Guest lecture series: Deep dives in entrepreneurship

How do I start my own business and what are the latest trends in entrepreneurship and business management? In the last weeks, students from the study programs B.A. Media and Event Management and B.A. Digital Marketing and E-Commerce had the perfect opportunity to talk to business founders and other experts from the field of entrepreneurship in a series of guest lectures initiated by Prof. Dr. Thomas Petzold.

[Translate to englisch:] In their guest lectures, founders and experts from the field of entrepreneurship provided a wide range of insights into the topic.

In their guest lectures, founders and experts from the field of entrepreneurship provided a wide range of insights into the topic.

At the kick-off of the guest lecture series, Franziska Schmid (Junge Tüftler gGmbH) spoke about social, impact-oriented entrepreneurship and gave insights into her own company foundings. Among other topics, she explained the different levels of social enterprises and discussed with the students new forms of leadership as well as new-work approaches.

Philip Koch from Moonfare, one of the world's leading digital D2C platforms for private equity, addressed in his talk, among other aspects, the founding of a company, entrepreneurial challenges as well as strategic decisions. He also gave an outlook on the future development of his company and the future of the industry.

Martin Jaramillo, who has already worked for Glovo as Trade Marketing Specialist (Latin America and Caribbean) and as Head of Growth Marketing at Rappi, gave exciting insights into performance marketing. He is currently Growth Marketer at DeUna! app, a digital wallet based in Quito, Ecuador. In his presentation, he discussed previous career stages in the areas of e-commerce, last mile delivery and the financial sector.

The field trip to Awin, Europe's largest affiliate marketing platform, provided exclusive insights into the world of affiliate marketing. The lecture by Richard Leake (Global Head of Publisher Development) covered the basics of affiliate and influencer marketing, the various verticals, and he highlighted current trends in this area. In addition, a link was made to entrepreneurship in order to show the connection between the two areas.

Kai Meier, founder of the start-up Turtle Camper and an alumnus of Media University’s B.A. program in Media and Event Management, spoke about his company foundation. The vision of his company is to make tourism more sustainable by renting outdoor equipment. In his presentation, he revealed what the first steps are for an early-stage start-up, what the focus is for the further development of the company and how a start-up can place the topic of sustainability at the centre of its business activities.

Finally, lawyer Oliver Friedrich Priess introduced the students to the legal side of setting up a business. In his entertaining lecture "Legal Risks in Company Foundations and Management Decisions", he gave valuable insights into the classic legal processes and the real world pitfalls for founders who want to become independent entrepreneurs in their own way; and for managers who are looking for economic success in existing companies as managing directors and board members.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the guests once again for providing invaluable insights to our students, who were thus able to expand their knowledge and know-how in these real world arenas that they are about to embark on. Thank you very much indeed!