research fellow in the “Economics of Innovative Change” PhD programme offered by the Max Planck Institute of Economics and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. She earned her doctoral degree in 2016 at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. She was a visiting scholar at INGENIO, a joint research institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV).
Institution: ZEW Centre for European Economic Research
YES! participations: 2018, 2017
Topics:
Paul Hünermund
Paul Hünermund studied economics at the University of Mannheim and HEC Lausanne. During that time, he worked as an assistant researcher in the economic intelligence and strategic planning division of BASF SE. He graduated as a Master of Science in 2012 with a thesis on entry and exit dynamics over the industry life-cycle and afterwards joined the Research Department “Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics” at ZEW. Currently, he is an external Ph.D. student at the faculty of “Managerial Economics, Strategy, and Innovation” of KU Leuven in Belgium. In the 2016 fall semester, he visited the department of economics at NYU Stern School of Business in New York.
Institution: ZEW Centre for European Economic Research
YES! participations: 2017
Topics:
