Startup Competition “Make It Lean Contest” Open for Cooperations with Business Partners

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For the fourth consecutive time, the Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB) is presenting awards for innovative startup ideas.
“Make It Lean” is the motto of the competition, as the so-called Lean Startup method is to be applied throughout the development process from idea to prototype, in order to quickly achieve market readiness for the new offering.

Prize money of over 13,000 euros is up for grabs — the three main prizes are determined by a large online public vote, and additional special prizes are awarded by an expert jury. This gives young startups the opportunity to reach a broad audience and even potential investors early on with their founding idea. The jury also includes business angels and the competition’s industry partners.

Most recently, over 30 young startups had applied, and some of these competition teams were subsequently able to qualify for the SIB’s funding programs and bring their business ideas to life there. For other startups, the “Make It Lean Contest” led to initial pilot projects with sponsors. Even in the run-up to the competition, aspiring founders receive comprehensive knowledge and skills; through various workshops and networking events, interested parties also have the opportunity to receive expert feedback and individual coaching.

The prize money is once again funded by sponsors from Berlin’s business community and the startup scene, who are represented on the expert jury and also support the participating teams as advisors on content matters. Sponsors have a variety of individual presentation opportunities across all competition phases: From the kick-off in September 2021 to the festive award ceremony in February 2022 and beyond, they can communicate their commitment to entrepreneurship and the startup economy in a highly visible way.

As in the previous year, the competition will be accompanied by intensive social media communication and supported by a regional poster campaign during the voting phase. The strong public interest was clearly visible on the Startup Incubator Berlin website: Over 170,000 visitors used it to learn about the competition entries, which were submitted in the form of short pitch videos. In the online voting, over 93,000 votes were ultimately cast, determining the winning teams. Here is a look back at the 2020/21 Contest!

Interested sponsors of the “Make It Lean Contest 2021/22” are warmly invited to contact us regarding a partnership by 31 July 2021: Sandra Thumm

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Make It Lean Contest – Interview: Novaheal

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At the Make It Lean Contest 2020/21 there was something special this year:
Due to the very close vote between the two top-placed teams in the “Lean” category, the jury recommended awarding two special prizes this year as an exception. The Startup Incubator was happy to follow this recommendation and is awarding both prizes to teams that devoted themselves to a highly relevant social challenge — one with software, the other with hardware — and demonstrated their methodological approach in the best possible way.

One of these winners is the team from Novaheal. For their idea of a learning app specifically for nursing education and preparation for a successful nursing exam, which combines proven learning methods with modern AI-supported learning analytics, they received €1,500 and the distinction of the special “Lean” prize. How did they come to participate and develop their solution, and what’s next for the founders? We asked them…

How did you become aware of the Make It Lean Contest?

We came across the Make It Lean Contest on LinkedIn, as I (Turan) have someone in my network who had shared a post about the competition. So it was more of a happy coincidence for us.

How and when did you come together as a startup team?

Samuel and Turan have been close friends since their school days, and Valentin and Samuel met in 2018 during their human medicine studies and quickly realized that both had nearly identical ideas about a “modern complement to nursing education.”

How did you come across the problem you want to solve with your founding idea?

Valentin and Samuel are both trained healthcare and nursing professionals and independently noticed during their training that many areas of the program could be improved. These include, for example, appropriate digital learning resources, engaging and interconnected learning content that truly bridges the gap between theory and practice, practical engagement with professional policy and ethics, and so on. In short, many things that ultimately help develop a professional nursing identity and learn this incredibly enriching profession.

What is your most important goal in the next 3 months?

We are fortunately currently receiving the EXIST founder’s grant and can keep ourselves afloat. However, we still need capital for our product development, so we are actively looking around. We are looking for someone who shares our vision with Novaheal and feels the same drive to make an impact.

Who would you like to have a coffee or tea with? Why?

A classic question — Ranga Yogeshwar and the Dalai Lama. The way Mr. Yogeshwar explains scientific topics is simply enjoyable, and our co-founder Sam would love to ask the Dalai Lama a few things.

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Make It Lean Contest – Interview: Juriverse

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Juriverse has won third place in the Make It Lean Contest 2020/21 and a prize of €2,000!
Their idea? A platform for free learning materials in law school that students need to optimally prepare for exams and with which authors can earn money.
Juriverse identified a problem in their environment, tackled it, and want to solve it — this is exactly the kind of mentality we love to support, including through our Startup Now Programme! But how did it all come about, and what else does the Juriverse team have planned? We asked them…

1) How did you find out about the Make It Lean Contest?
We became aware of the Startup Incubator Berlin through our consideration of applying for the Berlin Startup Scholarship. That’s where we then also discovered the Make It Lean Contest.

2) How and when did you come together as a startup team?
Marvin and Laura have known each other since school. Lucca became a good friend and is now a co-founder through CODE University. So we have all known each other for several years and make a strong team. We also bring together the necessary skills. Laura takes care of legal topics and operations, Lucca handles the technical side, and Marvin looks after product management. We are additionally supported by great legal professionals from across Germany and a network from the startup industry.

3) How did you come across the problem that you want to solve with your startup idea?
Laura is herself a law student, so we have our user persona right within the team. When she told us one day about her challenges in law school, we took a closer look at the topic and saw great potential for innovation there. In the meantime, user interviews with law students and conversations with professors have confirmed that there is indeed room for improvement in this area.

4) What is your most important goal in the next 3 months?
To make law school less daunting and stressful for law students through our initiatives and materials. In law school, it’s not just about access to the right materials. Above all, it’s about conveying knowledge of how students need to work with the relevant materials — combined with feedback on students’ own solutions.

5) Who would you like to have a coffee or tea with? Why?
With investors who ideally have a legal background, or lawyers who are looking for a passion project and want to support it.

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Make It Lean Contest – Interview: UrbanFarm

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UrbanFarm won the second place of the Make It Lean Contest 2020/21 and with that 3.000€ price money for their startup project.
Their startup is an environmentally friendly, mobile production system for nutrient-rich microgreens that uses the recycling of food waste from restaurants for their own needs on site.
As sustainability gets more and more important, UrbanFarms project is spot on. So we were curious, how did they came up with their idea and what are their plans for the future?

1) How did you find out about the Make It Lean Contest?
We came across the Make It Lean Contest while we were searching for support programs for startups.
Then we thought that this contest would be a great chance to share our idea with a large audience and opportunity to get support by every means.

2) How and when did you get together as a startup team?
We got together around this idea in October 2020. We have already known each other for a while and both of us wanted to create value for the whole society then we started thinking.

3) How did you come across the problem that you wanted to solve with your founding idea?
We have always wished to find a solution for increasing demand for food. With the pandemic, this demand became more significant than ever.
All of us -even in the big cities- felt the fear of not having enough food in the groceries to feed ourselves.
Therefore we wanted to find a way to grow food for people in the cities in another manner creating self-sufficient cities. About recycling food waste, Ecem has seen the big issue how much food goes away everyday.
Since she is a chemist, she proposed to use this food waste as a fertilizer and grow organic food without chemicals.

4) What is your main goal in the next 3 months?
We have already set up our prototype system and in the next three months our goal is to launch our operation and present our products in the market. We are currently working on that step by step.

5) Who would you like to have a coffee or tea with? Why?
Well, that’s a tough one. If he was alive, definitely Henry Ford. He had a great vision and much ahead of his time.

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Make It Lean Contest – Interview: Fainin (Partiri)

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As Partiri, they took 1st place in the Make It Lean Contest 2020/21 and won €5,000 for their startup.
Their idea of a sharing platform for everyone willing to share items in order to promote sustainable consumption and protect the environment resonated with the founders of Fainin, who pursue the same goal. This led to a merger of the two sharing apps — Partiri is now operating as Fainin to continue driving their sustainable project forward.

We find it exciting to watch teams evolve that have been or still are in contact with the Startup Incubator Berlin. Whether through one of our programs or at our founding competition, the Make It Lean Contest.
That’s why we asked the Partiri/Fainin team a few more questions to learn more about the founders and their project:

How did you become aware of the Make It Lean Contest?

At the time, we participated in the Make It Lean Contest under the name of our former project “Partiri.App”. A friend from the Partiri family pointed us to several contests. Since we focus on a “lean” approach in our IT development and community roadmap, we identified with the competition right from the start. We also calculated our chances of winning to be high given our social, sustainable, and community-oriented business model.

The MILC helped us far beyond the community boost and prize money: the founders of our biggest competitor “Fainin” took notice of us and offered to merge the two sharing apps. We can help them a great deal with community building and marketing, and we benefit from their existing partnerships — such as with insurance providers and payment service providers — as well as their IT infrastructure. True to the Partiri/Fainin principle: a win-win for everyone involved, because #SharingIsTheNewOwning.

How and when did you come together as a startup team?

We launched Partiri.App in November/December 2019. At the beginning we started with surveys and a business plan, but as the project progressed we kept learning continuously, and this summer we are also launching the app under the name “Fainin” – Find Anything In Your Neighbourhood.

Johann and I (Max) know each other from our International Management studies — we had worked together as part of a course and together dreamed of the benefits of a secure sharing community. After we communicated our project a little within our social circle, we were introduced to our IT genius, Kevin. He identified strongly with our dream and was ultimately convinced by our business plan to come on board. Since that day we have grown closer and closer and have already become friends for life.
We also each had the opportunity to write our respective bachelor’s/master’s theses about our project:

1. “The Optimal Business Model in the Collaborative Industry” – Maximilian Lehmann
2. “Acceptance Characteristics of Sharing Solutions” – Kevin Mattutat
3. “Financing Options for Pre-Seed Platforms” – Johann Lißner

The accumulated theoretical knowledge helped us to shape our sharing project as promisingly as possible. It is astounding how many books address the rise of the sharing economy and the advantages of collaborative approaches: for example, Jeremy Rifkin’s “The Zero Marginal Cost Society”, in which he describes how the Internet of Things and collaborative cooperation lead to a decline in global production costs. With this, he prophesies a reorientation of society in favor of a community-oriented society. A dream that truly connects all three of us deeply — with this conviction we gladly emphasize our motto #SharingIsTheNewOwning.

How did you come across the problem that you want to solve with your startup idea?

The idea came to me (Max) after moving from the 105-inhabitant village of “Metzenhausen” to Hamburg. I fell in love with the city immediately, but at first I missed the interpersonal closeness from my home in the Hunsrück region. I quickly identified one key reason for the lesser sense of connection: people in cities don’t know each other. In Metzenhausen, everyone knows everyone. That’s why people support each other. It’s completely normal for the Lehmann family to share things with all the neighbors — for example, the lawnmower and the party equipment for annual birthdays. This leads to communication and further strengthens trust.

Fainin is meant to make exactly that possible all over the world. Creating trust within the sharing community through a secure and automated verification and lending system.”

What is your most important goal in the next 3 months?

We want to release Fainin’s application in a beta version in May 2021 and test and optimize our infrastructure with initial interactions. Fainin should become established within our circle of friends and be gradually completed with additional features. This way we can already kick off our community with a “soft launch” in the summer, and then establish the group function with a “hard launch” and optimized infrastructure. This is intended to be the starting shot for a cluster-like establishment of our network: initially, Fainin will position itself as a sharing network for students at universities, athletes in clubs, and neighbors in districts. This ensures that members have a common local connection and may even become friends through our interaction features.

Who would you like to have a coffee or tea with? Why?

We would love to have a coffee with Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. They are the Airbnb founders that hardly anyone believed in at the start. They were told things like “The business model won’t work” or “Would you trust strangers?” But instead of letting that get them down, they simply kept going and realized their vision. We are very inspired by their determination and their belief in creating something big and positive for the world and everyone involved with their startup.

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“Make It Lean Contest” 2021 – Congratulations to all winners!

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For the third consecutive time, the Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB), the entrepreneurship center of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, presented awards on 02/11/2021 for innovative startup ideas implemented using the Lean Startup method, in the context of the Make It Lean Contest.

More than 30 young startups with an academic background had applied for the three main prizes, as well as two special prizes in the categories “Best Lean Method” and “Best Software”.
The award ceremony was broadcast via livestream from the Startup Incubator Berlin at the HWR Founders Campus in Berlin-Siemensstadt.
Following welcoming remarks from the President of HWR Berlin, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, and the Director of the Startup Incubator Berlin, Christian Gurol, the winning teams were announced:

Main Prizes

Partiri · 1st Place · €5,000
A sharing platform for everyone willing to share items, promoting sustainable consumption and protecting the environment — without a profit orientation.

UrbanFarm · 2nd Place · €3,000
An eco-friendly, mobile production system for nutrient-rich microgreens that uses the recycling of food waste from restaurants for their own on-site needs.

Juriverse · 3rd Place · €2,000
A platform for free learning materials in legal studies that students need for optimal exam preparation, and through which authors can earn money.

Special Prize “Lean”

The Special Prize “Lean” goes to the team that, in the jury’s opinion, applies the Lean Startup method in an outstanding manner for its project and also presents this appropriately in the application video.
Due to the very close vote between two first-placed teams, the jury recommended that, as an exception this year, two special prizes be awarded in the “Lean” category. The Startup Incubator was happy to follow this recommendation and awards both prizes to teams that dedicated themselves to a highly relevant societal challenge — one using software, the other using hardware — and demonstrated their methodological approach in the best possible way:

Novaheal · Special Prize “Lean” · €1,500
A learning app specifically for nursing training and preparation for a successful nursing examination, combining proven learning methods with modern AI-supported learning analytics.

Thing · Special Prize “Lean” · €1,500
A safety robot for seniors who can be supported around the clock within their own four walls with monitoring functions such as fall detection and support within their network.

Special Prize “Software”

The prize goes to the team that, in the jury’s opinion, has implemented or plans to implement a software development (app, web platform, or similar) for its project in an outstanding manner.

Aivy · Special Prize “Software” · €1,500
Detection of professional talents and individual strengths on the one hand, and promotion of diversity, equal opportunity, and sustainability in the workplace through game-based assessments on the other.

The winning teams reflect the breadth of content of the international field of participants, with many innovative solution approaches to relevant societal challenges.

The prize money was funded by sponsors from the Berlin business community and the startup scene, who were also represented on the expert jury and additionally provided content expertise to the participating teams.

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Award Ceremony at the “Make It Lean Contest” 2021

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On Thursday, 11.02.2021 at 5:00 PM, the time has come: Five startup teams will be awarded for their innovative founding ideas. Preceding this was an intensive application phase followed by an exciting vote — more than 30 teams were in the running.

Three main prizes will be awarded based on a large public vote, and two special prizes for the best Lean Method and the best software will be determined by an expert jury — the excitement is growing.

With the Make It Lean Contest, the Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB) promotes and rewards innovative startup ideas that are implemented using the Lean Startup method. This method focuses on product development in fast cycles, with low resource requirements and regular customer feedback, in order to quickly reach market readiness.

Following welcome remarks by the President of the Berlin School of Economics and Law, Prof. Dr. Andreas Zaby, and the Head of the Startup Incubator Berlin, Christian Gurol, host Sina Landorff will guide the audience through the program and announce the winners. The winning startups will present their innovative ideas in a short pitch.

Afterwards, it’s time to celebrate – at a virtual get-together on the successful platform Wonder.me – an alumni startup from our Incubator. From 7:00 PM you can look forward to music, networking, digital icebreakers, and further surprises!

To not miss any further information, all those interested in the award ceremony can register on Eventbrite.
The award ceremony will be broadcast as a livestream, including on the YouTube channel of the Startup Incubator Berlin.
The current links for this, as well as for the subsequent party on Wonder.me, will be sent by email to those registered on Eventbrite.

We look forward to a great event with innovative startups, to the subsequent party, and of course to you, who will celebrate the award ceremony together with us!

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Starting gun for the voting at the Make it Lean Contest!

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The voting has begun!

Since Sunday night, it’s official – the pitch videos of the participating startups in the Make It Lean Contest are online and voting is already in full swing.
The ideas are diverse and include software developments, sustainable environmental projects, technical innovations, and much more.
During a three-week voting phase, users will decide on the winners of the competition, which not only offers impressive prize money, but also the opportunity to get an up-close look at the comprehensive programs at the Startup Incubator Berlin and ask questions directly about possible scholarship applications.

Voting is still open until February 1st, and of course feel free to share across all channels:
https://www.startup-incubator.berlin/make-it-lean-contest-2020/

“The crowning moment at the end”

In the truest sense of the word, the “crowning” of the winners will take place at the very end — on Thursday, 02/11/2021 at 5:00 PM. Registrations for the exciting awards ceremony for spectators are already open!

At the awards ceremony, five startup teams will be recognized for their founding ideas.

The winners of the three main prizes will be determined by the public vote, and in addition there are two special awards — one for the best Lean method and one for the best software. An expert jury will also be deliberating on the day of the awards ceremony.

Of course, after the official part there will also be celebration with music, networking, digital drinks, and further surprises – on the successful platform Wonder.me – an alumni startup from the Startup Incubator. It’s worth signing up!

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Make It Lean Contest: Applications possible until January 3, 2021

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With the contest, the Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB) promotes and rewards innovative startup ideas implemented using the Lean method. A total prize money of 13,000 euros is up for grabs. Young startups with an academic background that are in the pre-founding phase, as well as companies up to a maximum of one year after founding, are eligible to participate.

The competition requirements are deliberately kept low-threshold to make participation easier for teams at the beginning of their startup journey: A video of no more than three minutes is all it takes to enter the online public vote in January and stand a chance of winning. All information on how to submit can be found here on the website.

Since the kick-off of the Make It Lean Contest, many interested parties have taken part in our workshops, and a toolbox for applying the Lean Startup method remains available here on the Startup Incubator Berlin website. Even those who missed the workshops can still take part in the contest. There is also the opportunity for direct expert feedback from workshop coaches Norman Nemitz and Shai Hoffmann. Upon prior registration, the coaches will be available from December 10 to 15, 2020.

The public online vote in January gives all participating teams the chance to reach a broad audience with their startup idea. The Startup Incubator Berlin will support this voting phase with a communications campaign in traditional media as well as on its social media channels.

The submission deadline for the Make It Lean Contest is Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 11:59 PM. Among all competition entries received by December 18, 2020, three Amazon vouchers worth €50 each will be drawn as an “Early Bird Prize.”

All details about the competition here: https://www.startup-incubator.berlin/make-it-lean-contest-2020/

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Make It Lean Contest – Interview: Cabin Experience

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Interview with Cabin Experience about the Make It Lean Contest

Cabin Experience won first prize at the Make It Lean Contest 2019 with the idea of creating a new, more sustainable form of vacation in harmony with nature. To this end, the team developed a digital platform that connects three key players:
1) Buyers and/or co-owners find their perfect tiny house along with an opportunity to finance their cabins through rentals, 2) landowners in nature-adjacent, less developed areas find a way to generate additional income by hosting such cabins, and 3) vacationers find an individual travel experience far from civilization and mass tourism. We spoke with Javier Sanjurjo (JS) about the development of their company at Startup Incubator Berlin (SIB):

SIB: How and when did you come together as a startup team, and how did you arrive at your idea?

JS: We first met privately at a friend’s wedding, and even then we noticed that the chemistry between us was right. From there, the idea of founding a startup together emerged. We both already had experience at large companies and wanted to build something of our own. And in the course of many subsequent conversations, we discovered our shared passion for ecologically meaningful tourism, and our idea developed quite naturally from there.

SIB: How did you find out about Startup Incubator Berlin and the Make It Lean Contest?

JS: We got to know the SIB while still searching for our startup idea — back then at the previous location in Schöneberg. We attended events there such as UX testing and realized it could be a great environment for us. When the Make It Lean Contest was announced there again, it seemed like the perfect way to put our idea out there without taking a big risk.

SIB: What ultimately tipped the scales toward actually participating?

JS: We felt that at that point we could use a little external pressure to finally bring out and make visible all the ideas in our heads. Most importantly: How would we tell our story, how do we want to present ourselves, how do we interact with our customers? Of course, we were also motivated by the fact that we would receive plenty of great support through the workshops at the SIB.

SIB: And how did you specifically prepare?

JS: Oh, it really was like a full-time job! We did so many things: our own user interviews within our circle of friends, gathered lots of feedback, revised everything again and again. Really very hands-on, following the Lean method: Build – Measure – Learn, and that in many, many cycles.

SIB: And what role did your video play in all of this?

JS: That’s probably where we invested the most time in the end! The workshop on it was really super helpful, and then we dove in really deep for 3 weeks: We sourced images and video material from public databases, then took care of the editing and sound ourselves. But all the work was well worth it!

SIB: The video turned out so well that you received over 25% of all votes in the voting?

JS: (laughing) Of course! No, we also put a lot of effort into the voting phase: We made targeted, regular posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram pointing to the public vote. We also made “cold calls” to multipliers, associations, tour operators, etc. In addition, we specifically approached journalists and got interviews on radio and television — including in Spain and France, where my partner Charles and I are from. When I was on flights, I simply approached fellow travelers directly in the boarding area — so we ended up with many fans and votes from all over the world!

SIB: And after winning the contest, how did things continue?

JS: As I mentioned, we already knew Startup Incubator Berlin beforehand, and we had of course planned to be accepted into their support programs. Things then really unfolded by the book: We first joined the Startup Now program and then successfully applied for the Berlin Startup Scholarship.

SIB: Speaking of “by the book” — was the Lean Startup method (after author Eric Ries) truly meaningful to you, or is it just a nice theory?

JS: We both already knew the method before working together at Cabin Experience. So it came quite naturally for us to revisit the Lean Canvas over and over again. We have gone through several further developments and realignments, and for that, a structured tool like this is absolutely useful for achieving shared clarity about the path ahead.

SIB: What were the best and the most difficult moments in your journey at Startup Incubator Berlin?

JS: Of course, it was very difficult for us that we launched Cabin Experience right into the middle of the Corona crisis. Tourism came to a global standstill, and even the world’s largest travel trade fair in Berlin was cancelled. There was and still is great uncertainty, and the rules of the game in this market are changing massively. Our important collaboration with partners in other European countries became extremely difficult due to travel restrictions. But in the medium and long term, our idea of sustainable, individual tourism in nature will become even more attractive as a result of such a crisis. The truly best part of our time on-site at the SIB was the wonderful collaboration with the other startups. There was no competition — everyone supported each other and willingly shared their experiences.

SIB: And where do you stand today, about a year after winning the Make It Lean Contest?

JS: We have just launched our new website, which clearly explains our benefits for all parties involved (cabin owners, landowners, and travelers). Our new products are aimed primarily at people with a garden or plot of land who are looking for an extra space to work or relax in nature. The models are even more minimalist than traditional tiny houses, but more affordable and very easy to assemble (some of the models can even be self-assembled). For all models we offer a base product with options that can be added on. Unlike larger tiny houses, they are also quick to produce and therefore available within a few weeks. So we have a product on the market that works and with which we can expect to make money. We can hardly believe it ourselves!

SIB: We always believed in you, and we wish you continued success!

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