Lukasz Gadowski Opens First HHL International Investors Day on June 18, 2014

[HHL gGmbH - 04.04.2014] HHL, one of Europe's best entrepreneurship schools, will host the first HHL International Investors Day on June 18, 2014. This unique event will bring together founders with potential investors, established enterprises, and successful start-ups from HHL to promote an active exchange. The first International Investors Day's guiding theme will be e-business, and panel discussions on the topics of e-commerce, e-health, and e-mobility will take place. In addition, there will be an international call for tenders for an idea competition, and the best business concepts can be presented by the teams to a high-caliber jury which includes experienced investors directly at the Investors Day. The two best ideas will be awarded a prize and in the best case a financing offer straight away.

Interested teams which already have a fully developed business concept are invited to apply on www.hhl.de/investorsday and to submit their idea by June 1, 2014 as a five-minute YouTube pitch. The six best teams will be invited to present their idea at the first HHL International Investors Day.

Lukasz Gadowski will open the first HHL International Investors Day on June 18, 2014. Already during his business studies at HHL, the well-known founder, investor and HHL alumnus started the T-Shirt empire Spreadshirt in the basement of the school, then launched StudiVZ, the first German social media platform, and pushed forward online shopping with brands4friends. The latest coup of the Polish born entrepreneur: to connect the world of pizza taxis to the net with Lieferheld. In the run-up to the HHL event he says, "Venture capital financing in Germany is crucial as a strong VC market is the driving force for innovation and therefore for new jobs, growth and progress." The 36-year old advises company founders to focus on the development of the product and customer satisfaction in their contact with the VC manager. Founders should not try to obsessively make the VC manager happy at any cost. They should rather understand the mechanics of funds and be able to judge which kind of investment is right for a fund.

HHL Dean Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart expects another guest speaker at the first International Investors Day in Leipzig: the US-American venture capital expert Daniel Zimmermann, partner at WilmerHale in Palo Alto, California. For WilmerHale Zimmermann is, for example, in charge of the successful Berlin start-up ResearchGate which has become the leading network for researchers worldwide and which only recently in its third round financing was able to attain several funds from the Silicon Valley, and attract Microsoft founder Bill gates as an especially famous investor.

The first HHL International Investors Day on June 18, 2014 will be organized by HHL's Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank Chair of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart) in cooperation with the Schumpeter Junior Professorship in Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Vivek Velamuri) which is funded by the Leipzig Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, as well as the Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG Chair for Strategic Management and Family Business (Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner). HHL receives additional support from the Self-Management Initiative Leipzig (SMILE) and the Chair for Marketing at the University of Leipzig (Prof. Dr. Helge Löbler). Numerous well-known sponsors, such as Blue Corporate Finance AG, CMS Hasche Sigl, Deutsche Bank AG, KPMG, the Leipzig Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, Porsche Leipzig GmbH, SAM Sachsen Asset Management, the S-Beteiligungen Leipzig and the Technologiegründerfonds Saxony, as well as the Association of Friends of HHL support the event. Participation in the event is free of charge. Please make you binding registration at www.hhl.de/investorsday by June 11, 2014.

About HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management as a Hotbed for Entrepreneurs

With over 150 start-ups by HHL alumni over the past fifteen years, Germany's top address for young managers has also developed into an incubator for company formation. Besides Gollmann Kommissionierungssysteme or Mister Spex, SunCoal Industries - the winner of the Founder's Prize awarded by WirtschaftsWoche magazine or Leipzig-based companies Spreadshirt and billigflieger.de are also well-known examples. The founders' entrepreneurial commitment has created more than 2,500 jobs already, over 1,100 of which are located in the Leipzig region alone. HHL was voted among the top 20 start-up business schools in Germany in the second round of the "EXIST Gründungskultur - Die Gründerhochschule" start-up competition by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology last year. The Financial Times outlet awarded HHL 1st place internationally for its 'Entrepreneurship' focus. Just a few months ago, the Stifterverband (Founder's Association) honored HHL as one of the leading entrepreneurial universities in Germany. www.hhl.de/EntrepreneurialGraduate School