Andi Dreger

Andi Dreger is an alumnus of the Faculty of Business Studies. Since 2018, he has been working as Head of Incubation Management at the Aachen start-up incubator digitalHUB to expand the topic of start-ups in Aachen and the Euregio. He not only supports classic profit-orientated start-ups; he is particularly interested in the topic of social entrepreneurship. But whether profit-orientated or particularly social or sustainable - his credo is: Dare to start a company if you have a good idea! We spoke to him about the courage to start a business and the importance of volunteering.

How did you come to support young start-ups on their way to the market?

From 2006 to 2016, I studied business administration at FH Aachen, specialising in international business, marketing and business informatics. That gave me all the technical skills I need in my job today. I worked a lot while I was studying. I was a student assistant at the Aachen start-up topsystem. They took me on after my studies and I worked there for a few years as Business Development Manager. It could have continued like that. A classic career path.

What happened instead?

A few years ago, I volunteered to go swimming with young unaccompanied refugees on Saturdays. This experience was a real eye-opener. I came home smiling, because these contacts, this activity really gave me something. At the time, I hadn't experienced that at all in my job, even though it was a really good job in a nice team.

I began to doubt whether I was still in the right place. Through volunteering, I had experienced what it feels like when an activity feels really meaningful. I also wanted to feel like I was doing something good at work, that I was helping someone with what I was doing. When I got the offer to support start-ups on their way to the market at digitalHUB, I immediately accepted. Today, I am Head of Incubation Management there and, together with my colleague Dr Christian Klusmann, I am responsible for our start-up team. My tasks include building and expanding the community and network in Aachen and the Euregio. I am also responsible for our incubation programme, coach our start-ups, am in charge of matchmaking between start-ups and corporates and am responsible for the topic of social entrepreneurship.

What requirements must a start-up fulfil in order to be supported by you?

At digitalHUB, we support start-ups that want to launch their digital business models on the market. These can be apps or cloud-based models - the important thing is that it has an innovative character. However, if you are founding a start-up that does not necessarily have anything to do with digitalisation, but which we think touches on an important topic, we would still accept you.

When is the right time to contact the digitalHUB as a young entrepreneur?

You have a concrete business idea and the team is in place. You've already done a bit of market research - then it's actually the right time to come to us and validate the idea with us. We check together whether it is just an idea or whether there is a real market need.

At this point, the founders have already invested months in their ideas. It would be quite frustrating to be told by you that there is no market for their ideas.

That is true. Of course, we have also recognised that it is important to meet the founders beforehand. That's why we set up a regulars' table for founders - together with the FH Aachen Startup Center, among others. We meet there once a month to exchange ideas over a beer in a relaxed atmosphere, get feedback and make initial contacts in the start-up scene.

What support do you offer start-ups in the digitalHUB?

When you found a company, you have a lot of questions at the beginning and need help from experienced people. When the start-ups come to us, we initially offer an open and welcoming culture. But we also provide active support. Our coaches, who all have a background in business administration or IT, analyse the business model together with the start-ups and act as sparring partners. We work with them to identify their needs, provide advice, offer workshops and help them apply for the NRW start-up grant.

And we feed the start-ups' enquiries into the network. This is a key part of our offering: we network the start-ups. There are currently around 270 start-ups in the digitalHUB, so there are enormous opportunities for networking and exchanging experiences. We provide support by suggesting or establishing suitable contacts.

Why should you start up?

Starting up is a great experience. And it increases your own market value enormously. I was talking to someone the other day who told me that after running a start-up for a few years, he received a very lucrative offer from a company. They wanted him because his experience as a founder meant that he simply had more to offer than someone who hadn't founded a company. As a founder, you simply have such a steep learning curve, and that is also a huge added value for established companies.

So your plea is: more courage instead of looking for security?

Yes, of course. Many students who visit job fairs go specifically to the stands of large companies. That is security. But it's all a question of culture. I, on the other hand, would like to see a start-up culture in Aachen. Aachen should be a city where people want to create something new and found a start-up or want to work in one. In recent years, Aachen has led the way in supraregional competitions. For example, in the Out of the box competition - three of the four first place winners came from Aachen. This shows how much potential there is in Aachen and what we have already been able to achieve here together.

What drives you?

As has perhaps become clear, I'm a big fan of as many people as possible starting up, because that's how new ideas come onto the market and things get moving. And I don't just mean technologically or economically. Of course, many innovations come from start-ups. But I would like to add another aspect here: Many start-ups are designed to make a lot of profit quickly - otherwise investors wouldn't get involved there in the first place. But I also find another idea very exciting, as a kind of balance: social entrepreneurship. I also want to support start-ups that are not solely geared towards making a profit, but also have a high social impact. That's why I founded the "SEEu - Social Entrepreneurship in the Euregio" network with three other initiators in 2021. We see ourselves as a partner network for social and sustainable innovations. The FH Aachen start-up network is also part of SEEu. There are some great examples of social entrepreneurship in Aachen, such as the company Everwave, which removes plastic from oceans and rivers and sensitises local residents to the issue of environmental protection.

Social responsibility and volunteering play important roles in your life. In 2022, you also founded a start-up that places volunteers. Why is that?

I've been volunteering myself for years. My work at SEEu is also voluntary, by the way. At the beginning of this year, my wife and I spent three months in Namibia, where we supported the NGO Wadadee Cares in Windhoek. There we experienced that there are many, mostly very young volunteers who are totally committed and make a great contribution. But when there is a problem, there is often a lack of people with project management and other technical skills - or simply with life experience. We asked ourselves how much could be achieved if just one person from each company volunteered. That's how we came up with the idea of founding Impact Konnection and promoting the topic of corporate volunteering. The concept of Impact Konnection is that we approach companies and their experienced employees and bring them together with NGOs. This doesn't always have to be supraregional; companies can also work with us locally and support social organisations. Together with my work at digitalHUB, I can truly say: I'm exactly where I want to be, I'm going home with a smile.