Our startup program at WERK1
With our WERK1 Startup Program, we guide you from your first prototype all the way to scaling up. We support you with practical toolkits, workshops, and peer-to-peer sessions.
These offerings are intentionally designed not just for the founding team, but for the entire startup team. This ensures that as many team members as possible can benefit—even when founders’ schedules are packed—so that the knowledge gained remains embedded within the company.
our WERK1 Startup Program
Our Startup Program is divided into different stages of development.
This way, you’ll get exactly the support that’s truly relevant to where you are right now.
The services we offer are tailored to the typical challenges faced by startups and support you from early validation through to growth.
Within the program, we distinguish between one-time sessions and recurring offerings.
One-time services provide you with targeted knowledge on specific topics such as sales, pitching, or hiring.
Recurring sessions facilitate regular interaction with other startups as well as with experienced experts.
WITH OUR INCUBATOR PROGRAM, YOU’LL RECEIVE TARGETED SUPPORT BASED ON THE PHASE YOUR BUSINESS IS CURRENTLY IN.
The Benefits at a Glance
Targeted Growth
The WERK1-Incubator- Program provides clarity on your next steps—from validation to scaling. With stage-specific toolkits, templates and formats, your startup will grow in a targeted and efficient way. You´ll save time, avoid detours, and focus directly on the key levers for growth.
Apply knowledge
You´ll benefit from practical know.how, best practises,
and the expertise of many specialists. All the content is immediately applicable and will help you develop your startup professionally.
You´ll learn from real-world examples rather than just theory.
GAIN ACCESS
You´ll gain access to knowledge, contacts and resoureces that will truly help you move forward.
You´ll leverage the entire WERK1 ecosystem to accelerate the growth of your startup, benefiting from experience, knowledge sharing,
and direct connections to experts.
WITH OUR INCUBATOR PROGRAMME, YOU’LL RECEIVE TARGETED SUPPORT DEPENDING ON THE STAGE YOUR BUSINESS IS CURRENTLY AT.
Pre-incubator-phase
Cap Table Starter
A clear shareholding structure is a vital foundation for any start-up. With our Cap Table Starter, you can easily run through various shareholding scenarios and gain a better understanding of how funding rounds, new investors or employee share schemes affect your shareholding.
The editable template helps you to visualise your current structure and consider possible future developments at an early stage. This will give you a sense of how dilution works and what impact different decisions might have on your ownership structure.
You will also receive a voucher for a free consultation with our expert PXR, during which you can discuss your questions about shareholding structures, funding rounds or possible scenarios directly with experienced start-up lawyers.
About our expert:
PXR is a commercial law firm specialising in start-ups and venture capital, with offices in Germany. The team advises founders and investors on matters including funding rounds, equity structures, ESOP/VSOP models and company law issues. Thanks to their specialisation in the start-up ecosystem, they have a very thorough understanding of the typical challenges faced by young companies.
You can download the WERK1 template and further information directly 👉 here!
You can find the voucher for a free consultation 👉 here!
Sales Starter Workshop
💡Workshop: How to Start Selling – The Simple Go-to-Market Playbook for Founders
You’ve created something brilliant, but how do you reach the right customers? How do you have successful conversations and sell your idea right from the early stages?
In this practical workshop, you’ll learn how to move from product development to customer interaction, close your first deals and build trust over the long term. The focus is on testing your business model in a market-oriented way and co-creating with customers right from the start.
In the WERK1 workshop with Marc-David Wagner, you’ll learn:
- How to define your target customers precisely and refine your value proposition
- Which tools can help you develop a simple and effective go-to-market (GTM) plan
- How to build early traction and prepare for scalable growth
- Which tools can help with your G2M
You’ll learn how to delight customers, build trust and turn them into your greatest advocates.
About the coach:
Marc-David Wagner has many years’ experience in building and scaling B2B sales organisations, including at ProGlove. He has overseen every stage of the process, from the initial cold call to global expansion, and has secured clients such as BMW, VW, IKEA, DHL, Hermes and Rewe. He supports start-ups in acquiring their first customers, developing a scalable sales strategy and professionalising this strategy beyond founder-led sales.
Date of the next workshop: Expected in January 2027
To register, please click on the following link:
Important: This offer applies not only to the founding team, but to all relevant team roles!
Pitch Training
How do you win over investors?
In the pitch training session, Dominik Kaufmann and Nils Langhans provide a concise overview of the basics of equity storytelling and current investor requirements. At the same time, the participating start-ups have the opportunity to present their pitch and receive immediate feedback.
About the speakers:
Dominik Kaufmann and Nils Langhans are managing directors of the strategy consultancy KAUFMANN / LANGHANS and advise start-ups such as tado, Fruitcore Robotics, Circulor and VisioLab on developing their equity story.
They regularly give talks on equity storytelling, for example at High-Tech Gründerfonds, TUM Venture Labs and Campus Founders, and analyse the current state of start-up funding for business media such as VC-Magazin and Deutsche-Startups.
Date of the next pitch training session: Expected in January 2027
To register, please click on the following link:
Incubator Phase
KPI Dashboard Templates
Having a clear view of the right metrics is essential for managing a startup effectively, identifying developments early and planning the next steps based on data. From September onwards, our KPI dashboard package will provide you with five practical templates that enable you to record, analyse and communicate key metrics in a structured way.
The templates cover different areas of business management, including sales, and help you select the KPIs that are relevant to your business model. This allows you to monitor developments regularly, identify deviations more quickly and create a reliable basis for operational decisions, forecasts and conversations with investors and other stakeholders.
In addition to a clear structure, the templates include guidance and examples for developing a meaningful KPI logic. Step by step, this helps you build a reporting system that fits your startup and can grow alongside your business.
About the Expert
Marine is a finance professional with more than 15 years of experience in financial and operational controlling across different industries. She supports organisations in improving financial visibility, structuring reporting processes and developing budgets, forecasts and meaningful KPI systems.
As an SAP FICO consultant, she combines extensive financial expertise with strong systems knowledge. Today, she supports startups and SMEs with financial modelling, fundraising preparation, KPI reporting, cash flow planning and the development of scalable finance processes for sustainable growth.
Marine works fluently in English, German and French, enabling her to support international teams and organisations.
The five KPI dashboard templates are available for download here:
How to Negotiate
Strong negotiation skills often determine whether a good idea can become a sustainable business. Whether you are negotiating with business customers, suppliers or investors, knowing your objectives, room for manoeuvre and key arguments enables you to lead conversations with greater confidence and achieve better outcomes.
In the three-hour “How to Negotiate” workshop, you will learn how to prepare B2B negotiations in a structured way and apply effective negotiation strategies. Practical examples, interactive exercises and an open Q&A session will help you transfer the content directly to typical negotiation situations from your startup’s day-to-day business.
The workshop will address questions including:
- How do I prepare strategically for a negotiation?
- How do I define clear objectives and identify my room for manoeuvre?
- How do I handle objections, pressure and difficult situations?
- How do I negotiate professionally with business customers, suppliers or investors?
About the Trainer
Carolin Bartlau has more than six years of experience in sales, procurement and marketing in the automotive and consumer goods industries. Today, she is the founder of Time to Negotiate, where she trains startups and scale-ups in effective negotiation strategies.
She has extensive hands-on negotiation experience on both the supplier and customer side, including negotiations with DAX-listed automotive companies and Fortune 500 businesses in the FMCG sector. Her expertise includes negotiation, key account strategies, supplier management and consulting. Her training courses and workshops cover a wide range of B2B negotiations, including negotiations with investors, suppliers and business customers.
Workshop date: 26 November 2026, 9:00 to 12:00 a.m.
Duration: Three hours, including interaction and Q&A.
Registration link here
Important: This offer is not limited to the founding team and is open to all relevant team members.
Sales & Growth Circle
The Sales & Growth Circle is a regular forum for start-ups in the incubator who wish to further develop their sales and growth strategies. In small groups, we discuss specific challenges faced in day-to-day start-up life and explore practical approaches to sales, marketing and growth.
The focus is on topics such as lead generation, sales processes, conversion, CRM structures and scalable go-to-market strategies. As well as providing expert insights, the Circle offers, above all, a space for open discussion, specific questions and the sharing of experiences within the community.
Each session is led by experienced entrepreneurs or experts from the start-up and sales sectors, who provide additional perspectives and practical insights from the field.
About the speaker:
Rudolf Ball is a computer scientist, entrepreneur and founder of SYMVARO GmbH. For over 20 years, he has been developing digital solutions and, through his company, driving forward the digitalisation of the utilities sector. With the software solution ‘waterloo’, his team has built one of the leading digital platforms for the water sector in German-speaking countries.
As an entrepreneur, trainer and speaker, he focuses extensively on topics such as digitalisation, entrepreneurship and scalable growth. He regularly draws on his experience in product development, sales and business development in workshops and discussion sessions with start-ups.
Next workshop: Expected in November 2026
Important: This offer applies not only to the founding team, but to all relevant team roles!
Scale-up Phase
Hiring & Culture Templates
As a team grows, it becomes crucial not only to recruit the right people, but also to develop a clear structure and a strong corporate culture. This is exactly where the Hiring & Culture Templates come in.
You’ll receive an expanded set of templates to help you build your team strategically and actively shape your culture. These include, amongst other things, templates for workforce planning, role and team structures, and a Culture Canvas, which you can use to clearly define your company’s values, principles and ways of working together.
This is complemented by practical guidance on onboarding processes and initial approaches to structuring pay bands and role development. In this way, you’ll lay the foundations that not only enable growth, but also provide long-term direction and stability within the team.
These templates will help you scale your business in a strategic way, strengthen your employer brand and build a corporate culture that stands the test of time, even during periods of growth.
You will soon be able to download the Hiring & Culture Templates here.
Note: The Hiring & Culture Templates are currently still being finalised and will be made available to you shortly.
Investor Relations
Professional and transparent communication with investors is a key success factor in building a startup for the long term. Together with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), we therefore regularly offer interactive Investor Relations sessions. These sessions provide practical insights into how professional investors assess startup updates, KPI reports and communication before and during a funding round.
During the session, you can discuss your questions directly with experienced HTGF Investment Managers and receive valuable feedback from an investor’s perspective. Afterwards, we provide additional templates and resources to help you establish structured and professional investor relations.
About the Speakers
The session is led by Alexander and Viola from the DeepTech & Industrial team and Stephan from the Life Science team at High-Tech Gründerfonds. They regularly take part in pitch feedback sessions and, together, cover HTGF’s key technology areas with their experience.
HTGF is Germany’s leading early-stage investor for technology-driven startups and supports founders from the pre-seed and seed stages onwards. In addition to capital, startups benefit from an extensive network and many years of experience in scaling young technology companies.
Date of the next Investor Relations session: 29 October 2026, from 9:00 to 12:00 a.m.
Registration link here
Important: This offer is not limited to the founding team and is open to all relevant team members.
Culture & Leadership Deep Dives
As your team grows, the demands placed on leadership change fundamentally. Decisions become more complex, communication more challenging, and corporate culture a crucial factor for success. The Culture & Leadership Deep Dives address precisely these issues and help you to actively shape your leadership style and consciously develop your organisation.
The programme is structured as an intensive learning journey and comprises a joint kick-off session and three workshop sessions that build on one another. Working in small groups over several weeks, you will explore key topics such as the division of roles, decision-making processes, team dynamics and corporate culture. Through ongoing dialogue with other founders and leaders, a space is created for honest reflection, addressing specific challenges and fostering sustainable development.
Due to the intensive support and the high quality of the content, this is one of the few fee-based programmes within the Incubator Programme. The participation fee is €750 per person.
About the coaches:
Lisa, Rebecca and Mira from our expert programme have a combined total of over 30 years’ experience in supporting growth processes. Their approach combines in-depth leadership experience with professional coaching expertise.
Lisa is an expert in leadership and team development, specialising in sustainable leadership skills within the tech sector. She helps teams to navigate technological complexity with clarity and to shape change processes in a way that is both people-centred and effective.
Rebecca specialises in strategic growth and building high-performing teams. Her focus is on adaptability, sustainable scaling and a collaborative approach that combines performance with team dynamics.
Mira brings her expertise in the areas of self-leadership, clear communication and healthy leadership. She helps leaders to create effective structures that combine both performance and humanity.
Together, they offer a 360° training programme that addresses individual leadership skills, teamwork and the organisation’s long-term development – practical, systemic and geared towards the next phase of growth.
Upcoming dates: Expected in summer 2027
If you are interested, please email: [email protected]
Across – Phase
Public Funding
Public funding schemes can be an important source of finance for start-ups. At the same time, it is often difficult to keep track of them all and to understand which schemes are truly suited to one’s own project.
With our Funding Consultation sessions, we offer you the opportunity to discuss precisely these questions on a one-to-one basis. On selected dates, you can book a personal time slot with our experts to discuss your specific projects, ideas or queries. This will provide you with a tailored assessment of which funding programmes are relevant to you, what your chances of success are, and what you should bear in mind when submitting a potential application.
The consultation is aimed at all stages and helps you to strategically assess funding opportunities, avoid common pitfalls and clearly define the next step.
About our expert:
The Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) supports companies, research institutions and start-ups in securing funding at national and European level. Among other things, it provides advice on programmes such as Horizon Europe and assists applicants in developing project ideas, finding partners and preparing funding applications.
Drawing on its many years of experience in the funding ecosystem, BayFOR helps to identify suitable programmes and increase the chances of success when applying for funding.
If interested, please complete the form here.
Document Pack
It is precisely during the early stages of a start-up that many legal issues arise – often at a time when time and resources are in short supply. With our document templates, you’ll receive a curated set of legally reviewed templates that provide direct support in your day-to-day work.
To get you started, we’ll provide you with some initial essential documents, such as an NDA and a confidentiality agreement. These will help you to professionally safeguard discussions with potential partners, clients or investors at an early stage. The range of documents on offer is constantly being expanded, so that you’ll gradually gain access to further relevant templates for various use cases.
All the templates are designed with real-world applications in mind and are ready to use straight away. This saves you time, reduces uncertainty and establishes a solid legal foundation for your start-up right from the start.
About our partner:
ADVANT Beiten is an international commercial law firm with a strong focus on companies in the growth sector. The firm advises start-ups, scale-ups and established companies on matters including company law, employment law and contractual issues.
Through its close collaboration with the start-up ecosystem, ADVANT Beiten has gained a deep understanding of the challenges faced by young companies. The templates provided are based on this experience and are designed to be both legally sound and practical to use.
You can download the NDA here.
The confidentiality agreement is available here.
Toolkit – Recommendations
Choosing the right tools is a crucial factor in working efficiently in the day-to-day running of a start-up. At the same time, it is often difficult – particularly in the early stages – to keep track of everything and find the right solutions for your specific needs.
Our Tool Kit recommendations provide you with a curated overview of tried-and-tested tools covering the key areas of a start-up. These include, amongst others, project management, CRM & sales, finance & accounting, communication, HR and operations. In addition, we place a particular focus on modern AI tools that help you automate processes, work more quickly and make data-driven decisions.
All recommendations are presented in a practical way and include brief overviews, use cases, as well as information on pricing and specific scenarios. This enables you to make informed decisions more quickly and set up your system in a targeted manner, without having to test countless tools.
You’ll be able to download the Tool Kit recommendations here in future.
Note: The Tool Kit recommendations are currently still being finalised and will be made available to you shortly.
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