Post by Katharina Beitz

🙌 For the chronically sceptical: Watch what founders in Germany are actually working on. Last week, I had the pleasure of kicking off the first day of Batch 8 at Founders Bay – and I genuinely enjoyed every single team in the room. Some of these I already knew – faces you might remember from Berlin stages and events, now taking the next serious step. Others are just getting started – students (!) who decided to build super early, which I genuinely love to see. A few teams are already preparing for much larger visibility moments, including upcoming TV productions. 🟢 What impressed me most: Several teams are already in active fundraising conversations. Many come with prior fundraising experience and some can point to real traction, including five-digit customer numbers. (Remind you, this is an accelerator!) What I’m taking away from the day: 1. Many teams are in conscious transition phases. From B2C to B2B. From research to market. From strong ideas to investable narratives. 2. Fundraising is treated as a process, not an event. Teams were asking the right questions early – about positioning, communication, investor logic and timing. 3. The substance is there. A lot of work, a lot of discipline – and many teams working on topics that genuinely improve people’s lives and our planet. Here's the deal: ALL ABOUT MIDLIFE - Katja Ohly-Nauber & Constanze Stock A program supporting women through menopause with health focus and community. CompactGreens - Jonas Frank, Niklas Gabriel, Nick Werneck, max lauterbach & Simon Zitzmann 🪴 Modular indoor gardens making it easy to grow fresh, pesticide-free greens. CU Mehrweg - Tatiana Tsarkova, Mette-Maria Meyer & Jonathan Schröder 🥫 A reusable packaging system designed for existing supermarket deposit systems. DoppelErnte GmbH - Till Skudelny 💡 Agri-PV projects combining agriculture and solar energy for new income streams. earthbound - Christian Gäth, David Janotta & Micha Kretschmann 🏗️ Turning excavation waste into regenerative building materials. menstruflow - Polina Sergeeva, Marvin Mischler & Aiya Adams 🩸 Accessible solutions to reduce pain and improve daily life around menstruation. Nanolope GmbH - Dr. Felix Marske, Eric Matthes, Dominik L. Schreiber & Stefanie Hennig 🧪 Materials that enable buildings to store thermal energy within building facades. Orbisens® - Dr. Jens Lamping, Jonas Lehmke & Nicolas Jalby ☁️ Environmental sensing systems for real urban conditions. PERCEPTEC GmbH - Markus Leicht & Ilka Urban 👁️ Advancing digitalization in the eye-care sector. Plantforge - Florian Eickhoff & Ramon Zoellner ☘️ Modular indoor farming for climate-independent cannabis cultivation. Prepair - Cornelius Filbry & Thomas Lötzsch 💬 Connecting homeowners, consultants and craftsmen for building renovation. Absolutely looking forward to staying close to this batch.