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Marc Kley takes care of students with big plans.
He is the managing director of the Hochschulgründernetz in Cologne.
My role is that of a partner, a coach and supporter.
In our first interviews, my job is to ask students "mean" questions, like "Does anyone actually need what you're planning?"
Because that is always what a business idea boils down to, you have to filter that out first.
Is it a great idea by someone who is perhaps in love with detail or technology but hasn't even taken the customer into account,
who hasn't asked "Can I make money with this?"
Marc Kley works with the students to iron out their business idea.
Start-up grants provide the young entrepreneurs a free workplace here at the hgnc Incubator.
The facility supports and accompanies students on their way to starting their own business.
One of the entrepreneurs here is Christoph Müller-Dechent, a student at the University of Cologne.
He and his team have developed an app.
It identifies products at supermarkets which have been marked down because of their expiration date.
With their new app, they hope to combat food waste. But going it alone would have been difficult.
The support from the university was absolutely essential. We were able to get (A) office space and
(B) money through a start-up grant, which gave us a little more breathing room.
I don't say that it's play money just thrown in your lap for the taking, but without it, we would have been under much more pressure.
Where do I begin and how do I find office space? How do I pay my bills?
Where do I get professional consultation from someone who isn't going to take advantage of me, someone I can trust?
All of that, the worry, was taken away from us through the entire network at the University of Cologne.
The hgnc also offers other types of assistance to students with start-up ideas, such as Financing Day.
At this event, new start-ups and investors meet and discuss the all-important topic -- money.
Even in the lectures held during the day.
At the event, students have the chance to "pitch", or present, their ideas to potential investors.
And for some, Financing Day might be the stepping stone for starting their own company.
Soon they will have a place to work -- here at the new hgnc Incubator.
The centre will provide office space for ten to twelve teams.
This is just the students' first step for students to starting their own business. But Marc Kley wants to do even more for them.
In the future, we plan to make the Incubator a vibrant meeting place for the university start-up scene in Cologne,
and make it another important contact point for the Cologne entrepreneurial scene.
We don't want to limit ourselves to university start-ups. Of course, they should be here and work on their projects, their business models.
But there should be regular exchange between serial entrepreneurs, with experts from the Cologne start-up scene.
So that people have another contact point in addition to those already established.
And a piece of advice if you're interested in getting your idea off the ground:
To all those students who also want to start a company, I recommend doing your own networking, going to events, talking with people.
You know how it is -- you might have an idea, but you keep it to yourself, you don't tell anyone.
But that's completely wrong! You have to tell people about your idea.
And the one you should definitely tell is Marc Kley
because, in the future, he'll be the one giving young entrepreneurs the jump-start they need.