STEP USA in New York City
This week Marc and Dirk participated in the STEP USA GreenTech Program hosted in New York by the German American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (GACC-NY). We joined a great line-up of GreenTech companies with Lignopure , carbonauten GmbH, HighLine Technology GmbH, fior familie GmbH, Cleancopter, Apollo Green Solutions and keywood GmbH.
We were truly blown away by the quality and intensity of the program led by Victoria Kaeser of GACC-NY and Brian Frumberg of VentureOut and hosted at multiple breathtaking locations throughout Manhattan:
GACC-NY CEO Susanne Gellert and team supported by Brian provided valuable insights into cultural, organizational and legal aspects surrounding the expansion to the US and specifically New York.
Anne-Sophie Mahle of EDCNYC and Carin Rising of ESD shared current GreenTech programs and support mechanisms relevant to businesses wanting to come to NYC and NY. Numerous projects provide collaboration possibilities as well as opportunities for startups to highlight their technologies in pilots within NYC. Also, sustainability goals of NYC were discussed.
Jeannette Williams and Steph Jones of the NYU Urban Future Lab presented activities around climate tech such as the ACRE Incubator.
Christian Joerg and team highlighted opportunities offered by the German Accelerator.
The amazing Jennifer Louie of Closed Loop Partners discussed some of the inner workings of investing approaches and also how new investment vehicles are developed to address current shortcomings e.g. for capex-heavy projects.
IP attorney and business angel Ray Farrell took up the tough task of explaining critical points surrounding IP in general and in the US specifically - absolutely crucial and often underestimated.
Matt Lopez of Revenue Nomad / formerly Skaled shared some of his extensive expertise on structuring sales processes to maximize revenue generation - which sometimes does get overlooked amongst the day to day challenges of a startup.
Brian expertly coached the startups to crystallize our offerings into 2-minute pitches - which many of them would not have believed to be possible. This training culminated in a pitch event at the Goethe Institute, where the startups pitched to a panel of investor experts as well as a crowd of 100+ guests. Throughout the evening, there were lively discussions and many great connections were made - all in a vibrant atmosphere!
After sessions, the group also had the chance to bond over Mexican food and drinks at Mezcali restaurant. And not to forget the fun visit to Pete's Tavern to celebrate the conclusion of the pitch night.
For Marc and Dirk, the STEP USA program truly opened up a whole new perspective. They highly appreciated learning about GACC-NY as a strong partner for future expansion into the US. aerogel-it is highly grateful to N-Bank for supporting us and to GACC-NY for giving us the chance to be part of this journey.
