Dannie, you are head of the Social Impact Labs in Hamburg. What exactly can we understand from it?

 

As local manager of the Social Impact Lab in Hamburg I am in charge not only for running the place but also the master coach of the projects in our programs. In detail first part of my role is that I am in charge of the Hamburg lab like a CEO – finding funding, taking care of all stakeholder relations, communication, marketing, intern structure and personnel, finding and booking experts as consultants for our projects etc. It is a wonderful role for people like me who love having jobs that are different every day. The second part of the role I am guiding the projects in our program through the process of the scholarship of eight months.

 

How successful are your projects from business perspectives and from a perused problem-solving perspective?

 

This is a question that is not as simple to answer as it is asked. Every project is very different. Sometimes all they need is one client like i.e. the government to become active and run their program. Sometimes it takes a long time to realize their business model with partners and a crowd before they become successful in terms of their impact. Success for us is mainly reached when the impact you make aka the challenge you are solving with your business idea is being deleted or at least reduced. Another criterion is whether you can scale your idea to a point or also reach more people with it.

Our programs have a success rate of 75%, which means that 75% of the projects going via our scholarship will found a social business or non-profit organization afterward. That is a very good rate in the field of startups.

 

Talking about startups, uniqueness is always one of the most important factors. What do you think is so special about B&T?

 

Bridge & Tunnel has a very complex business idea and also model. They focus on the social change of integrating long time unemployed people into work. Additionally, they also recycle material to produce their designs. And overall they enhance integration and self-awareness of migrated and unemployed people and make them felt a useful part of society again.

Also, their business model is really interesting as they are being funded by several sources – some money comes from the government, some from an investor and some through their own revenue stream of selling the products they design.

 

Which perspectives do you see for the label?

 

They have the possibility to make a huge impact on society. The way they approach the markets with the different target groups – unemployed, buyers, investors, government, media etc. – they can inspire and motivate many others to follow their example.

 

You are currently pushing together with other parties the project ‘Innovation City Hamburg’. Why does Hamburg need such an initiative?

 

Much more people will come to Hamburg also into the future. The city and other initiatives and organizations are focusing on the challenges of housing, education, work, green and smart city and so on. But there was no initiative yet that was focusing on the questions how we want to live together in the city in the future – the social aspectWith Innovative City Hamburg we want to develop 100 new social innovations in Hamburg that will work on the big challenges we will or already face in the city. Therefore we built an online platform to show Hamburg's innovative projects – the Gelbe Liste, we organize a roundtable with experts and startup camps to work on the social challenges and develop ideas how to solve them, and we are right not looking for funding partners who will support us to have scholarships for social startups to learn how to build their business and make it work on the market. Projects like B&T that will not only help individuals to find work but also support integration on a level that in the future all people are living together in this city in a community where everybody feels home.