Thomas Funke steps back as TQ´s Co-Founder to become Advisor and Member

„In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity“ — Using a quote from Albert Einstein, Thomas Funke, announced publicly on Linkedin his decision of stepping back on his current position at TQ as Co-founder.

The news still comes with a good side, since he also announces he will keep supporting in the role of advisor and as a startup member of TQ´s vibrant community.

According to his statement: “TQ still has to stretch a lot further for growing its community of innovators that can solve the grand challenges in this world”, but its obvious for everyone the tremendous achievements in the last 4,5 years.

Different key players from our startup ecosystem, and also others, left great testimonials of his role and it´s clear the next step will have a link to our fields.

Dr. Thomas Funke, now former Co-Director of TechQuartier, was a pioneer that together with Sebastian Schaefe launched the first incubator for the FinTech scene in Frankfurt with office and coworking space, at the end of 2016, that keeps leaving an extreme impact and legacy in our ecosystem.

Before that, he was an assistant professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and set up a cross-university platform for six Vienna universities (www.ecnetwork.at). The topics of entrepreneurship and innovation have captivated him since he started a course at the university in 2008 that lets students work on their own ideas (Die Garage). From 2013–2016, he headed the start-up and innovation department at the RKW Competence Center, a think tank of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. His book “Away from Silicon Valley: Examples of successful start-up locations” was published in 2014 by Frankfurter Allgemeine Buch Verlag.

We keep our fingers crossed for Thomas and his new ventures 🤞