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Hinterland of Things

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Hinterland of Things

Hinterland of Things - We initiate and orchestrate the sustainable transformation of German Mittelstand.

Hinterland of Things is the leading platform to enable and shape Digital Transformation in the heart of the German Mittelstand. Our Mission is to create a sustainable ecosystem of visionary minds to fuel innovation. We do this by building persistent connections and a valuable exchange of knowledge to create a shared idea of our future. Our actions are driven by traction, trust and tradition.

09/09/2026

🧠 Think you can build the brain of a data center?

Good. Because our first Hinterland Hack challenge won't be a warm-up round. Together with Aurivolt, we're looking for a team ready to tackle an ambitious task.

If you don’t know our challenger, let us introduce: Aurivolt connects small, decentralized computing containers to create a sovereign European data center. But once you have a network of nodes, someone, or rather, something, needs to decide what runs where.

That's where you come in.
Your mission is to build the scheduler: the brain that intelligently distributes computing workloads based on capacity, latency and utilization.

A node is full? ➡️ Decide where the new workload goes.
Something needs to move? ➡️ Figure out what can be moved most efficiently.
A node fails? ➡️ Redistribute its workloads automatically, without losing them.

And because every good LAN party needs a screen everyone stares at, you'll also build a real-time visualization showing your system making those decisions. 👀

Easy? No. But that's exactly the point.
The Hinterland Hack is for people who get curious when a problem gets complicated. Developers, AI minds, scientists, industry experts and business thinkers who want to put their skills to work on something real. 48 hours. One team. A simulated fleet. And a problem waiting to be solved.

Think you could crack it? We’d like to see you try.

08/09/2026

⚖️ How do you build the next chapter of a company without simply protecting the last one?

For established businesses, staying relevant means knowing what to preserve and what to change. At , we explored the question from two very different perspectives: transformation at scale and succession in the Mittelstand.

📝 Thomas Rabe’s leadership story at Bertelsmann showed that transformation starts with confronting reality. Rebuilding confidence, expanding internationally, investing for growth and, above all, turning strategy into ex*****on.

🕣 For the next generation of family businesses, the context may be different, but the challenge is surprisingly similar as we learned from Pia Albers, Sina Thomas & Clarissa Clavey. Because succession cannot simply mean inheriting structures, decisions and expectations. It means taking responsibility while finding the freedom to shape what comes next. And that requires more than a handover.

It requires transparency and honest feedback. Clear decision rights and communication. Cultural fit and patience. And enough trust to let a new generation lead differently. Because long-term leadership is not about maintaining a legacy exactly as it is.

It is about preserving what gives a company its identity while having the courage to build what it needs to become.
Two conversations worth revisiting:

🎥 Leading Transformation in the Age of Disruption and AI: Thomas Rabe (Bertelsmann)
🎥 The Next Chapter: Navigating Business Succession: Pia Albers (ELA Container), Sina Thomas (Kletti) & Clarissa Clavey (CLAVEY)

Watch both on our YouTube channel, Link in our link tree.

04/09/2026

🌃 What happens when Europe has the money, the industry and the technology but continues not to act?

For René Obermann, the problem isn’t a lack of resources. It’s a lack of consequence.

🪙 Europe has everything it needs to reduce critical dependencies and strengthen its own capabilities. But that requires more than investment. It requires different decisions. More cooperation. And the willingness to leave old structures behind.

🔊 And this is where his message at the Hinterland Stage became bigger than a conversation just about defense or procurement.

🎬 Because responsibility doesn’t stop with politics. Entrepreneurs, managers and business leaders have a voice. They have reach. And Obermann believes it’s time to use both to get into ACTION.

Not only inside companies. But in the public debate about the Europe we want to build and preserve. His appeal to the room was hard to ignore. This one is worth listening to until the end.

🎞️ So check out our YouTube channel and see the whole keynote “Key Elements of European Sovereignty”.

Leadership

01/09/2026

🧑‍💻 Remember LAN parties? We upgraded the concept.

Same energy. Same questionable amount of sleep. Just with a little more impact.

The Hinterland Hack is basically a LAN party on business-level: 48 hours, ambitious people, one room and instead of playing through the night, you work in a team on real challenges from real companies and turn ideas into solutions that can actually make a difference.

And yes, we upgraded a few other things along the way:

🍕 Chips & frozen pizza became proper food to keep you going
🚲 A bike ride with your PC became an exclusive DB event ticket to get you there
🎮 Gaming all night became a 48 hours of building, testing & hacking
👾 Your LAN crew became developers, business minds & scientists
🏆 You can win prize money and free tickets for Hinterland of Things Conference 2027

But some things haven't changed: You bring your skills. You find your crew. You forget what time it is. And you build something together that might actually solve a real-world problem.

Ready to join the business-level LAN party? Apply now for the Hinterland Hack.

28/08/2026

📈 High labor costs. Bureaucracy. Energy costs.

Ask startups, family businesses or large industrial companies about Germany’s competitiveness and chances are: you’ll hear the same structural challenges. Again. And again.

So the question isn’t really whether we’ve identified the problems. It’s whether we’ve reached the point where knowing finally turns into doing.

At , was asked exactly that: Has the urgency actually reached policymakers and are we finally ready to act?

🙂‍↕️ His answer is worth listening to.

Especially because fixing Germany’s competitiveness isn’t a job for politics alone. It requires the right framework and infrastructure, but also companies, founders, investors and industry willing to move.

🎥 Press play for Christian’s take and head over to our YouTube channel for the full panel and the bigger conversation behind it.

27/08/2026

🤝 Startup-corporate collaboration is not innovation theater. It’s a real growth lever for Europe.

At , the case for collaboration was clear: startups bring speed, focus and new technologies. Corporates and the Mittelstand bring customers, data, domain expertise, trust and the ability to scale.

🚧 On paper, that's a pretty powerful combination. In reality? Making it work is much harder.

Successful partnerships need to move much more beyond pilots and proof-of-concepts that never make it into the core business. They need clear ownership, real business cases, faster decision paths and an understanding of how the other side actually operates.

💻 Especially in B2B software, that challenge is becoming more complex. Buying centers are changing. AI is creating new questions around governance and data. Customers expect value faster. And established companies have good reasons to ask difficult questions before integrating a new solution into their operations.

For startups, that means building a great product is only half the job. You also need to understand how your customers buy, decide, trust and ultimately implement.

And for established companies, collaboration requires something in return: creating structures that allow startup speed and innovation to actually enter the organization.

The opportunity lies in connecting them better.

💬 So where does startup-corporate collaboration still break down most often: procurement, decision-making, trust, implementation or something else entirely?

🎥 Want to dive deeper? Watch “The European Opportunity” with Florian Nöll and Henrike Luszick and “Selling Software in 2026” with Oliver Manojlovic, Mona Feder and Marcus Böker on our YouTube channel.

26/08/2026

📮 Mission briefing. From October 16–18, 60+ selected talents will come together at the Founders Foundation for the next Hinterland Hack.

You have 48 hours. One real industry challenge. A room full of developers, designers, business minds, founders, researchers, engineers and makers who refuse to leave problems unsolved.

🗺️ No lengthy meetings. No endless PowerPoint decks.
Just ideas, laptops, whiteboards, far too much coffee and the determination to build something that actually works.

🏹 Your mission? Team up. Challenge assumptions. Build fast. Pitch what you've created. Maybe sleep a little. (No promises.) If you're curious, ambitious and love solving real-world challenges with people who are just as driven as you are, we'd love to see you there.

📫 Applications are now open.

Ready to accept the challenge?

👉 Apply now, Link in Story

24/08/2026

HINTERLAND ON AIR 🎙️

Some speakers stepped off the stage and straight into the podcast cars. Other hosts grabbed some of the brilliant minds around the conference for conversations that went beyond what happened on stage.

The result?

Even more insights, stories and expertise from June 18, ready for your headphones. 🎧

Here are five podcasts recorded live at Hinterland that we recommend adding to your listening list:

🎙️ Hoffnung ist keine Strategie with Albert Geiger
🎙️ Besser gründen with Rainer Berak
🎙️ Besser gründen with Martin Möllmann
🎙️ Besser gründen with Henrik Pitz
🎙️ Growthbusters with Sina Thomas

From succession and Mittelstand transformation to VC, Product-Market-Fit, AI and growth, the full cheat sheet for what to listen to and why is in the slides.

Huge thanks to all hosts and guests who kept the conversations going beyond our stages.

Consider this your listening list. For the train. The gym. Your vacation. Cleaning your household or wherever you listening.
Headphones on. Let's go. 🎧

Find all episodes via the links in the Linktree.

ON AIR 🎙️

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