Business Plan Competition 2012

At the beginning of August the final round of the HPI Business Plan Competition 2012 took place at Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). Five teams were in the final round with their innovative business ideas, hoping to be chosen for the € 100,000 prize.

The winning team of Christian Reß and Marvin Killing, both master students at HPI, convinced the jury with their startup idea of the PlaytestCloud.

The jury, led by HPI Institute Director, Prof. Christoph Meinel and Dr. Rouven Westphal, Managing Partner of the venture capital fund Hasso Plattner Ventures, based their decision on PlaytestCloud’s potential as an innovative idea for a growth market. Download press release

An overview of the teams

Team Playtest Cloud

Christian Reß (24) and Marvin Killing (26), Master students at Hasso Plattner Institute.

Description: The team provides an Internet platform for game studios that makes testing iPhone games as easy as possible. Game studios can therefore provide their games to real players for testing. Players’ opinions are then collected and the studios get help in improving their games. Download press release

Team Appetico

Christoph Neijenhuis (26), Master student at HPI, Silke Werner (27), Bachelor student of business administration at the University of Applied Sciences, (HTW) Berlin.

Description: The team creates an app for smartphones with illustrated step-by-step instructions for cooking. In the future it will be the easiest way to learn to cook.

Team LifeHub

Friedrich Politz (24), Danilo Schmidt (28), Sebastian Meyer (23), Master students at HPI;

Description: The team creates a fitness app that monitors correct exercise performance with sensors and provides the user live feedback. Sport beginners get support in reaching goals and get confirmation that they are doing their exercises correctly.

Team Zepp Lab

Johannes Hoppe, Master student at HPI, Tim Borchmann, business administration studies at the University of Applied Sciences, (BBW) Berlin.

Description: The team prepares a recommendation-based search engine for small and medium-size service companies. One could describe it as a branch directory, like the Yellow Pages, with a Facebook login. Thus users can get recommendations from friends for a good, local dentist, lawyer, tax accountant etc.

Team Clef Notes

Sirje Müller-Viise is a trained opera singer and violinist with international stage experience as a soloist. She holds a Master’s degree in Digital Communication and a Bachelor’s in English Literary Studies and is currently completing a supplementary study program in Design Thinking at Hasso Plattner Institute. Sirje Müller-Viise is the owner of an advertising and design agency.

Description: The team is preparing a music app that lets users buy, download and edit notes and accompanying materials. Instead of requiring a lot of sheet music for their performances, soloists only need a tablet PC. It also helps with learning and playing pieces implementing, among other things, automatic scrolling.