bwcon: Helping Entrepreneurs Build Sustainable Ventures
Just a generation ago, one of the major challenges aspiring entrepreneurs faced was a limited access to information, expertise, and funding. Today, young men and women with ideas about promising ventures have easier time accessing such resources. Yet, this doesn’t automatically make their lives stress- and frustration-free due to the increasing complexity of the business environment in an increasingly connected and unpredictable world.
Service providers such as Baden-Württemberg: Connected (bwcon) play an important role in this context. How? By assisting startups and scaleups in their digital transformation along the entire value chain.
Connecting people, ideas, and resources
Founded in 1997, bwcon has provided a platform for the transfer of experience, knowledge, and ideas, with a focus on information and communication technologies (ICTs) as drivers of innovation. The initiative has so far helped more than 4,000 companies across the globe find the right model for their business, attract investments, and provide a better value proposition to the market. In the meantime, it has set up the Venture Development System – a time- and location-independent accelerator program that empowers entrepreneurs to launch and develop their ventures in a structured fashion. With a number of offices across the region of Baden-Württemberg, bwcon has developed a network of partners that includes organizations not only from Germany but also from the USA, Israel, China, and Singapore.Leadership values
As CEO since 2014, Dr. Jürgen Jähnert has guided bwcon’s development as a technology- and business-driven player based in Baden-Württemberg but operating globally. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Stuttgart and a degree in Marketing and Business administration from University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. He has further experience as a project manager at the Computer Center of the University of Stuttgart and Baden-Württemberg’s innovation agency for ICT and media. In his interactions with his staff members as well as with bwcon’s partners and clients, he adheres to three core values: peer collaboration, people involvement, and competitiveness.
Expansion via InvestHorizon
Dr. Jähnert still feels excited and inspired from the Accelerator Bootcamp Milan 2019 – a three-day forum bwcon held in November with the goal of helping around 20 promising European scaleups to improve their business propositions to investors.
‘Through InvestHorizon, we are honored to add to our portfolio high-level partnerships and new services [that allow us] to identify, support, and match more than 500 deep-technology European scaleups for further investment rounds,’ he says.