Name: 16th CIFamily Meeting — greenCHEM
Start: 2026-07-23T17:00:00+0200
End: 2026-07-23T19:00:00+0200
Location: Charlottenburg-Berlin

16th CIFamily Meeting

Customer Discovery for Deep-Tech & Chemistry-Based Startups

How can you effectively engage with customers and pilot partners?

For deep-tech and chemistry-based startups, winning your first customers is less about pitching and more about building trust and evidence. In this 45-minute keynote, Niklas shares practical best practices for finding early adopters and turning first conversations into real pilot partnerships, grounded in Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" and hands-on go-to-market work with several startups. He covers how to reach out professionally, what you need to establish credibility and trust, the minimum you should have in place before approaching customers, and what to watch out for in early contracts and liability. He also looks at how to nurture the customer relationship after the first yes, how to define your stages and rules of engagement, and how AI can help you monitor your market and discover new pilot customers. Expect concrete examples from real startups whose go-to-market and first pilots Niklas helped secure.

Our Guest: Niklas Laasch

Niklas Laasch works at the intersection of AI, health tech, and biotech, combining a background in biochemistry with design thinking. He advises and mentors healthtech and deep-tech founders on customer discovery, go-to-market, and fundraising: recently helping teams like RevoBits (bioprinting), mujō (algae-based biomaterials), and OMTO (digital health) sharpen their positioning, reach their first customers, and build the go-to-market engine behind their first pilots. As a mentor with Nucleate, Vision Health Pioneers and greenCHEM, he brings hands-on experience in translating complex science into clear, customer-centric growth.

About the CIFamily

The community events called “CIFamily” aim to offer the scene of chemistry-specific founders a place for trusting exchange and learning from each other. “Learning from experts and alumni/ae, sharing and discussing your own experiences with other participants and supporting each other” is the common goal of the community. In order to achieve this, each event is dedicated to a topic selected by the founders, on which there are impulses, exchange and networking in a relaxed and open atmosphere.