Why Strong Startup Networks Are Built on Trust

Note: The following contributions are personal impulses from Max Eckel. They represent individual reflections and are intended to stimulate discussion and further thought.

37 minutes before 35 founders were supposed to walk in, the entire building lost power. What happened next is a much better explanation of a startup ecosystem than most ecosystem maps.

Last week, WHU alum Marius Rosenberg was about to start the ReadyToScale Founders Day of Gateway Factory at the event location when fellow alum Christopher Smolka told him: complete blackout. Founders were already on their way. A workshop for 35, networking for around 60. In Marius’ words, they had “literally 37 minutes to find a new location.”

So he called Sven Greulich at Orrick Germany. Sven is also a WHU alum. First call: no answer. Second call: Sven picks up with: “It must be urgent, right?” Marius explains. Sven: “Give me 2 minutes.” Two minutes later: “Come over, the caterer with drinks and coffee is on his way.” Orrick opened the doors. The event happened. Problem solved.

Marius later wrote: “What Sven did last week, was not about money and I can never repay him in the business world.” The strongest networks are built over time, a give-first mentality, and through deep trust. And... this wasn’t even a WHU event! It was a Gateway Factory event.

Gateway Factory is the Startup Factory for the Rhineland, bringing together amazing actors around RWTH Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Start2 to help build and scale more science-based startups. Marius plays a strong role there through Start2 Group.Malte Brettel, another WHU alum and professor at RWTH and WHU, is deeply involved from the Aachen side.

And that is exactly how I like to think about WHU’s role in StartupGermany. Not as a closed club that only helps when “WHU” is written on the event banner. But as a network that plugs into other strong ecosystems and makes the whole system more useful.

We are doing the same through southwestX, the Startup Factory WHU is a shareholder in and our alum Michael Welz is part of the leadership team. For years, WHU’s startup support grew very independently of public structures: alumni helping alumni, founders helping founders, people simply picking up the phone. Now, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and StartupGermany give us more interfaces into the public startup support ecosystem.

That is exciting because the best version of this is more trusted routes through the system, rather than more logos on ecosystem slides. A founder in one ecosystem knows someone in another. A university knows whom to call. A public program can tap into a private network. And when you suddenly have 37 minutes, somebody actually picks up.

Marius ended his post with “Thank you Sven!” I’ll add: thank you, Marius, Christopher, Sven, Malte, Michael, and everyone else building these bridges.

Back to Max Eckel’s blog overview