METRO Xcel (Accelerator) alumni, tsenso test their solution with METRO
tsenso tests their solution in METRO CC in Dussledorf
1) What’s your experience with startups?
I joined my first startup in 2002, when I started at Library House. After five years, having built up my own unit and managed the research team, I left the company to co-found my own startup aiHit. My main job there was to manage new hirings for the growing company and to collect new capital in first round financing.
In 2012 I changed companies and became a partner at Forward Labs. Within a year, my team and I examined over 100 companies regarding possible investments and helped set up more than a dozen. I have been a managing director at Techstars since 2012. I co-organized the Techstars London Program, co-founded the Berlin office in 2015 and led the first Techstars Berlin program the same year.
2) And your personal fascination about working with startups?
To be honest, I have always been a huge SciFi geek. As a child, I always wanted to become an astronaut. When I was 12 years old, I hurt my back in an accident. Good-bye space travel. My fascination with natural sciences, technology and startups have a similar intensity. Scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs build the future. This is as close as I can come to the frontier.
3) What do you expect from the second batch of METRO Accelerator?
Really simple: ten great teams.
4) What’s your advice to startups who want to apply?
Show up and apply. Make a good video of the founders. Show us what you have achieved. Everything else will take care of itself.