Interview with StartupBus producer Max Kleinedler

We had an interview with Max Kleinedler, who is a producer for StartupBus Germany in our StartupBus Europe 2016 competition (2–7 September). We’ll have a handful of buses driving from all over Europe to Corda INCubator in Hasselt for demo day and afterwards to Pirate Summit in Cologne. Participants are called “buspreneurs” and have to conceive, build and launch new tech startups in 72 hours while crossing the continent.

Who are you and what do you do when you’re not doing StartupBus?

I am Max Kleinedler and during my “normal” life I am a business consultant at Accenture in Zurich, Switzerland. When not in the Office I am spending a lot of my time with or on my motorbike exploring Switzerland and other countries.

Tell us about your history with StartupBus. What regions have you participated with? What did you build when you were a buspreneur?

I participated in the StartupBus challenge in 2013 by joining the German StartupBus as a Buspreneur. At that time I was doing my studies at the University of Mannheim and just needed a change from the theoretical lectures at University.

At that time we build a mobile application which let´s you quickly create job offers to professional as well as amateur handyman on your mobile device. While we had a very good design and a decent understanding of go-to-market strategy, we were lacking a functioning prototype so unfortunately we didn’t make it into the finals.

What were 3 great things that you gained from the StartupBus experience? How do you hope to use this experience as a producer?

Comfort zone: Once you arrange yourself with the new situation, new people, tons of ideas and crappy wifi on the bus you will enter a pure state of productivity which I never thought to be possible. Due to the time and resource constraints you start focussing only on the things that matter and get more done in 72h than normally within weeks.

Ideas evolve: Many people have great ideas, but what really matters is the execution of these ideas. Bad execution turns the best ideas into standard products while standard ideas can become the greatest products when executed with passion, thoroughness and the right team. This is something you will definitely experience on the Startupbus — within only 72h instead of weeks.

The people: The most awesome thing about StartupBus are clearly the people you meet on the Bus but also alongside the whole trip. You may start as stranger to each other but once you mastered the intense 72h on the bus you will end up with new friends and potential future colleagues. Additionally, you become a part of a global community who is always willing to help and support each other.

What made you decide to become a producer?

While I was a part of the overall community after joining the bus as a Buspreneur I wanted to engage myself in making the StartupBus experience as awesome as it has been for me. Therefore I joined the German StartupBus as a producer in 2014.

Give us an idea about the country you’re producing for. What are some unique challenges that startups face in your country? What makes your country ideal for startups?

I think in Germany we are in a comfortable situation of having a grown and viable startup scene mixed with settled globally operating companies. Many accelerators as well as institutional companies are open to innovation and new ideas and willing to support initiatives like the StartupBus on a monetary but especially on a resource and mentoring basis. A challenge — and I think that’s the same for other countries — is the wifi connection on the bus. While we have a perfect connection within a city it tends to break completely on the Autobahn — but ok, that’s part of the StartupBus experience.

What does your country/region bring to the global StartupBus community?

Hopefully the winning team of 2016.