GTEC Open Lectures

At GTEC's third Open Lecture, member of the German parliament and tech entrepreneur, Thomas Jarzombek gives an inspiring talk full of personal insights on how to create more German entrepreneurs.

At GTEC's seventh Open Lecture, Edition F co-founders, Susann Hoffmann and Nora-Vanessa Wohlert brilliantly weave personal experience with solid practical advice to answer their top ten questions about starting a startup.

At GTEC's fifth Open Lecture, leading tech guru and former CTO of eBay Fashion Deutschland, Stephan Schmidt inspires us all to start coding. From learning with lego and video games to building up multiple startups, he shows us how we can leverage technology as a force for good.

At GTEC's ninth Open Lecture, German internet billionaire and Demandware founder Stephan Schambach tells his story of how he went from being denied higher education in the fading days of the GDR to building two public companies spanning both sides of the Atlantic.

At GTEC's tenth Open Lecture, green chemistry pioneer and DexLeChem founder Sonja Jost shows us the power of asking "why not?" and how doing that has led her to develop a process set to revolutionize the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

On recognising that he was better at tech than racing car driving and understanding why a classy cocktail bar in a student area of Berlin didn't fly - at GTEC's fourteenth Open Lecture René Wienholtz (CTO / CIO of Strato) tells us about the formative moments on his journey to the top of tech leadership and what lessons all entrepreneurs can draw from his experience.

At GTEC's fourth Open Lecture, super-entrepreneur and Fon founder Martin Varsavsky shares his personal ideas on what drives him as an entrepreneur and reveals his latest game-changing business inspiration in the human fertility space.

At GTEC's sixth Open Lecture, internet pioneer, investor and serial entrepreneur Knut Jørstad shares his conviction on how founders must be driven by curiosity and passion not a potential exit, and looks to the future for tech entrepreneurship.

Serial founder and entrepreneurship educator Kenneth P. Morse (3Com, Aspen Technology, MIT Entrepreneurship Center) is an expert in sales. He believes every CEO has to be - because, whatever your product may be, sales are central to achieving your mission. "Where are you going to meet the guy who has the money and the power?" "How can you convince someone that investing in your product is going to win them their next bonus?" " How do you bridge the huge gulf between getting the customer to love you and having cash in your bank account?" At his GTEC Open Lecture on October 15th 2015, Ken addresses these crucial questions and shows you how to win over a client over with logic and precision. A must-see for every entrepreneur.

At GTEC's very first Open Lecture, Holger G. Weiss, shares his personal story on how as an entrepreneur you can get knocked back ten times over but still come through to achieve major success.

Gero Decker didn't want to be an entrepreneur, until he realised that the open source project he was working on as a PhD researcher at university would come to nothing unless commercialised. Out of that his software company Signavio was born; in the six years since it has built up an impressive international client list plus offices in the US, Singapore and Berlin. In December 2015, Signavio announced their first round of investment to the tune of 31 million euros. In GTEC's Open Lecture on 10th December, Gero charts his personal journey to becoming a founder and how Signavio has achieved so much so far.

“If I had to get investment again I'd go to them and say 'I have a good idea and I'm giving you the opportunity to join me, now tell me why you are a good investor' - not the other way round." Just one of the many pearls of wisdom from Spottster founder Freya Oehle on founding a business straight out of university and making it brilliantly successful, at her GTEC Open Lecture on 12th November 2015.

At GTEC's eighth Open Lecture, serial entrepreneur, PressMatrix founder and father of three, Daniel Höpfner shares his personal ideas on how it really is possible to combine family life with entrepreneurship and is joined by his 21-year-old daughter Jenny to tell her side of the story.

At GTEC's eleventh Open Lecture, digital transformation genius Christoph Bornschein talks about the evolution of his award-winning agency TLGG from digital agency to digital transformation consultancy advising Germany's major corporations at c-suite level. He explores how even with over 100 employees and after acquisition by Omnicom, they've managed to stay nimble and innovative.

Founder and CEO of Barcoo, Benjamin Thym, always wanted to be an entrepreneur but post business technology degree he found himself working as a management consultant. Then he quit - to found Barcoo - and started on a journey "that's been harder than a marathon, harder even than a triathlon, but the absolute best thing you can do." At his GTEC Open Lecture on 29th October 2015, he tells us how he overcame the obstacles to create a business which is now Germany's biggest mobile-only platform with more than 16 million downloads and 2 million active monthly users.

In 1997 Arndt Kwiatkowski set up ImmobilienScout (Germany's biggest online real estate platform). In 2008 he turned his brilliance to edtech and founded Bettermarks - an online platform for teaching maths. At GTEC's twelfth Open Lecture, Arndt exposes the reality behind the hype of edtech and shares his vision for how online tools like Bettermarks can improve education standards globally.

At GTEC's second Open Lecture, Ansgar Oberholz, founder of St Oberholz, the cafe at the epicentre of Berlin's startup scene, talks about the capital's unique place in the information revolution's third wave and how we all can become entrepreneurs. You can see the slides to Ansgar's presentation here: https://prezi.com/nso5o4bxilvg/