5 min read

There is more than post corona IT in 2023 - Trendreport

By Lukas Zechel on 17 November 2022

The effects of the Corona pandemic and the steadily increasing use of cloud services are changing the world of work and confronting many IT managers with entirely new challenges. They have to take on new areas of responsibility and fulfill the new requirements for flexibility and automation at all levels. The core disciplines of IT strategy, IT security, IT infrastructure, software, data, and processes remain the same, but the underlying challenges in these areas have evolved.  The trends that are emerging for 2023 will require new changes:

Topics: Learnings digital Bitroad IT
5 min read

10 real employee perks to attract and keep talents

By Franziska Schultze on 09 November 2022

Does this situation seem familiar to you? The days are over, where fruit baskets are a good enough to attract and keep employees. They want their company to care for their needs and also want to see the benefits of working at their job in their personal life. Having a mental health webinar, for example, as presented in this TikTok by Ali Woods video, might look good to others on LinkedIn. But does it actually contribute to your employee's wellbeing if they are already overwhelmed with work? Not really. 

Topics: Startup Tips Learnings Leadership
8 min read

How SpinLab lives corporate social responsibility

By Linh Pham on 31 August 2022

At SpinLab, we always act in the interests of the environment, society and our employees. We are committed to driving social change and sustainable development in order to make an effective contribution to a future worth living.

Topics: Learnings environment Diversity Team
6 min read

Tips and tricks for improving remote work in your startup

By Franziska Schultze on 20 December 2021

Going in to the new year, we have the time to reflect on the way that remote work is currently organized in our team. Do you have long-term solutions to common challenges in remote work? In this article, I will highlight five challenges of remote work and tips on overcoming them.

Topics: Startup Tips Learnings Leadership
6 min read

Why do we need more diversity in venture capital?

By Linh Pham on 10 December 2021

Recent studies such as the Female Founders Report and German Startup Monitor clearly showed that the startup landscape is mainly white and male. Only 18 % of founders in Germany are women. Just five percent of these female startup founders received more than one million euros in funding, compared to 30 percent of men. Unfortunately, a lot of VC firms seem to be run with a "boys club" mentality, resulting in unconscious biases and systemic inequalities. As part of the 12th edition of the HHL SpinLab Investors Day, Bettine Schmitz (Auxxo), Dagmar Bottenbruch (Segenia), Petra Sokolová (Inven Capital) and Duc Quyen Tran (Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures) came together to discuss why more diversity in venture capital is needed. Dr. Tanja Emmerling (Hightech Gründerfonds) presented in her keynote: “Diversity -so what?!” Essentials for your Diversity Playbook: how diversity can be implemented in venture capital

Topics: Learnings Diversity
6 min read

How to Quantify Your Product Market Fit

By Valeria Clement Caicedo on 30 November 2021

​​Dear reader please note this is NOT a regular product market fit blog article. Here we neither explain you what Product Market Fit is (we already did in our Product Marktet fit and your startup: 7 things you need to know blog nor will we repeat you that a bad product market fit is the reason #1 why startups fail. With this article we want to introduce you to a methodology to quantify your product market fit.

Topics: Startup Tips Learnings
9 min read

Debunking 4 myths on gender diversity in the startup world

By Marina Chkolnikov on 19 October 2021

Not really unexpectedly, the startup environment is not very diverse but rather homogeneous. Let the numbers speak: Let the numbers speak: 16 % of founders in Germany are women and roughly 75 % of VC money goes to male-only startup teams. Many companies, advisory boards, political parties have picked up these facts and want to contribute to change, for example by offering startup accelerator programs for (gender) diverse startup teams (Grow F, SpinLab Summer School), VCs that especially support female or mixed teams, quotas or scholarships. It has even become a trend in many industries.

Topics: Startup Tips Learnings Diversity
12 min read

A step by step guide to build a cap table

By Eric Weber on 06 September 2021

When preparing financial rounds, investors usually ask for cap tables (short version for “capitalization table”). Basically, this is a list or spreadsheet with an overview of all shareholders who have a participation on your company. Sounds easy? But in fact it isn’t, especially in later financing rounds. Why? Well, in the easiest case is the simple share distribution to founders and investors round by round, but in practice the deal structures are more complex. Typically, due to special rights and agreements, the allocation of equity shares deviates from voting rights and from money proceeds distributed after a cash event like an exit (e.g. a trade sale or an IPO). Very often it is complex enough to hire (and pay) external consultants and lawyers to reproduce the contractually fixed distribution and it is a frequent discussion point in due diligence processes on that way. Thus, it is worth paying some attention right from the beginning.

Topics: Startup Tips Learnings
10 min read

International Venture Capital and Forced Exits: Recapping HHL SpinLab Investors Day 4

By Eric Weber on 18 February 2020

About 200 venture capitalists, family offices and business angels mingled with our corporate partners and startups during the fourth HHL SpinLab Investors Day.

With networking sessions, inspiring speeches and panels accompanied by top-notch startup pitches, the likeminded community enjoyed the event. Focusing on the topics “Investing with international venture capitals” and “How to force exits?” both investors and founders were able to discuss important aspects of the same topics from their perspectives.

Topics: Learnings
1 min read

VIDEO - HHL SpinLab Investors Day January 2020 Recap

By Shawn Segundo on 03 February 2020

Last Thursday on January 30th, 2020 we hosted our fourth HHL SpinLab Investors Day in the Kunst Kraftwerk in Leipzig.

This is the premier event in the region where investors from all over the EU can learn about new trends in the landscape, network with other investors, and get introduced to some of the world's brightest startups that they can invest in.

Topics: Learnings