UnternehmerTUM Helps Entrepreneurs to Start World-Class Companies #GSA22
Executive Summary
UnternehmerTUM helps experienced entrepreneurs and students to start, accelerate or fundraise to build world-class companies including but not limited to Flix, Celonis, Blickfeld, Isar Aerospace, Konux, tado, e-bot7, ProGlove or Lilium. At the 2022 German Startup Awards, UnternehmerTUM won the Special Award for their work. Therefore we interview Stefan, its COO in our series with the German Startup Association, and learn more about him and their programs.
German Startup Awards 2022
This interview is in media partnership with the German startup association (Bundesverband Deutscher Startups https://deutschestartups.org/). Their German Startup Awards #GSA22 honor each year outstanding female and male founders and investors in special categories. You can learn more about the winners in our interviews and on this website: https://germanstartupawards.de/rueckblick/rueckblick-2022
You can also have a look at our history, we also interviewed many winners of the German Startup Awards 2021 already.
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The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, December 1st 2022
The Audio Interview
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The Award Winner
This time we have a very special case since the legal entity UnternehmerTUM (https://www.unternehmertum.de/en) won the German Startup Awards’ 2022 Special Award. UnternehmerTUM itself is attached to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) (https://www.tum.de/en/). It is also one of the cradles of Munich’s world-class startup talent and a light tower in the education of entrepreneurs in Germany. We, therefore, talk to Stefan Drüssler.
Stefan , COO of UnternehmerTUM, is no stranger to entrepreneurism (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-dr%C3%BCssler-74424458/). As a past consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), he has advised startups and Fortune 500 companies alike on how to grow their businesses. But when he joined UnternehmerTUM 5 years ago, he found his true calling in helping entrepreneurs bring their startups to life.
Located in Munich, UnternehmerTUM is one of the world’s leading incubators and accelerators for startups. It is also a hub for entrepreneur education, providing programs and resources to help founders get their businesses off the ground. Recently, UnternehmerTUM was honored with the German Startup Awards’ 2022 Special Award. This recognition is a testament to the incredible work that Stefan and his colleagues are doing to support startup growth in Germany.
Looking to the future, Stefan is excited about the potential for UnternehmerTUM to continue supporting more founders as they turn their innovative ideas into successful businesses. With the right mix of resources and support, there’s no limit to what German startups can achieve.
The Institute
UnternehmerTUM (https://www.unternehmertum.de/en) was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Susanne Klatten as a non-profit organization. With more than 50 high-growth technology start-ups each year and its unique offering, it is the leading center for innovation and business creation in Europe. It is an institute attached to the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Mrs. Klatten (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanne_Klatten) was raised in a successful entrepreneurial family and her family owns jointly the controlling stake in BMW. The organization’s goal is to promote entrepreneurship among students and scientists, and it offers a variety of programs and resources to support entrepreneurs and its members. In addition to providing educational opportunities, UnternehmerTUM also offers mentorship and networking programs to help its members connect with potential investors and customers. As a result of its efforts, UnternehmerTUM has helped to launch numerous successful businesses.
UnternehmerTUM helps founders from the idea stage to financing, they are also involved in teaching entrepreneurship at TUM. They have more than 350 employees working on 20 independent programs, where the help with ideation, incubation, acceleration and finally financing. They not only have programs addressing students of TU Munich but also programms that are open to every entrepreneur.
In the past, they worked in different stages with unicorns Celonis, and Flix, but also startups like Lilium (the flying taxi startup listed on NASDAQ) or Blickfeld, Isar Aerospace, Konux, tado, e-bot7, or ProGlove (https://medium.com/startuprad-io/our-2018-guest-proglove-makes-monster-exit-at-around-500-m-plans-to-be-the-next-teamviewer-64087cedd395).
Mentioned Startups
- We will publish an interview with one of the founders of Flix in December 2022.
- Here is the interview with ProGlove from 2018 mentioned in the interview https://youtu.be/dE76h-bKTH0
- E-bot7 is also an alumnus of UnternehmerTUM https://medium.com/startuprad-io/munich-based-e-bot-7-was-acquired-for-more-than-50-m-us-eb6694e4d1d5
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The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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Topics Discussed in this Interview
In this interview, we are talking about startups, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur education, entrepreneur training, startup funding, startup incubation, startup acceleration, startup programs, TU Munich, TU München, Technische Universität München, unicorns
Automated Transcript
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Welcome to Startuprad.io your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German-speaking startup scene.
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Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from startuprad.io your startup podcast in YouTube block from the german-speaking area bringing you again
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here another winner of the Germans got of Awards this award Was Won by a legal entity called unternehmertum but since it’s very hard to interview a legal entity I do have it see
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Co and Co oh Stephen here with me hey how you doing thank you Joe for the invitation it’s great to be here.
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Only my pleasure first up congratulations for winning the special award of the German startup words 2022 and we may say that unternehmertum is kind of a
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which play this T um
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also means as so and unternehmertum means entrepreneurship and German and is T um is spelled in capital letters which could also mean.
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Technical University of Munich technician universität München which by coincident is the University you’re attached to.
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Exactly exactly.
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And that’s actually the reason I am here at work honey Mattoon was because I studied at the Technical University.
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And so actually I became a huge fan of unternehmertum that time because when I studied at home I started something called technology and management soy.
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Business administration classes and also and classes in technology that was in find Stefan in the area of food Tech life and food Sciences.
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And I also took classes in entrepreneurship there was a new institution unternehmertum at that time and they offered a business plan seminar.
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And actually that was the coolest thing I did to be honest because it for us.
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Interdisciplinary so I didn’t study only with the let’s say the people from my study program right but from all the other study programs at the Technical University so it was very diverse.
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And it was not like a lecturer somebody tries to tell you something and try to explain you how to do something and you take notes right away but it’s.
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It was we did something so you come up with an idea and you form a team and then you write a business plan and by doing that project you’re actually learn a lot,
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boldly I really hope that none of you from a professor’s listening right now except for the tax professors they know they’re not the number one sought after destination nonetheless I also
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took a look into the analyzers by our friends startup heatmap dot-eu they have an analyzer stay shared with me and actually Munich is within Europe in the top,
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five for growing educating training their own entrepreneur.
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Put a talent and you’re only behind Paris
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first this London Paris Barcelona Madrid and then there is you so
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that already means a lot and actually we have another winner of the German startup was the founder of flicks flicks bus Which also was.
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Got investment from unternehmertum Ab before he can get into all of that we getting a little bit ahead of ourself and I.
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I looked at your profile in LinkedIn and I want to talk a little bit about you and what you did you credit as you already set from Technical University mention and you worked for BCG for quite some time right,
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yes I did yes so that was.
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Basically a classical path right so I studied technology and management you had some experience in business and but also in an engineering subject.
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And at that time.
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Graduates often they they wanted to go to large and successful corporates companies like BMW or like to Consulting
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and I took the path of Consulting So I entered BCG I walked up there for quite some years.
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I did a lot of Consulting for for banks for federal banks.
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They after the financial crisis they were in real trouble so we help them restructure them.
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But in the end it was I mean it was it was amazing and I don’t want to miss that time but it was less creating new it was less about
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Innovation and really trying to
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to create something new and this is when when I was in contact with hammered hammered is actually he’s this I’m the Chief Operating Officer Hammer is the CEO and founder of unternehmertum so he gave me a call and he asked if I want to join.
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And since I know unternehmertum for quite some time I couldn’t resist.
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I see because I was always wondering how did this transition actually happened because you didn’t get one day back in your hotel room and said hmm
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let’s do something different let’s join unternehmertum because then usually the decision is go to corporate job set up your own company or something like this but not joining an
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how’s the legal term attached Institute to a university I think that is something like 0.1% would consider doing out of Consulting I’m and you don’t first as chief
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operating officer position you’re hot you’re holding until today
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exactly I’m still Chief Operating Officer and I’m one of the managing directors we are a team of managing directors and at all tournaments and I basically have two jobs
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so one I’m responsible for some of our programs unternehmertum has about 20 programs.
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20 independent running programs with their own Brands and I’m responsible for programs where are we.
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Educate and have talent so for example students from the Technical University,
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to come up with an idea to get inspired of Entrepreneurship to try out how what it means to found a company very often that’s part of their regular study so they get credit points for that so it’s an integral part
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um of their studies
and then I’m also responsible for program because then.
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Some of these they say Okay I want to find out now I’m studying at the Technical University and the Technical university has a strategy to be the entrepreneurial University,
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so they say I want to find out if I want to be an entrepreneur in my life so I want to start a project so do I have the right team what do I need,
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how do I financed this startup at the beginning okay I’m a maybe a scientist a researcher how can I evaluate if this is an idea that I can use for starting my own company okay so this is like a pre incubation phase.
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And then you have people that say okay now I decided to become a father so they say okay thank you large corporate or thank you.
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Any company that I applied for your they give me an offer but I declined because I’m a founder and I decided to be to be an entrepreneur.
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So we incubate and accelerate them in.
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Dedicated three-month program for example Horrocks pruners incubation program and then.
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They also need financing we as unternehmertum we try to help
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Founders at all stages so for example we have a program where we fund early stage startups for example with 100,000 euros in a.
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And this is one part of my work.
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And then I’m also the Chief Operating Officer of this organization so as I mentioned there are 20 teams okay with different business models how can we stay
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one company how can we ensure team cohesion so for example how can we do internal communication how can we organize ourselves so these are also amazing topics that I’m responsible.
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Mhm icac and of course all the programs and just scrolling through them as we’re talking is something pretty,
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interesting and of course we link it down here in a show notes below so everybody can click on it so that means usually you are,
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more or less offering classes in entrepreneurship but when they’re basically hooked on entrepreneurship you also help the students.
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To basically start out with the company as you said for example with with some start capital I would be curious do you have a few successful examples that worked with you in the past
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exactly so.
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So you have to imagine it’s like a course it’s like a funnel right so you start with enabling Jack talents but then it’s also very open to,
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startups that are later stage so for example how our expert knows program you cannot any startup can apply for the extra knows program and the team picks what they say is that,
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best and most interesting and promising startup in debt in that stage.
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And around all that okay you must imagine unternehmertum as an ecosystem because it’s not about just okay being in a program or listening to a class or being there at these three month in these three months
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unternehmertum works also with corporate with Middle East and has a network of investors so it’s all about this.
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Being part of this ecosystem.
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Bringing the right people together and supporting Innovation and so for example today owners might be one example some people have heard of that’s the most valuable German startup or.
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What is also an interesting startup is ISA Aerospace the build small rocket launcher so it’s.
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One of the High Hopes startups for European European space Market.
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And you mention flicks bus for example so tournament in Venture Capital partners for example is invested invested in a very early stage in two flicks bus and now it’s it’s a huge.
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Pressure a huge successful Innovative organization that also entered the US market by the acquisition of great home for example an amazing story.
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Yeah lilium the flying caps the flying taxis right yeah I see that they are a lot of very interesting.
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Things out there so could you also as a non-student of tea you get M could you also join unternehmertum.
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Yes so you can chop control over that’s all.
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Our let’s say mother is the Technical University of Munich but we are actually not part of the Technical University as you said we are an Institute or Affiliated Institute so we are very independent.
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And we want to actually attract also great startups great entrepreneurs for from anywhere around the world to join our ecosystem so we can increase the quality of this ecosystem of course and,
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when somebody joins you I’m can we go to for example the first program and how you could help them develop too
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eventually become a successful startup entrepreneur there are so many different Journeys so one cherny could be you are are an amazing,
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student at the Technical University you could apply for a program called manage and more it’s a scholarship program where.
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A very small group is being elected.
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And you are doing projects and you learn your gift you develop yourself as a
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it’s a person in a very intensive program about its work of about 20 hours per week which goes on talk to your regular study so you can only do that if you’re well-organized very motivated for the duration of one and a half years.
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Many of these.
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Amazing talents then become later successful Farmers or not or they join a company or do something differently or become very successful researchers that’s all very great and all very amazing.
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It will let me let me let me mention one more thing because you asked about the starters and about the what are examples for start-up so our focus is detects startups,
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very often it’s B2B I mean it’s not so surprising because we are connected to the Technical University so some people have not heard about many of these startups because they are successful.
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B2B Stars One Excel I mean II as you can see this glove behind me okay it’s,
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that’s a startup called Pro graph so what you can what the what you can do is you can scan parts,
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in the supply chain and what you do you don’t need to use you know a scanning pistol but you have the scanner already connected to your glove.
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And by doing so you save a lot of time so basically they are working.
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With all the large corporations we have a supply chain and wear every second in the supply chain counts and I guess not many people have heard of.
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Pro Glass but everybody working in the supply chain in a corporate has actually we interview them back in 2018 when we’ve been
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in New York and we interviewed them
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on top of the building where the German accelerator is located with one World Trade Center in the background which was pretty nice and for everybody who’s interested go down here in the show notes there is a link to our medium block and there you’ll also find the link
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to the pro glove interview from dating back I think yeah for years.
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Crazy yes and I think so that’s what also these kind of startups it takes a lot of time and patience because if your phone Daddy Tech startup.
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Takes long it takes a longer time than founding let’s say a scalable online platform or a nap,
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for something so sometimes you need to be very patient it’s a little bit more difficult for investors to decide in investing into addict starts because you really need the know-how and the expertise to do so.
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But actually that that’s what I would say this ecosystem is all about and that’s a core strength of,
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Germany and Munich to have this engineering detect capabilities and now I think our mission is to transform all this capability into successful startups.
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As he said it’s a location of deep tech there many famous.
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Companies down there in Munich that actually work pretty deep and check for example many people may have heard of Siemens
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BMW is also headquartered there so they’re just
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a few examples I do believe a lot of foreign tech companies also headquartered in Munich for their German or International headquarters.
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Just like Google Microsoft sales for so they are all coming to Munich so it’s an amazing time right now so many tech companies Trust.
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Came to Munich there is a strong basis of already established companies there is the German Middle East and smes around that.
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Amazing talents of the Technical University but also the University of Munich the University of applied sciences so a very strong bases and that now transforms into a very let’s say.
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Dedicated and serious and I would say sustainable kind of startup creation.
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That sounds pretty promising what what is what is on the horizon for you what are the next Plant for unternehmertum conquered world.
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Basically we want to we want to find partners that share our mission we can conquer the world.
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But you know when we when we when we talk to two startups I made what I learned actually in the business plan seminar 20 years ago they said you know when you when you found a start-up do it in a team because nobody’s perfect but a team can be
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this is actually what we think we have in Europe we have other very strong entrepreneurship centers and strong Tech ecosystems and now the question is
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ten we are actually our what what we want to do is join forces combine our strengths and to
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support the next European unicorns and the next European Tech startups and the next European.
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Companies because that’s what that’s what we need if we want to have European.
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Successful European companies in the future we need to start helping them and creating them right now well,
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how would say that are amazing closing words for everybody who would like to learn more down here in the show notes of course there’s a link to unternehmertum to the pro glove and flicks interview as well and
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I would like to say thank you very much it was a pleasure talking to you and best of luck and of course again congratulations for the German startup Ward.
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Thanks that goes to the team thank you so much for the invitation show it was a great pleasure thank you have a good day bye bye bye bye.
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Music.
