Dear StartUp Stuttgart, I love you but we need to break up

Dear StartUp Stuttgart,

During nearly three years, you’ve been my baby, my friend, my life’s epicenter. I took care of you, worried about you day and night and protected you from harms as good as I could. During those past years, I put a lot of effort to make things happen for you and the community.

Together with Johannes and Harald, we created you against all the naysayers. We eventually showed them how much your presence is needed and respected in Stuttgart. We established a great team which was committed to push you forward, giving you the strength to learn to walk.

You’ve been very good to me, too. You came into my life when I needed you the most, when I had no career goals left and when my personal life had shattered into pieces. Through you, I met the most amazing people I could imagine, travelled a lot and made friends all over the world, got a whole new perspective on my career and laid the foundation for my current company, Accelerate Stuttgart. I learned so many things with you, I can’t tell you how grateful I am!

I’ll always love you and you’ll always have an important place in my heart but the time has come to part each other, step by step so that we can follow our own paths without regret. I’m tired of people trying to punish me for my voluntary commitment for you because they can’t control their own egos, forcing false accusations and their own insecurities onto me, lecturing me about how a ‚real’ community should work. I’m tired of protecting myself against envy and political games. I made a lot of mistakes during the past three years and I’m really sorry. But startups (and community) are for me all about following a vision, doing stuff, sometimes breaking things to move forward and let go of the past. And yes, I’ve read Brad Feld’s book about startup communities. Thanks for asking!

I’m sure you’ll find a lot of new friends who’ll take good care of you. You’re stepping into your teenage years now, the most fun times ever. Take every opportunity you’ll get to amaze people and to show your value for Stuttgart and its community. Make me proud. Be bold and break stuff!

I’ll still be here for you if you really need me. I’ll continue to spend a lot of time with Startup Weekend which gave us the inspiration for your creation in 2011. I’m unbelievably proud to be part of this wonderful global community and being a facilitator for events all over the place. Who would have thought when I stumbled into my first Startup Weekend in Stuttgart, back in 2010?

I’ll also commit more time to new projects and to make sure that Accelerate Stuttgart and its rockstar team is continuing to do amazing things as we did the past months.

A special thanks goes to my co-founders Johannes and Harald who are the best partners I could have ever imagined for this adventure! I respect and trust them more than anyone else in this shark tank called startup business.

You’ll make your way, my dear! I’ll take care of a smooth transition for both of us.

xoxo
Kathleen