Success stories

New entrepreneur:
Simonas Dapkus (Lithuania)
Age: 25
Company website (Start-up)
Sector of activity: Health, beauty and social services

Host entrepreneur:
Johannes Riedel (Germany)

Company website
Sector of activity: Transport and Logistics services

Berlin-based Johannes, the Host Entrepreneur, is a believer in knowledge sharing for those seeking personal growth and lasting innovation. As a tech start-up founder, he wanted to inspire younger entrepreneurs to create something they are passionate about, believe in, and will drive them for a long time. He knew how important feedback is in the beginning of building something new, and was happy to share his experience in focusing on the right things so that young entrepreneurs avoid mistakes he had made in the past. He applied as HE in the EYE programme with the goal to mentor others, that he knew would allow him to build his own skills as a mentor and advance his own career.

Simonas Dapkus, a New Entrepreneur from Lithuania, had a noble goal when he applied: he wanted to reduce food waste in catering services. Simonas is a full-time software engineer and co-owns a mental well-being startup Mindletic. He got to know about EYE from other social entrepreneurs in the local ecosystem and he wanted to discuss his ideas, strategies and solutions with an experienced mentor, meet German food suppliers, analyse the German market, look for other technical solutions to the food waste problem, analyse competitors in the field and, if he could find a way, join a team working on social innovation to make a global impact.

During the exchange with Johannes, he was lucky to meet other startups and was excited by the idea of a mental gym for emotional balance. Since it also had to do with sustainability and connected to mental well-being, the two found some points of collaboration and teamed up. Simonas claims that despite his introversion, he warmed up quickly as everyone was encouraging and helpful. His passion for impact was rewarded - Simonas himself says his HE Johannes was very humble, resourceful and heartfelt. "I am honored that he took the time to spend with me," Simonas smiles. "As we worked longer with my mentor, I gained confidence, teamwork and time management skills to use the new skills as efficiently as possible."

In addition to measurable skills, Simonas was successfully introduced to early-stage product strategy development and the latest technologies used in software products. He also learned how to ensure secure and easy authentication. According to EYE, Simonas was introduced to Firebase authentication frameworks for social logins, email migration, and password authentication. He and Johannes focused on protecting vulnerable user content and assigning user roles and permissions for secure use of Cloud Firestore, where user-created content is stored. Simonas gained insights into using and merging data sets from a SQL database stored on AWS and had the opportunity to set up an on-premises Metabase server to visualize and better understand the data. He later recalled making strong connections in the local startup scene that led to a future partnership with another growing startup in which he became involved.

The focus on the NE and the HE’s share of my expertise from gave the HE a new perspective on the old ways he used, ideas for potential growth of his company, and the opportunity to mentor someone building a very valuable service for employees around the world that supports their emotional balance. Simonas learnt new technologies, met new people, expanded the professional knowledge base, started a new team and reaching out to first users and first customers.

 

 

For more information, please contact the local contact points involved in the exchange:

New entrepreneur's contact point:
STIC - WIRTSCHAFTSFORDERGESELLSCHAFT MARKISCH-ODERLAND MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG (Berlin, Germany)

Host entrepreneur's contact point:
European social entrepreneurship and innovative studies institute (Kaunas, Lithuania)

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