Andreas Kitzing: From consulting to sports sponsorship venture

What stood out about the academic learning experience for you? Ie what were your favourite courses, what impact did they have on you etc?

Faculty members were extremely passionate about their subjects – even in seemingly “dry” subjects like statistics. They were able to infuse this passion into the class discussion in a way that really made me re-evaluate my positions on certain topics, and simultaneously ensured that I still remember most of the information in the curriculum. 

I especially appreciated that many courses also included business ethics, sometimes in a very obvious way, sometimes more subtly. I am strongly convinced that it is the duty of top tier universities to educate ethically responsible leaders; and CJBS definitely lived up to that expectation. 

It’s hard to single out a specific learning experience, but if forced to, I’d say that my favourite experiences were Mark de Rond’s negotiation class, and Stefan Scholtes’ “race car” case study (plus the follow up lessons on that case study). 

Please tell us about the standout elements of the Cambridge experience or extra-curricular activities you had during your MBA.

The Cambridge experience was amazing. I feel so blessed that I was able to be part of an institution with such a rich heritage as the University of Cambridge. The historical colleges (in my case Pembroke), the  peers in college who are spearheading the development of science, the May Balls, student life, pub culture, the banana & toffee muffins from CJBS’s cafeteria – everything was so awesome that you actually had to make an effort to cram all these awesome experiences into your schedule. 

During my time in Cambridge, I also joined Pembroke College Boat Club. I have never rowed before, but I can wholeheartedly recommend to all CJBS students to take up rowing. The Cambridge experience is not 100% complete if you miss out on that! I also still follow the Boat Race. 

I really enjoyed the extracurricular activities organised by my classmates: We regularly played football and had a great time during MBAT; we brainstormed business ideas in the Entrepreneurship Special Interest Group; we successfully participated in a business competition against other business schools (including a visit to the final in New York); cycled to Oxford for a charity; and I organised a class visit to Wembley stadium to see Germany beat England 1-0… 

The Global Consulting Project (GCP) also stood out: We worked for a social venture capital company, did some customer research in New York (directly after the business school competition), and spent several weeks in Nicaragua to optimise the business of 2 portfolio companies. 

How would you describe the cohort of people in your class? What value did they bring to your MBA?

The cohort of people is the make-or-break factor for a good MBA programme. You learn from the broad range of experience of your peers, and later profit from the valuable network that you build. 

The diversity of characters, experiences, and views on life in our class was excellent and massively enriched the experience. I’m still in contact with many of my classmates, attended weddings all over the world, and one of my peers even invested in my startup (and still serves as an advisor). 

What aspect of the MBA learning/experience would you say you find most useful now in your professional life?

I started my own company, Sponsoo, during the MBA’s summer project. Sponsoo is a digital marketplace for sport sponsorship, and connects brands from all over the world with interesting athletes, teams, and sports events. 

Given that I still work as the company’s CEO, it’s hard to miss the impact that the programme has on my life. The skills, knowledge, and the network I gained during the MBA massively contributed to the success of Sponsoo. 

I profited immensely from the hard skills that I learned about startup finance, and the negotiation skills from the negotiation class. We now employ 15 team members, operate on all continents and raised several million in funding. I doubt that we’d have reached this stage without the things I learned in Cambridge. 

Tell us about your experience launching a business.

The MBA was the ideal launchpad to start a company. I was able to work on the business idea for more than half a year, with the help of my classmates, the Entrepreneurship SIG and the curriculum’s Entrepreneurship Concentration. The regular pitch sessions were a useful practice to fine tune the idea and the way we present it. 

It’s extremely difficult to build a successful company; there are cliffs that kill your startup at nearly every corner. Without the skills, knowledge and network that I gained during the MBA, it’s not unlikely that one of these obstacles would have proven fatal for our business. 

 

Selling sports smartly across the globe with an MBA

Once an MBA start up and now the leading sports sponsorship platform in Europe, Sponsoo is expanding further with plans that include the Cambridge Judge community.

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