German startups in Silicon Valley boot camp

Nine German startups have a temporary new home in San Francisco. Their founders are spending four months in the "German Accelerator," a bootcamp supported by Germany's federal government for startups with US-relevant products. They're tinkering with their business models, getting coached by mentors, making contact to new potential investors... It's both a huge opportunity and a tough challenge.

They're calling it Cyfly. It's a novel bicycle crankset that's designed to more efficiently translate a cyclist's leg-pumping efforts into the bicycle's forward motion. Marcus Rochlitzer, Julius Legenmajer and Frederik Wassmann of Möve Bikes are in Silicon Valley to develop deals with US bicycle makers. A difficulty: They're nine time zones earlier than their colleagues at Möve's HQ in Germany.

Aleksander Ciszek has already found his first US clients, after only a month in Silicon Valley. The 32-year-old founded 3yourmind in Berlin in 2014. The online platform allows users to compare prices for 3D printers, upload files, and order products. 3D printing is booming in the USA. Aleksander wants to stay - but can he get a green card?

It's hard to explain DACS Labs' product line in plain English, given that DACS focuses on specialised services in speeding IT data transfer, server management system, and IT security infrastructure optimisation. Frank Schwarz, Dennis Maennersdoerfer und Björn Caspers are from a small town near Düsseldorf. It's a world away from Silicon Valley, but so far they seem to be adapting well.

The US is the world's biggest water-sports market. It's best to have a life-vest handy out on the water - but vests are bulky. Christopher Fuhrhop designed a solution: A tube that inflates when you pull a cord. It folds away into a small hip-mounted pocket when not in use. It offers extra safety to surfers, sailors, and swimmers, without getting in the way.

As data centers grow in size and complexity, the ability of managers to maintain an overview of the whole system suffers. For Costantino Lattarulo, that presented an opportunity. His startup Replex developed a tool that enables visualisation of a company's IT infrastructure. 60 perent of his target market is in the USA.

Backed by a family-owned company called Auto-Jesse and by Daimler corporation, Webuyyourcar.com is an online trade-in service that "does nothing other than buying cars." People can get the value of their car estimated and then sell it quickly and safely. The US car market is both huge and complex. Nico Wimmer and Carlo Jesse are interviewing scores of clients and experts to nail it down.

Like the rest of Silicon Valley's suburban sprawl, Sand Hill Road looks like nothing in particular. But for those in the know, it's a global epicenter. It's here that many of the leading US venture capital firms have their head offices. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers or Andreessen Horowitz, for example. German startups rarely get big investments from Sand Hill Road VCs.

Theresa Schnepp is one of two women taking part in the German Accelerator program. Antelope, the startup she works for, produces clothing for athletes that stimulates muscles with mild electric currents, which increases the efficiency of workout sessions. Her boss sent her to Silicon Valley to learn from US coaches how to to pitch to American investors.

What's the market like? What do the customers want? Jonathan Kurfess worked for a major German corporation, where each market research project took weeks of work and costed thousands of euros. He quit his job and designed Appinio ('app' + 'opinion'), a mobile app that makes market research much faster and much cheaper. The US is Appinio's own next target market.

Antonio Vega says Haveitback, an online lost-and-found peer-to-peer marketplace, already has about four million entries. The platform enables searches and allows people to register losses, upload photographs, and offer rewards for getting their stuff back. Four million is a small proportion of the market potential: People lose valuables an estimated 800 million times each year in the US alone.