Wirkungsschaffer

Program description

Wirkungsschaffer is an incubation program for impact startups with a leadership focus.

Sustainable and public good oriented startups are supported. The incubator helps you on the last steps to founding and is also your partner in difficult phases. Wirkungsschaffer accompanies you on your individual learning journey, validates your business and impact model, promotes your leadership skills and offers you a strong startup network. Experienced mentors and coaches help you, for example, with strategy development, validation of ideas and the search for suitable financing opportunities. The focus is on holistic sustainability and a business model that is oriented towards the common good and anchors social and ecological responsibility at its core. In order for you to more successfully represent your vision of a sustainable future to the outside world and gain strong partners, additional targeted workshops are offered to strengthen leadership skills and promote your entrepreneurial personality.

Nationwide. Hybrid. No shares, no costs. Worth €20,000.

Mentoring and coaching: socially, economically and ecologically! With realistic optimism and openness, the Wirkungsschaffer team accompanies you through ups and downs, structures your ideas and develops them to market maturity. The online coaching sessionsdeal with the following topics, among others:

• you and your team: understanding roles and solving conflicts
• Logic and impact maximization in the sense of the common good economy
• Testing target group and minimal product
• Building an online community
• Marketing for sustainable brands
• Sharpening your problem-solution fit
• Piloting and market penetration
• Business growth and funding

Institution

Social Impact gGmbH

SOCIAL IMPACT is the agency for social innovation. For 30 years, it has been developing infrastructures and projects to solve social challenges, disseminating its expertise and building strong networks. As a driver of systemic change, SOCIAL IMPACT creates innovations for a just and sustainable society of tomorrow. The focus areas are social and inclusive entrepreneurship, education, social economy and rural areas.

Start-up, networking and qualification programs are offered in the SOCIAL IMPACT LABS. The Labs provide space for coworking, coaching & workshops as well as networking and events. They are inspiring and vibrant hotspots for social innovation and the startup scene. Currently, there are nine SOCIAL IMPACT LABS nationwide in Beelitz Heilstätten (near Berlin), Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Potsdam and Stuttgart.

Deadline

THE NEXT APPLICATION PHASE STARTS IN SEPTEMBER 2024. Program start: November 2024.

There are 2 batches per year. You can register here to receive a notification for the start of the next round of applications.

Funding period

6 months

Kick off - Mandatory live in Stuttgart if successfully accepted into the program.

Time commitment: From full-time to part-time, a lot is possible. It is expected that you find +5h / week time for your startup. Participation in the group workshops is desired (2x per month approx. 2 hours).

Funding criteria

Applications are open to social entrepreneurs in the pre-startup phase with a sustainability and public welfare-oriented project idea - alone or in a team. The planned place of foundation must be in Germany.

Therefore, you should not have founded a company or organization yet, but strive to do so. If a GbR, UG, association or similar has already been founded, but there is no significant turnover, you can still apply. In this case, the Wirkungsschaffer team may contact you for consultation.

If you belong to a company, e.g. in the form of a corporate startup, unfortunately no application is possible.

Additional conditions

If you have already founded a company:

• then it should be max. 6 months for UGs,
• for solo-entrepreneurs max. 12 months and
• GmbHs can unfortunately not be included, unless gGmbH, there is also an exception up to 6 months.

Expenses for (commercial)

Coaching/mentoring services

Funding focuses on

Start-up/Foundation & consolidation, Entrepreneurial know-how, Business model development, Market development, Sustainability, Social impact, Non-technological innovation, Technological innovation

Funding conditions (commercial)

no equity required

Stage of the company/self-employment

prior to founding, up to 1 year after founding

Company Sizes

solo self-employed/one-man business, micro enterprise

Application type

multi-stage application procedure, Online form

Application procedure/documents

Procedure of the application phase:

• Online application incl. video* and, if applicable, pitch deck
• Initial interview about your idea
• Sharpen idea — sharpen impact
• Pitch workshop

Admission to the incubation program follows a successful admission pitch.

Pre-selection
1st selection process: notification if you are in the next round.

Pitch workshop
2nd selection process: free pitch training and business model check. The best teams will be admitted to the admission pitch.

Admission Pitch
Pitch in front of a jury of founders and startup experts*.
5 teams will receive the Wirkungsschaffer Startup Scholarship.
________________

* VIDEO (1 minute, max. 99 MB)
Prepare a video in which you briefly tell the following:

• Name — problem you are tackling — approach to solving it — why you?

A simple cell phone video of up to 1 minute will suffice. The point is to get to know your founder personality better in order to better classify the business idea.

Jury/Decision-making body

This will be taken into account during the application phase:

• Entrepreneurial personality: Do you have the will to deal with business processes and get involved with new methods? Are you able to take criticism, are you open to new ideas and do you have the necessary assertiveness to overcome challenges?
• Social impact: Have you identified a clear social or environmental problem and will your idea solve it more efficiently/sustainably than existing offerings?
• Innovation: Are new processes or tools being used to solve a social or environmental problem? Are new technologies being used?
• Economic sustainability: Are the offered products or services independently marketable or do corresponding funding opportunities exist? Is there a relevant market for the products or services offered?

Assistance/Downloads

You can arrange a free info call about the "Wirkungsschaffer" startup scholarship here.

If you have any questions about the online application, please contact the team by email at wirkungsschaffer@socialimpact.eu or by phone at +49 (0)171 8288937.

You can get an overview of the startups supported so far in the community.

FAQ Url

Funded by

The Social Impact Lab Stuttgart is a project of Social Impact gGmbH and is made possible by the Vector Foundation and the Karl Schlecht Foundation.

Funding area

Germany