Today’s 2021 WRAP-UP comes from our incredible Berliner Startup Stipendium Team.

ThirdParty Product Management student and BSS Startup Coach, Aya Douba and Head of Pre-Seed Startup Grant, Tobias Kraski, spent the last 7 months running CODEs 7-month accelerator program.

Aya is working as a startup coach for 6 early-stage startup teams in the BSS and Tobias is responsible for the administrational aspects of running BSS supported by Aya and Chris Bonau Schmidt (Product Management Professor).

The Berliner Startup Stipendium at CODE is a pre-seed startup program in English, funded by the European Social Fund and the State of Berlin in equal parts. Our 7-month accelerator program is designed to help early-stage projects test their idea and business model, build or finalise a minimum viable product, and successfully launch their business.

Aya & Tobi’s 2021 WRAP-UP

My biggest challenge this year…

Aya: Multitasking, jumping from one project to another and having an average of 14-hour meetings per week

Tobias: Keeping 15 BSS participants at a time happy and trying to get them the support they need to turn their project into thriving and flourishing businesses.

 

My greatest success…

Aya: Managing to build meaningful relationships despite them being through a zoom screen most of the time

Tobias: Seeing our participants grow and tackle challenges with our help, support, and advice. Maybe even making a positive difference for them by doing what we do.

 

A person or people that really helped me this year…

Aya: Tobias for being the most supportive and helpful colleague one can wish for. And, Nina Zavrieva (CODE COO), Chris Bonau Schmidt (Product Management Professor), Markus Müller ( Product Management Lecturer and Mentor) and the rest of the CODE team were always there to help us.

Tobias: Kyra, my “girlfriend turned wife this year” without whose unlimited support I would definitely have tackled all challenges in private life, but also professionally, much worse.

 

Proud of myself because I… 

Aya: Finally understood what NFTs are (thanks to one of our startups) Hopefully next year I will understand the why.

What are you doing next?

Aya: After many years of work. I’ve decided to take a short sabbatical and focus on my self-growth, as I believe mental wellbeing is an important aspect that we often forget in our fast-paced life.

Tobias: As the BSS will discontinue in 2022, I will take over similar responsibilities for other co-operations CODE has in the position of Grant Coordinator.