20 EU BUSINESS NEWS / German CEO Excellence Awards 2022 Jan22584 Founded by CEOs, Martin Eyerer and Nico Gramenz since 2011, Factory Berlin is Europe’s strongest and diverse, thoroughly curated network of more than 5,000members, featuring representatives of the creative, academic, industrial/economic, art and culture, and tech communities. As an industry-agnostic network leaders, Martin Eyerer and Nico Gramenz are convinced that the convergence of diverse perspectives is an essential driver of innovation in society. Their biggest goal is to foster and enable new ways of thinking, collaboration, and innovation by bringing together heterogeneous groups of people from different backgrounds, identities, and industries. Matching and connecting the most ambitious creators from all over the world, Factory Berlin empowers its international community to intersect, thrive, innovate and reimagine the future, together. Thus, at Factory Berlin, members have the opportunity to meet developers, investors, partners, and future co-founders and team members or muses – whom they would hardly have the opportunity to meet in real life. This is where, business meets science, while digital economy and technology meet creative sector and art. Importantly, not only start-ups are in the spotlight at Factory Berlin – the whole ecosystem consists of partners, small and large scale businesses, freelancers, researchers, students, investors, and artists. And everyone is aligned on one simple rule: in order to take something from the table, one has to offer something to the shared, community table. Factory Berlin centers creators and entrepreneurs with a drive for innovation and a vision of the future, who are willing to contribute to the network and share knowledge. In the past two years, it has received and processed more than 2,000 membership applications. After Martin Eyerer (creative tech community) and Nico Gramenz (tech community) united as co-CEOs united at the top of Factory Berlin, they spearheaded uniting both the start-up community and the global creative communities as . That spirit also brough life to Factory Berlin’s flagship programes. Powered by its own network, the mentoring progra mes, ‘Stealth Mode’ and ‘Artist in Residence’ have tremendously grown, providing perspectives from key impact makers from across the globe. In 2019, 19% of all start-ups in Berlin were founded at Factory Berlin. Currently, more than 200 companies are registered at its locations in Berlin and Hamburg and the number is growing. Thanks to its network, the company has helped start-ups from its ecosystem to raise more than €4 billion in the past three years, as well as to get on the stages of international stages and front pages of daily newspapers and in the broadcasting prime time. Alongside founding Factory Berlin, Martin Eyerer co-founded Riverside Studios in 2012, and is an internationally-known DJ with over 30 years’ experience in the music scene. He is a music producer with more than 150 releases on electronic music labels, in addition to being the owner of the imprint, Kling Klong. In 2019, he stepped into a “doppelspitze” with co-CEO, Nico Gramenz as a creative entrepreneur, community builder and artist. As an artist, Martin continues to create: while working on his new studio album, he recently brought out several music releases and is broadcasting the weekly podcast, Kling Klong Show. As a producer, he racked up gold albums in the UK and Australia, while storming the Top 5 of the Billboard charts over two decades. As a mixing and mastering engineer, Martin has been running a respectable analogue studio for 15 years, famous for the legendary Amek M3000 Console that was pre-owned by Pink Floyd. Nico Gramenz is a thought leader, business developer and digital artwork builder who began his leadership journey in various roles as a military officer in the German Armed Forces overseas, including overseas deployment in Afghanistan. As a company commander, Nico left the Bundeswehr after 12 years of service. Supported by his degree in industrial engineering, alongside an MBA in international management, the fresh start brought Nico into the business sector – straight to the industry giant, Siemens. One year after joining one of the biggest industry drivers as executive assistant to the CEO for the railroad sector in 2011, Nico took over international product management for railway products. Nico’s last stop at Siemens Mobility as vice president of strategy and innovation technologies created a symbolic bridge to Factory Berlin. The development of a corresponding innovation ecosystem and network to start-ups, IT companies and enterprises from different industries that have already gone through the digital transformation were Nico’s biggest focus area, while he was responsible for the digital transformation of the railway automation area. As an ecosystem and community, Factory Berlin was exactly the network Nico Gramenz was looking for: a platform that brings together and unites the relevant pieces of the puzzle to strengthen, nurture and drive innovation. When Martin and Nico came together in 2019, they experimented a lot in Berlin, refined their idea, reworked the vision of Factory Berlin and its network. Today, they are leading a community and network for thriving creatives and innovators of the world. They specialize in building relevant and strong networks that connect different players from digital and creative economies. They now want to offer physical spaces in other cities where different perspectives can actively exchange, meet, learn and collaborate. Martin and Nico are aimed to extend the brand’s signature network to other regions and countries and introduce new locations where the network can physically come together, actively exchange, inspire, learn and collaborate. There are already concrete cases in the pipeline, however they cannot be disclosed at the moment. The goal of Factory Berlin is to connect with local networks and fuse them with its own community. It will soon also unveil exciting news for its Berlin-based community, so stay tuned! Company: Factory Berlin Contact: Kate Rakitsky Email: [email protected] / [email protected] Website: www.factoryberlin.com Most Innovative Membership Organisation CEOs 2022: Martin Eyerer & Nico Gramenz Factory Berlin
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