for founders

what you get

our offering
what's in for you

We provide a completely tailor-made acceleration package for you – without equity, fees or any other costs! Our team will support you in topics such as B2B sales processes, feature prioritization, fundraising, or hiring. Everything is based on your specific needs and with most efficient use of your time.

How? In a three-step process, the xdeck team will make sure to understand you and your current situation, jointly align on measurable objectives and accelerate together with you!

which kind of support you get
mentors
You will be assigned an experienced entrepreneur as your dedicated mentor. Because only founders truly understand your challenges. In 1:1 sessions, your mentor will give you advice, work with you on scaling and always has an open mind for you. From founders, for founders.
experts
During our tailor-made 3 months acceleration, you will meet exceptional technology and industry experts. From monthly subject-matter acceleration days with the whole batch to individual peer-based working formats and other 1:1 sessions, we will open our wide network of corporate and community partners as well as former entrepreneurs to you.
network
During your time at xdeck you will meet exciting experts and inspiring founders from all over Europe. Even after your intensive acceleration we will stay in touch and you will always be a part of our xdeck community. Enjoy the ongoing exchange of ideas, invitation to great events and dedicated opportunities to connect.
funding
First of all, you can participate at xdeck from THE SHIP – xdeck’s fully digitised office in Cologne – or remotely. During your time at xdeck, you will receive free, optional office space. On top you will get tech credits worth up to 100k Euro, and the opportunity to receive VC funding via our own xdeck VC, our partner VCs, our banking partners or our extensive national and international VC network.
our mentors
from founders for founders
Florian Hildebrand
Co-Founder / Co -CEO at Qualifyze

Florian is passionate about big visions that make the world better and helping people exceed their ambitions.

Florian Hildebrand
Co-Founder / Co -CEO at Qualifyze
Nico Szeli
Co-Founder and MD Warehousing1

Nico is passionate about innovative and disruptive ideas in traditional and undigitized industries. With Warehousing1 Nico and his cofounders reimagine warehouse logistics.

Nico Szeli
Co-Founder and MD Warehousing1
Konrad Lange
CCO Lendis GmbH

Konrad is passionate about digital marketing, b2b sales, and growing innovative businesses to success.

Konrad Lange
CCO Lendis GmbH
Phillip Eischet
Co-Founder and MD RightNow Group

Phillip is passionate about people and scaling organizations. He is a serial entrepreneur, business angel and has been selected as "Forbes 30 under 30“.

Phillip Eischet
Co-Founder and MD RightNow Group
Khaleeq Aziz
CEO and Co-Founder Dailight & CEO and Founder Symanto Research
Khaleeq Aziz
CEO and Co-Founder Dailight & CEO and Founder Symanto Research
Christian Batz
Vice president Igus and former entrepreneur

Christian has a passion for entrepreneurial work, technical innovations and marketing them for the benefit of customers. Due to this experience, his focus is on the B2B product and service business.

Christian Batz
Vice president Igus and former entrepreneur
Oli Steinki
Co-founder FOND OF and developer & owner of THE SHIP

Oli is passionate about finance, operations and real estate development.

Oli Steinki
Co-founder FOND OF and developer & owner of THE SHIP
Freya Oehle
Co-Founder and CEO Dreitausendsassa

Freya is a product-builder by heart & experience who stretches the importance of strategic business-planning based on solid technology and effective marketing.

Freya Oehle
Co-Founder and CEO Dreitausendsassa
Antonie Jo Nissen
Co-Founder GoPuls

Antonie is passionate about healthcare and industries that are fast-paced but still extremely behind in digitalization, complex but still simple and relevant for everyone, exciting in business opportunities but still providing true social value.

Antonie Jo Nissen
Co-Founder GoPuls
Friedhelm A. Schmitt
Founder and Co-CEO Fincite and Fincite Ventures

Friedhelm is a technology entrepreneur, serial co-founder, scale-up enthusiast and early-stage investor. Founder of 10+ technology companies, co-creating € 100+ mil. company value.

Friedhelm A. Schmitt
Founder and Co-CEO Fincite and Fincite Ventures
Michael Bassler
Founder and CEO Amazing Brands Group and serial entrepreneur

Michael is passionate about tech startups and supporting founders on their rollercoaster startup ride. Balancing work he is working out daily and enjoys travelling exotic places.

Michael Bassler
Founder and CEO Amazing Brands Group and serial entrepreneur
Christian Blume
Co-Founder Cleverbridge AG

Christian is passionate about mentoring statups and scaleups, sharing his knowledge on international expansion, e-commerce, SaaS and general management, as well as investing into startups that he is passionate about.

Christian Blume
Co-Founder Cleverbridge AG
Sven Oliver Pink
Co-founder FOND OF and owner of THE SHIP

Sven is passionate about building new brands from scratch, organizational development and visionary ideas.

Sven Oliver Pink
Co-founder FOND OF and owner of THE SHIP
André Christ
CEO & Co-Founder LeanIX

André is passionate about enabling organizations to create better products and services by moving them to modern IT architectures such as Cloud and Microservices.

André Christ
CEO & Co-Founder LeanIX
Eva Spannagl
Head of Strategy Moss & Co-Founder Femstory

Eva is passionate about B2B SaaS, Fintech & Crypto and helping founders build great ideas from scratch. She is Founder, Business Angel Investor, Web 3.0 expert and leads the strategy department at the Fintech Start-up Moss.

Eva Spannagl
Head of Strategy Moss & Co-Founder Femstory
Tim Niemeier
Co-Founder ROQ

Tim has built and scaled IT departments of multiple startups and delivered numerous tech products around the globe. He is excited to help build great tech orgs and turn ideas into awesome products.

Tim Niemeier
Co-Founder ROQ
Lucas Scherer
Co-Founder & CEO sourc-e GmbH

Lucas is passionate about innovation & digitization in traditional industries and developing profitable companies. His expertise covers the areas of B2B-Sales, Sustainable Business Development and HR.

Lucas Scherer
Co-Founder & CEO sourc-e GmbH
Daniel Hanemann
Founder and CEO wundertax

Daniel is an entrepreneur with a focus on marketing and growth and is passionate about businesses solving problems.

Daniel Hanemann
Founder and CEO wundertax
Johannes Emigholz
Co-Founder Silexica
Johannes Emigholz
Co-Founder Silexica
Alexander Rausch
Managing Director CHRONEXT

Alex is passionate about scaling business models in terms of growing the organisation, improving processes & infrastructure, entering in new markets, measuring the KPI that really matter as well as fundraising from seed to IPO.

Alexander Rausch
Managing Director CHRONEXT
Oliver Mickler
Co-Founder and MD Tillhub GmbH

Oli is passionate about innovative retail ideas and supporting young founders. He is a serial entrepreneur with previous experience at Wimdu and MyDriver.

Oliver Mickler
Co-Founder and MD Tillhub GmbH
Flo Michajlezko
Co-founder FOND OF and owner of THE SHIP

Flo is passionate about product development, distribution and teamwork.

Flo Michajlezko
Co-founder FOND OF and owner of THE SHIP
Dr. Lars Stäbe
Co-Founder Limehome, VP GTM Xentral ERP

Lars is an entrepreneur, investor and coach who founded Limehome and now works as Vice President at Xentral. With his extensive experience in the startup world he is passionate about helping others succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures.

Dr. Lars Stäbe
Co-Founder Limehome, VP GTM Xentral ERP
Miriam Mertens
Co-Founder and CEO DeepSkill

Miriam’s passions are the tech industry and emotional skills, particularly people-centered leadership. Young founders benefit from her broad business experience in determining a viable market potential.

Miriam Mertens
Co-Founder and CEO DeepSkill

our experts

advise and support from corporates
Jörg Wupper
Head of Department Customer Center Volksbank Köln Bonn eG

Jörg is responsible for the support of technology-based startups in our entire business area. For over 25 year he has been accompanying young entrepreneurs with their founded companies on the way to fully existence.

Jörg Wupper
Head of Department Customer Center Volksbank Köln Bonn eG
Jahn Werner
Global Brand Owner SALZEN

Jahn is passionately committed to building sustainable premium brands from the grass root level. His expertise is a holistic entrepreneurial mindset with a deep understanding of product-market fit and brand ethos.

Jahn Werner
Global Brand Owner SALZEN
Marion Poschen
Corporate Customer Advisor Volksbank Köln Bonn eG

Marion is responsible for advising and supporting technology-based startups in all financial topics. She has been supporting startups for 7 years now and has focused on digital and innovative business models before.

Marion Poschen
Corporate Customer Advisor Volksbank Köln Bonn eG
Christian Lammers
Head of Digital Business & Company Building, Site Manager Nuremberg

Christian can help turning ideas into viable business models and scalable, lovable companies. He is a true expert for business model innovation, user experience strategy and usability engineering.

Christian also has a deep understanding of trending and innovative topics like web3, nfts, metaverse and crypto.

Christian Lammers
Head of Digital Business & Company Building, Site Manager Nuremberg
Philipp Friesen
Fond Of Digital

Philipp has built up and managed the digital department at FOND OF since the beginning. This included eCommerce, digital marketing and creation for all brands. Before joining FOND OF, he was a digital entrepreneur.

Philipp Friesen
Fond Of Digital
Antje Lienert
Startup Unit KölnBusiness

Antje is responsible for the welcoming of national and international startups to Cologne. Most of the time, she functions as a network angel to offer startups a soft landing, including potential partners, bureaucratic issues, space and talents.

Antje Lienert
Startup Unit KölnBusiness
Christian Knott
Early stage VC Partner Capnamic Ventures

Christian started his path in venture capital in 2010 at the HTGF when he supported the very first finance departments of around 80 startups. This background brought him to Capnamic.

Christian Knott
Early stage VC Partner Capnamic Ventures
Daniel Adams
Head of IT-Infrastructure FOND OF

Daniel is responsible for integrating and maintaining on-premise and cloud infrastructure components and ensuring their further development within the overall business strategy and requirements.

Daniel Adams
Head of IT-Infrastructure FOND OF
Dr. Ruben Hofmann
Intellectual Property Lawyer Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek

Ruben is a Cologne-based IP lawyer working in all fields of Intellectual Property law, in particular trademarks, unfair competition, copyrights, e-commerce and reputation management.

Dr. Ruben Hofmann
Intellectual Property Lawyer Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Tom Reinert
User Experience Designer FOND OF

Tom designs digital products and thinks about how they work and how they look like. By looking at every aspect of the product, he is making sure that the user's needs are met in the most meaningful way.

Tom Reinert
User Experience Designer FOND OF
Bastian Stegen
Senior Content Consultant nexum AG

Bastian works online, where clients and customers meet through multimedia content. As a content consultant with a focus on corporate communications, he tries to combine creativity with processes, content with appearance and emotion with data.

Bastian Stegen
Senior Content Consultant nexum AG
Vincent Schäfer
E-Commerce Manager FOND OF

Vincent is responsible for the operational part on the marketplaces like the product listings, stock planning and advertising on marketplaces like Zalando or About you.

Vincent Schäfer
E-Commerce Manager FOND OF
Wenke Trebeljahr
People and Culture FOND OF

Wenke is responsible for organizational development and culture. She helps finding the answers that matter: The reason why we establish a company, build a brand or develop a product. She enables people to build honest, truthful and self-reliant organizations.

Wenke Trebeljahr
People and Culture FOND OF
Matthias Wessels
Organizational Development Expert Leela Gruppe
Matthias Wessels
Organizational Development Expert Leela Gruppe
Gil Baxpehler
Startup Unit KölnBusiness

Gil currently works for the Startup Unit of KölnBusiness, the economic development company of the City of Cologne. Apart from the obvious ties to the city, they are trying to support our local startup ecosystem on all fronts.

Gil Baxpehler
Startup Unit KölnBusiness
Daniela Bach
Investment Manager HTGF

Daniela is an early-stage investor at HTGF with a background in media.

Daniela Bach
Investment Manager HTGF
timeline xdeck journey
how it works
week 1-3
September 8th, 2022
kick-off & diagnosis phase

After our kick-off event, we want to understand your individual business model, discuss your current status and validate challenges.

week 4
September 26th, 2022
objective phase

We will synthesize our findings from the diagnosis phase and define joint objectives with you. On this basis we develop a tailor-made acceleration package for you!

week 5-12
October 3rd, 2022
acceleration phase

We will identify suitable formats and next steps to accelerate with you in the optimal way. After a total of 3 months, the intensive phase is over. However, we will stay in contact and support you where needed.

apply for the next batch
December 31st, 2022
deadline for early-bird application phase

After this deadline we will start with the first selection for our Pitch Day. Since the number of places for this last selection round is limited, an early-bird application is even more worthwhile!

next round
22nd January, 2023
final deadline for application phase

Applications can be submitted until this deadline. Now we will set the final selection for our pitchday.

finals
February, 2023
pitchday next batch

On our pitchday a highly-ranked jury will support us to find the most promising startups for our next Batch.