50 people interested in founding a company had registered for the 4th Ostfalia Startup Lunch, and so the seats in the WOW! WissensOrt Wolfenbüttel are also well filled. Two keynote speeches and a panel talk with experienced female founders are on the agenda and the participants are eagerly awaiting green start-up impulses. After all, the focus today is on ecologically and socially responsible business models.
First speaker: Carina Heidermann from LB.systems
Attendees will be welcomed by Kai Hillebrecht, Head of Knowledge and Technology Transfer, and Katharina Rother-Schönfeld from Gründen@Ostfalia. Lee Schwiewald, project manager of the "City Centre Start-up Programme" at Braunschweig Zukunft GmbH, will then take over the moderation. The first Green Founder to speak will be Carina Heidermann from LB.systems (external link, opens in a new window), a company in Salzgitter that Heidermann founded together with Lasse Bartels in 2019 and which specialises in the reuse of batteries from electric cars.
Instead of recycling lithium-ion batteries prematurely, LB.systems checks their condition and prepares suitable specimens for a second use - as stationary energy storage units, for example. "Essentially, the aim is to extend the service life of the batteries and only recycle them when they are actually no longer usable," says Heidermann. She illustrates the path to her own company with her CV. Heidermann initially trained as a wholesale and foreign trade clerk. She then went on to study civil engineering and finally technology-orientated management.
She dedicated her final thesis to the field of electric motorbikes. "Originally, we didn't want to build storage systems from batteries at all, but motorbikes," she explains. She then attended business lunches to find out whether a business idea could be developed from this work. In the following five to six years, she came second in several competitions with this idea and took part in various pitch events. It is precisely this approach that she recommends to future founders, as it was through the exchange that she was made aware of the gap in the market into which they eventually ventured - namely the construction of energy storage systems for domestic use instead of motorbikes.
Second speaker: Dominic Thormann, founder of eco.Triver
The next keynote speech was given by Dominic Thormann, founder of eco.Triver, a platform for organising car pools to major events. The triathlete came up with the idea when he wanted to take part in the Hanover Marathon. "At marathons in particular, the whole city is cordoned off, with several thousand people travelling at the same time," says Thormann. "That creates a lot of traffic chaos. I got to the start very late," he recalls, "and then had three and a half hours to think about what solution there could be to get people together to get there."
He then looked at different types of events and saw what didn't work in terms of travelling. In addition to stress, traffic jams and high costs, the advantage of carpooling, according to Thormann, is the opportunity to meet people with the same taste in music at concerts and festivals, for example. There is also the aspect of sustainability. 80 per cent of an event's carbon footprint is caused by visitors travelling to and from the event. Organisers are therefore increasingly having to prove how their guests travel.
This is precisely where Thormann's platform for green carpooling comes in and helps to reduce emissions. He spent three years implementing and refining his ideas, research, analyses and developments for eco.Triver alongside his full-time job as a software developer. But then he realised that he needed more time. "And so at some point I had to let go of my job and throw myself in at the deep end to work on the start-up full-time."
He encourages the future founders in the audience: "Trust your instincts and your strengths. Don't let others influence you too much. If you have an idea that you think is good, then pursue it. Today, you can learn a lot yourself - but the most important thing is to have fun. My start-up fulfils me much more than my time at the company."
Gründen@Ostfalia supports potential founders
Gründen@Ostfalia introduces itself after the presentations. The initiative supports students, staff, lecturers and researchers in turning ideas into successful start-ups by providing coaching, a network, infrastructure and funding opportunities. Tina and Renate Schmidt, who run a coffee roasting business in Braunschweig, will then take to the stage.
In the panel talk: Tina and Renate Schmidt from WOKE.UP
In the panel talk, the founders of WOKE.UP (external link, opens in a new window) explain what it means to sell coffee with attitude as queer people. The coffee is roasted electrically, without fossil fuels, packaged in recyclable packaging and sourced exclusively from countries that they can travel to safely themselves. The coffee beans from WOKE.UP come from South America because, according to Renate Schmidt, it is not safe to be a queer person in Africa. "There are countries there where the death penalty is in place for people like us."
The idea of betting their future entirely on the bean came to them while travelling, where they had consumed vast quantities of bad coffee. They thought to themselves: "There's a better way - and above all, it's more sustainable," says Tina Schmidt. "There are many speciality roasters, but the question was where the unique selling point could be. We wanted to rethink coffee, think differently."
The bureaucratic hurdles that kept getting in their way showed that they had a lot to think about. Tina Schmidt: "This is Germany, after all. There's a form for everything. But unfortunately there is no handbook that tells me what I need when I set up a business." That's why they also like to take the time to attend events such as the Startup Lunch. This is because they can exchange ideas with others from the start-up community who know more or different things than they do.
Gründen@Ostfalia at the Campus Day on 30 April
The next opportunity to get closer to the topic of founding at Ostalia is at the Campus Day on 30 April 2026. Between 3 and 7 p.m. there will be impulses and on-site advice in Building A, Room A 026.
Founding@Ostfalia
Idea in your head but no plan yet? Gründen@Ostfalia will show you the way with impulses and on-site counselling. GO for it!
Lecture 1: Your studies. Your start-up. (3.30 pm to 4 pm)
Lecture 2: Money for your idea: How to finance your start-up (4.30 p.m. to 5 p.m.)
