Our Formula
Our Vision
Starting a company is an inspiring, but also hard and lonely journey. The StartUp Academy focusses on improving the rate of startup success by creating local startup ecosystems that transports and guides the unique characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset and drive.
Entrepreneurs + StartUp Training + Networking = Exponentially Better Chance of Success
Our structured, 4-month curriculum of weekly sessions and assignments, you graduate the StartUp Academy as the Founder of an innovative startup, which has all it takes to become highly successful.
The curriculum was built using best practices from all over the world. Each session is led by mentors, who have founded themselves and teach about their valuable experience. See the Bremen Curriculum.
It's very hard to judge an entrepreneur by the quality of their idea, because there is too much subjectivity involved. To apply to the StartUp Academy, you do not need to provide an idea. Instead, we use a Predictive Admissions Test to find the most talented people.
Structured Training
Successful Companies Start With Successdriven Entrepreneurs
ABOUT The Academy
The StartUp Academy in Bremen provides a training and startup launch program guiding entrepreneurs in building successful and sustaining companies.
The founders are Kenneth and Christine Breeze, who spent the last 10 years in the StartUp arena in the US, guiding many young entrepreneurs to their success. You can check us out at LinkedIn and Xing.
We work with our own successful formular, believe in a structured training program and know that extraordinary companies always start with extraordinary people.
The makers of the StartUp Academy believe in creating a place for "save souls", a place were people of all skill sets, backgrounds, and experiences network between each other, share ideas, best practices and give feedback. We also believe that helping each other and sharing expertise leads to faster personal growth and more efficient innovation, giving the best grounds to launch a successful startup company.
The StartUp Academy offers every entrolled entrepreneur to share equity in the companies formed from each semester. Here's how it works: each Graduate contributes 5%-20% (depending on the program you enrolled in) of their company equity in a 10-year Bonus Pool with other peers from the current semester.
The returns are then distributed as follows:
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40% goes to the Founder Institute, its Local Directors and Partners.
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30% goes to the Mentors, and each Mentor's individual share is based solely on anonymous ratings received from the Graduates.
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30% goes back to the Graduates themselves - allowing them to earn returns based on both their success, and the success of their peers.
When one succeeds, all succeed.
Creating a Place of
"Save Souls": Share Equity Program
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Flexibility - Most incubators provide a small amount of money so that Founders can work on their company full time. As an early-stage accelerator, the Founder Institute takes a different approach. With our part-time, four month program, you are not required to quit your day job, so you can begin building a business around your ideas without putting your livelihood at risk. And, we welcome applicants of all kinds; idea or no idea, company or no company, technical or business, solo founder or with a team.
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Services and Scale - We leverage our global scale to secure free and discounted services from leading law firms, hosting companies, technology providers, and over 100 other vendors.
Other Benefits
Graduating from the StartUp Academy is challenging. Only roughly 30% of applicants are accepted to the program. Then, less than 40% of accepted entrepreneurs generally make it through the program to Graduation. Reasons for not graduating differ, but each entrepreneur who leaves is invited to join a future semester, when they are ready to launch a business.
In order to graduate, an entrepreneur needs to develop an engaging idea for a company that is validated by the program mentors, plan out the business, work on an offering, incorporate their company, and complete all of the required assignments - all within a four month timeframe.
At the conclusion of the program, have a company, and path to growth fully validated by experienced startup founders. In addition, they have developed crucial leadership skills and a strong network, are ready to pitch prospective investors and team members, and have access to:
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The Equity Pool: Each Graduate joins a ten year Equity Pool that distributes cash generated from peer success. The shared upside reduces the risk of launching a company and creates camaraderie between Mentors and Founders, who all share in the pool.
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Investment Support: Not all Graduates seek external funding. But for those that do, the StartUp Academy relationships to fast-track investment, runs regular conference calls to provide fundraising advice, and host local and global events with investors.
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Discounts: Over 100 product and service partners, ranging from office space to legal, provide free or discounted offerings to Graduates.
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Safe Souls: The StartUp Academy encourages fair treatment of Graduates by investors and service providers. The Institute proactively confronts those who take advantage of our Graduates, and has published an internal "Blacklist" to steer Graduates away from unsavory characters.
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Prestige: The growing success of Graduates, combined with the difficulty in completing the program and the credibility of the Mentors, make graduation a prestigious accomplishment to help you secure investment, close partnership deals, find co-founders, and ultimately build a meaningful and enduring business.
Graduating
The StartUp Academy keeps initial costs low, more relying on the success of the companies created, and shares in the returns.
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First, interested entrepreneurs pay a 60 EUR Application Fee to cover cost of test.
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Second, each entrepreneur accepted into the Bremen program contributes a 950 EUR Course Fee to cover location fees, Mentor travel, and other expenses of running a 14 week program.
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Third, Graduates from the program are asked to contribute equity of their company priced at fair market value into the shared Pool. The pool is split between the other Graduates, the Mentors, and the Institute.
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Lastly, if a company is successful and receives significant financing from third parties, the StartUp Academy asks that the startup pay a one-time Fee of $4,500 as growth capital for the StartUp Academy.
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The success of the StartUp Academy is based on the success of the graduates.
Program Costs
Visit Kenneth's full bio & recommendations on LinkedIn
VP of Sales & Marketing
BreezEnergy Capital, LLC
Nick Huntington
Certified Representative at MedXPrime
"Kenneth is one of the brightest guys I know. Meticulous in every detail to serve all that he works with. Investor, client or customer, Ken gives them his very best, every time! I look forward to the day we can work together again!"
November 4, 2014
Ali Kurt
CEO at Canny Drinks
"I had the pleasure to work with Ken on a number of international projects. His attention to detail was legendary. He has profound knowledge of marketing issues and would be an asset to any enterprise operation team."
September 10, 2014
Brian Tolman
Principal at GreenTech Diesel Conversions
"Kenneth is a creative and driven individual. He possess a unique passion and vision for the projects he is engaged in that is inspiring to those around him. His ability to uncover possibilities and solutions is second to none."
August 6, 2014
Martin Zwilling
Founder & CEO, Startup Professionals, Inc.
"As a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I have been impressed with Ken's thoroughness and detail on his business plan and efforts at BreezEnergy. I recommend him as a potential business partner or employee.
Date:
Kenneth Anderson
Independent Health, Wellness and Fitness Professional
"Kenneth is involved with a concept/product that will make an impact globally!"
October 19, 2012
Chief Operating Officer & VP of Acquisitions Breezopoly, LLC
Jo Ann Berger
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt at Frito Lay, Inc
"Ken is an intelligent entrepreneur who has a passion for learning and helping others. He is very good at problem solving and offering up alternate solutions to remove obstacles. Ken would be a great asset to any organization."
July 18, 2014
Revae Stuart
Principal at Income Diversification Strategies, LLC
"Ken is a worthy business partner as he always does his due diligence and looks at every project from multiple points of view. He embraces a vast knowledge base from both Europe and the United States. His communication skills are top notch and he consistently thrives on acquiring new information."
August 26, 2008
New Business Development & Distribution, XanGo
Jennifer Snider
Charity Events
"Kenneth is one of the most talented executives I have ever met. He is always completely knowledgeable about all aspects of the project at hand, and he comes to the table with a clear vision for what the end goal needs to be. Kenneth never misses a beat! I find it easy to work with Kenneth because there was always clear communication and no surprises. He is also a person of...more
September 8, 2014
Renee Saifer
Herbalife Nutrition, Health and Weight Loss
"I am consistently impressed with Kenneth's passion for making a difference in the world. He is driven not only by monetary results, but also by human impact results. His focus on Personal Growth and Development has made him a perfect candidate for positions requiring team building, personal achievement, and business goals. He would be a great addition to any company. I...more
August 21, 2014
Orn Maureen
Practice Manager at Wellesley Neurology Group
"I have personally worked with Ken with the Xango Corp and can certainly attest for his drive, determination and passion for the product and company for which he represents. Ken is a wealth of knowledge and a real asset to the Xango Company."
July 29, 2014, Orn worked directly with Kenneth at XanGo
Bill Bader
Entrepeneur and Investor
"Kenneth is a brilliant, kind and caring executive who is very qualified in many International areas. He will always get the job done and done well."
July 25, 2014, Bill was a consultant or contractor to Kenneth at XanGo
Brian Duncan, MBA
Director of International Business Development at Textron Systems
"Very few times one encounters individuals like Kenneth with such a level of commitment, high energy, inquisitive, thus hunger for knowledge. I had a chance to interact with Kenneth and his family on a personal level and can attest to his great character, good intentions, great communicator, worldly and a good connector of people. He would be an asset to any company he joins."
July 21, 2014
Sue Ciccolini
Regional Vice President, skin care, anti aging, networking professional
"Ken is a great friend that lives his life with honesty and integrity. He is always enthusiastic and dedicated to being a great leader while helping others grow and achieve their dreams."
September 21, 2006
Talent Acquisition Manager,
Designer Dock
Ulrike Kroll
social media manager
"I have encountered Kenneth Breeze as an experienced and passionate product, new business and sales specialist. He always had a knack for an unconventional approach and finding new and better ways to solve problems and deal with challenges. His attitude toward due diligence seems to derive from his curiosity. He enjoys interacting with people and it's important to him to...more
July 29, 2014
CEO, VP Sales & Production
Breeze Arts & Entertainment - AVID Technology
Timothy Cataldo
Founder & CEO, Oneupmanship
"I worked with Ken when his film production studio was the first in Hamburg, Germany to have an AVID editing suite. He was extremely cutting-edge, competent, hard-working, fun and funny, and we had a great time putting out excellent stuff. We are still friends more than 25 years later, and I know that whatever he puts his mind to, he'll succeed at."
August 22, 2014
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
Parsons School of Design
Barbara Sullivan
Art Director at WWD Beauty Inc.
"I met Kenneth at Parsons, when we worked on the college paper and right away I knew there was something different about him. He was very high energy, sharp and intuitive. His creativity was boundless and he also had a grasp and understanding of technology that was ahead of the curve. When we reconnected 10 years later I wasn't surprised that he was successful running...more
October 12, 2014, Barbara worked with Kenneth at Parsons School of Design
Clemens Deilmann
Head of Design, W. L. Gore & Associates
"I have known Ken from way back during our studies at Parsons School of Design and the American University in Paris. He is a very passionate, curious person, who always raises the bar for himself and others, never settles for what is, and always questions the status quo. His sense for adapting early to the new things that would change our lives, has been always amazing to...more
August 9, 2014, Clemens studied with Kenneth at Parsons School of Design