Start-up Camp 2026

Spending three days testing your assumptions saves you months down the road: With this approach, the startup camp for the summer semester of 2026 brought together 19 student entrepreneurs from Leuphana and various other universities in Hamburg. On 4 September, Friday morning, an idea was still just a sketch on the wall; by 6 September, Sunday afternoon, the finished pitch was ready.
How do you get from one to the other in just 72 hours? Together with mentors from academia and the professional world, the participants worked on their business models, financing, and funding, built a prototype, and practiced presenting to an audience. On two evenings, they were also joined by guest entrepreneurs who had already walked the path of starting a business. One of them had actually been a participant at the camp himself just a year ago. He was a compelling example of how far you can go when ideas are met early on with honest feedback and the right teammates.
Leuphana’s Institute for Startup Management has been organizing the camp for several years in collaboration with Hamburg Innovation, TUTECH, Tempowerk, and Startup Port. You can read about how the three days unfolded in detail in Startup Port’s in-depth article. A recap of the three intensive days.