Wrist Doctor Wins Competition at HHL's International Entrepreneurship Conference

[HHL gGmbH - 13.04.2015] Patrick Echler won the Elevator Pitch competition, which was held as a part of Accelerate@HHL Entrepreneurship Conference 2015 at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, on Saturday, April 11, 2015, with his Wrist Doctor business concept, beating out 15 competitors and taking home the prize money of EUR 1,000.

The Wrist Doctor is an IT-based device ("smart device"), similar to a wrist watch, which measures vital health indicators such as pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar and the oxygen content of the blood. Depending on how serious the case is, the device then contacts a relative or an emergency doctor straight away if one or more values indicate a medical issue.

A high-caliber panel with investors and financial experts such as Jörg Howein (Manager zeb & BankingHub) and Rodrigo Martinez (Point Nine Capital), amongst others, as judges took an interactive vote on the best business plan during the Elevator Pitch competition. The competition was generously supported by the Association of Friends of HHL, focusing particularly on promoting entrepreneurship at the first business school established in Germany.

Jörg Howein was thrilled about the group of applicants for the Elevator Pitch and comments on the winning concept, "The bundling of existing technologies promises great benefits for users in a very large and ever growing market of older people, who often live on their own."

HHL students and conference organizers Maximilian Mayer, Christoph Wülfing und Dominik Müller congratulate the winner of the Elevator Pitch competition and draw a positive conclusion from the conference focusing on entrepreneurship, "We welcomed 250 participants from over 20 nations and 25 top-class speakers to the Accelerate@HHL Conference 2015 which examined the topic of FinTech, dealt with new business models in this field as well as the future of the financial industry. This year's event saw a record number and quality of sponsors. We would like to thank all those working at the conference on and off the stage as well as the supporters of this unique international entrepreneurship event." According to the HHL students, the concept of the conference "to get young people into the topics of entrepreneurship and innovations while establishing strong networks" worked very well.

Following lively discussions by the various panels and at the 5th Leipzig Entrepreneurship Lecture with Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuckertz, Professor for Entrepreneurship at the University of Hohenheim, the participants of the conference had the opportunity to get in contact with companies such as Axel Springer, Commerzbank, FinLeap, Mister Spex and zeb/rolfes.schierenbeck.associates during the Career Fair.
In addition to Nasir Zubairi (Venture Partner at FinLeap) and Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuckertz, other influential managers from the financial industry and representatives from various FinTech start-ups , including Harald Eisenach (Head of Region East & Member of the Management Committee of Deutsche Bank), Philipp Petrescu (Co-Founder and CEO of Lendico), Christian Miele (Head of Business Development of Kreditech) and Maximilian Thayenthal (CFO and Co-Founder of number26), gave presentations at the Accelerate@HHL Conference 2015 in Leipzig.

Supporters of the Accelerate@HHL Entrepreneurship Conference 2015 include premium sponsors zeb/rolfes.schierenbeck.associates and FinLeap as well as sponsors Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Rheingau Founders, Axel Springer, FINANZCHECK.de and Möller-Bornemann.

Further information: http://www.accelerate-entrepreneurship.com

HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management as a hotbed for entrepreneurs

With over 150 start-ups established by HHL alumni over the past 17 years, Germany's top address for young managers has also developed into an incubator for company creation. The founders' entrepreneurial commitment has created more than 2,500 jobs already, over 1,100 of which are located in the Leipzig region alone. In 2013 and 2014, HHL reached one of three first places for the best entrepreneurial universities in Germany in the Start-Up Radar ranking published by Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Founders' Association of German Science) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BWMi). According to the Financial Times, HHL ranks first in Germany and fifth globally for its entrepreneurship focus within the M.Sc. and EMBA programs. http://www.hhl.de/EntrepreneurialGraduateSchool