Vidar Andersen
"[...] one of the most important persons in the German startup scene." - Wirtschafts Woche
"Vordenker 2022 - Deutschlands kluegste Koepfe" - DUP UNTERNEHMER-Magazin
A Norwegian tech entrepreneur (b. 1975) who from time to time founds (tech) startups to scratch his own itches.
A certified Lean Launchpad Educator invited to be trained at Stanford by Steve Blank (the father of the Lean Startup movement), his "hobby" is spreading education on how (not) to build startups to students and helping founders as a very modest and non-detrimental cap table position in super-early-stage tech startups.
And - because they keep asking - he also helps corporations and organisations achieve innovation 50x faster and creating results instead of PowerPoints with +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES.
Currently living in Meerbusch, Germany (CGN/DUS area) - and in airplanes around the world...
Bookings:
Speaking / Teaching* or Open Office Hours*
PRESS & MEDIA:
See SpeakerDeck and SlideShare for slides from talks & keynotes.
Founder
- The Plone CMS, co-founder
- +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES, founder
- Gauss - The People Magnet, founder
- OneSec - An Instagram for One Second Videos, co-founder
- Rheinland Pitch, co-founder of Germany's largest startup pitching event
- blacktar.com, founder of his first company in 1996
- & more
A popular keynote speaker, pictured Andersen is speaking about what marketers can learn from startups at Estonia's largest marketing conference "Password".
Educator
Andersen is a certified Lean Launchpad (LLP) Educator trained at Stanford by Steve Blank himself, here pictured teaching the LLP curriculum to students at the largest private tech university in Iran.
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- University of Cologne
- International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Portugal
- BITS Iserlohn
- Qazvin Islamic Azad University (QIAU), Iran
- Cologne Business School (CBS)
- Dokuz Eylul University Izmir, Turkey
- WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management
- NW University of Applied Science, Switzerland
- Knowmads Business University, Amsterdam
- Northern Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamburg
- Karlshochschule International University
- Maastricht University
- Cologne Polytechnical College
- USAID, Moldova
- Rheinland Pitch (teaching applying startups how to pitch investors since 2013)
- Pitching Masterclass (the Masterclass available for all startups - anywhere, any time)
- & more
Andersen teaching his Pitching Masterclass, pictured here teaching in Budapest, Hungary.
Corporate Innovation with +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES
Pictured, teaching his Innovator Masterclass for corporates at Telefonica Germany, Munich
- Deutsche Telekom
- ABInBev
- AXA
- Philip Morris International
- Bertelsmann
- Zentis
- BARCO
- Henkel
- Yello Strom
- Telefónica
- Vebego
- Reifenhaeuser
- Traveltainment, The Amadeus Leisure Group
- Carlsen Publishers
- International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Portugal
- Mainzer Stadtwerke
- & more iconic brands under NDA
Andersen's keynote (view on RTL) "Why Corporate Innovation Fails" at RTL's Digital Shapers conference in Zagreb.
Featured & Recognized
- The New York Times
- CNN
- Business Insider
- Forbes
- TechCrunch
- NCIIA @ Stanford (Lean Launchpad Educator Scholarship w. Steve Blank & Jerry Engel)
- Wirtschafts Woche (Named "one of the one of the most important persons" in the German startup scene)
- The Innovator's Handbook 2018
- IndieGoGo (Featured Campaign, globally)
- Rude Baguette (Named "Top 5 People to Know" in the German startup scene)
- Startup Ambassador to the City of Duesseldorf, Germany
- Netzwertig
- SxSW Startup Ambassador to the State of NRW, Germany
- DViCE
- Nordic Startup Awards (Winner, People's Choice Norway)
- Die Welt
- SlideShare ("Slide of the Day", multiple times)
- Accenture
- USAID
- BBC Click
- University of Deusto, Bilbao (Global Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program GEAP Scholarship received)
- NY1
- Kabel Eins
- Ketchum Report
- Monaco Media Forum
- Startup America
- c'n'b Conference (Winner, Most Innovative German Business)
- MLOVE
- StartupBus (Buspreneur, BeNeLux)
- Up Global
- Rheinische Post
- & more
Speaker, Panelist, Moderator (MC)
As a popular speaker, keynote topics from Andersen include Digitalisation, Digital Transformation, Innovation, Startups, Data-Driven Innovation, Corporate Innovation, Technology, NFTs, Blockchain, Innovation Management, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship Education.
As a popular MC, here Moderating the closing panel discussion at the World Business Dialogue, Cologne.
- SxSW, Austin Texas
- LeWeb, Paris
- Web Summit, Dublin & London
- Stanford, California
- dmexco, Cologne
- Pirate Summit, Cologne
- TEDx Hamburg
- Cambridge, England
- gBETA, Anchorage Alaska
- Intrapreneurship Conference London
- Shahid Beheshti University Tehran, Iran
- Password, Tallinn
- Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship
- Global Entrepreneurship Week
- Tech Cocktail Austin
- World Business Dialogue
- Rheinland Pitch (Germany's largest startup pitch event)
- DRadio Wissen
- WDR Fernsehen
- RuhrSummit
- Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Advance Day Cologne
- Startup Pirates
- Lean Camp
- Business France, Impact Germany
- Campus Party Berlin
- Interactive Cologne
- Global Startup Weekend Facilitator (retired)
- Global Corporations under NDA
- & more
Organizer
- Lean Launchpad Cologne
- Lean Launchpad Dusseldorf
- Startup Next Cologne (retired)
- Social Media Lunch Cologne (retired)
- Hacker News Meetup Cologne (retired)
- Startup Weekend Cologne (retired)
- StartupBus (Producer BeNeLux, retired)
- & more
A jury member for the Gruenderstipendium NRW in Cologne and Duesselforf since its inception, here on a panel discussion about the program so far with State Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Pinkwart.
Previously
In the 15 years preceding all of the above, Andersen was an on and off employee in various highly specialised digital development companies helping large international companies and organizations like Statoil, TeeKay Shipping, Shell, Esso, Exxon, T-Mobile International, Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa, The Royal Norwegian Government, The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research with innovation and digitalisation - in between founding his own companies. The last position he held before he decided to never be an employee again was "Head of Digital" - and "Member of the Board" - at the lead agency to T-Mobile International, responsible for all things digital. You can find more information about his past on LinkedIn.
*Please note as of February 24th 2022, bookings are not available to Russian owned or controlled companies, subsidiaries, GOs, etc long as the illegal invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine is ongoing, Russian troops are still in Ukraine, and Putin remains in power. Thank you for understanding.