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From business@school-teacher to company founder

Sven von der Heyde participated in business@school for almost 10 years as a teacher at Gymnasium Ohmoor in Hamburg. In summer 2022, he became an entrepreneur himself: Together with Julia von Winterfeld, he founded SouldiveZ, an online coaching platform for young people who want to shape their future after school with more clarity and ease.

 

When the time came to build a team, Sven knew he wouldn't have to look far for Gen Z talent:

"The students who have gone through business@school are optimally prepared for working in a start-up.I can rely on my former students to be familiar with entrepreneurial thinking, presentation techniques, and business know-how."

Sven found Kaya and Jacob. Both are business@school alumni and participated in the project in Hamburg in 2014/15 with Sven as teacher. As Kaya says, they both got a practical crash course in entrepreneurial thinking:

"Even university projects and teamwork are not as long-term as they are in business@school. In the project, we learned how to work together as a team over the course of an entire year, get organized, and make complex decisions."

Collaborating with Kaya and Jacob in the SouldiveZ team, Sven is counting on their insight on the startup's youthful target group, given their proximity in age. His working relationship with them is characterized by shared past experiences and enthusiasm for the product:

"In business@school, Kaya and Jacob got to know me in a different context—less as a teacher, and more as a coach and someone who's excited about new ideas. For me, business@school provided the spark of inspiration. As a teacher, it was the project that always energized me the most, and I just had to try founding my own company."