Content & Tech Incubator:
Turning ideas into innovation
Turning ideas into innovation
We’re here to support your innovative business ideas in the area of content and technology. Whether you are a student, founder or employee of a large media and digital company, whether you’re working this out on your own or as a team – we’ll take your idea to the next level.
In a three-phase approach, we provide support and mentoring as well as workshops and professional coaching tailored to your needs. Further, we make work space and financial support available to you, so that you can fully concentrate on your project. And although the program has guidelines, we make sure the respective timetable and contact person fits your needs.
And needless to say: Your ideas are yours! After the incubator you are free to roll out your project as a start-up, develop it further with our numerous partners, or integrate it into your company without having to give up a stake in your business.
Topic
Content & Technologie
Dates
April – September 2021
Place
Remote and Hamburg
Financial support
Up to €15,000 per Team
Partners
Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
next media accelerator
Contact
Cigdem Aker
Phase 0
Matching
Putting the team together – finding the right people to pursue your idea:
-
HMS Hackathon: "NEWS_FIND_ME"
Partner: Hamburg Media School
28–30 March, 2019 -
MEDIA LIFT: What you need to know
24 April, 2019 -
XCreation: Content & Tech
Partner: Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
26 April, 2019
You work for a media or digital company?
We support teams who want to implement their ideas outside their usual business environment.
Maybe your company already knows the MEDIA LIFT program. If not, we will provide you and your superiors with more information.
Our Matching Partners



Application
Spin-off, student project, start-up plans? Your innovative business ideas in content & technology are important to us. We are looking for teams with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, ideally interdisciplinary teams of students or employees of established media and digital companies – the more diverse the better.
Our program is your fast track to the content and tech world. It enables you to understand this world, to prototype and validate your ideas, to pick the brains of industry experts, and to meet motivators, facilitators and decision makers.
- Financial support for your project: up to €15,000 per team
- Customized competence transfer through workshops and professional coaching
- Work space and creativity rooms
- Mentoring
- Introduction to important decision makers
- Access to various events in Hamburg
- Inclusion in the nextMedia.Hamburg network
- Post-incubator support
- You are an interdisciplinary team made up of two to five people
- You are developing an innovative business idea in the area of content, and your idea has a tech component
- Your idea could be turned into a viable business, but it is still in the pre-start or project start phase
- Your idea is not pure product development
The Jury
In the selection process for Batch 1/2019 and in the pitches, this is the jury you and your team have to win over with your idea:

Jens Unrau
Kerstin Fröhlich
Michael Leitl
Meinolf Ellers
Selection phase
Pre-Pitch
You got an invitation to the second round of the selection process? Not bad, but there is still one hurdle to overcome: Convince us in a pre-pitch why your idea should be supported by MEDIA LIFT. If you get our “Go!”, you have three weeks to prepare yourself and then things really get started.

Mentors & Experts
Look forward to learning from the best:
Stephanie Reuter
Wolfgang Wopperer-Beholz
Britta Schewe
Andreas Spiegler
Christian Heise
Gregor Landwehr
Sara Urbainczyk
Benjamin Denes
Jan Henri Kalinowski
Marco Maas
Moritz Schellenberger
Reza Abdolali
Ole Keding
Charlotte Richter-Kiewning
Nicolas Meibohm
Janina Beck
Jan Kirchner
Eugen Gross
Christian Stöcker
Diana Knodel
Christopher Buschow
Andreas Raabe
Nico Lumma
Astrid Maier
Christoph Hüning
Michael Leitl
Joachim Dreykluft
Anne Piechotta
Philipp Ibelshäuser
Stephan Weichert
Stefan Krursel
John Strauch
The Teams
Please welcome the six teams of Batch 1!
BOTTALK
BotTalk make voice platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant more technically accessible for publishers, allowing them to place content and digital products on voice assistants faster.
WALLIE.
Wallie. provides brands with a customizable and contextual push-and-pull channel through mobile wallet marketing – all without an app, paper or plastic.
NEWS SEAM
News Seam produces automated timelines for individual topics using AI. This creates holistic information on complex topics for readers and new relevance for past content for media partners.
SPACE WALK
Using intelligent algorithms Space Walk challenges the limitations of human perception and enables natural walking in virtual space - for infinite worlds in gaming, architecture, marketing or journalism.
FEMALE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
By offering digital tools Female Leadership Academy supports the systematic promotion of female employees within companies.
WUNDERPARC.
WUNDERPARC automates the creation of 3D worlds from two-dimensional images and tackles a major financial and organizational hurdle in the gaming and film industry.

Phase 1
Idea & Team
In the first phase, we coach you in the areas of team building, idea development, and market knowledge. In addition, you will receive training that will optimally prepare you for your first pitch.
Pitch I
At the end of the first phase, it is up to you to convince an expert jury with your results. If you succed, this is your ticket to the next incubator phase.


Phase 2
MVP
Prototyping, testing, marketing – with our coaching and support, you will present your MVP at the end of MEDIA LIFT’s second phase.
Pitch II


Phase 3
Develop
The teams that make it to the final phase of the incubator will receive coaching on investment, business modelling, resources, and legal issues.
Here, it is all about the question: What comes next?
Final Pitch
The big finale: If you succesfully convince the jury, you are ready to start your own company, to continue your project with follow-up support.


Preview
Batch 2
The incubator has successfully come to an end? Then it’s time for the next – with new teams and new ideas MEDIA LIFT starts the second batch in January 2020. Who is in?
You can’t wait? Tell us about your plans.
Get in touch
Cigdem Aker
Program Manager
T +49 40 / 879 7986 121
Cigdem.Aker@nextmedia-hamburg.de
Bastian Springer
Program Manager
T +49 40 / 879 7986 126
Bastian.Springer@nextmedia-hamburg.de