„Entrepreneur is not a job title. It is the mindset of people,
who want to change the future.“
(Guy Kawasaki)
Start-up initiative
You have a great new scientific discovery and an idea how to develop it into a product or service?
We will support you in its implementation!
Since 2021, the MPF has been supporting spin-offs of scientists from the MPIs. In trusting cooperation with Max Planck Innovation, we offer founders from the Max Planck Society our support at the highest level – free of charge – in all start-up phases and also beyond the start-up. In accordance with Max Planck’s ideas: “Application must be preceded by recognition”, the team of the MPF Start-up Initiative works with you to evaluate the possibilities of transforming your research results into a practical application and develops a concept and a business plan for a successful spin-off. As a small team, we cannot do this alone. That’s why we work with a network of partners who are among the best in their field worldwide.
Discover our offer here:
Scouting:
We identify potentially spin-off-relevant technologies and projects within the Max Planck Society. To this end, we highlight start-ups as a career option and inspire and excite future founders.
Coaching:
We aim to transfer the contacts from scouting into as many high-quality start-up projects and successful companies as possible. We use existing programmes within and outside the Max Planck Society and supplement them – where necessary – with targeted, unbureaucratic and fast coaching. In doing so, we cover the 5 areas: Product/Market, Financing, Technology/Product, Team/Supporters and Implementation/Execution with Hands-on Business Coaching.
Funding:
We assist with funding applications and fundraising.
Networking:
Many founders with a technical/scientific background have a strong network in their technical field, but are insufficiently networked in other relevant fields. We help with access to appropriate and relevant networks – including through alternative entrepreneurial networks of MPF’s funders.
Ecosystem:
We provide the best partners for all steps and support, for example, in the search for co-founders, offer access to start-up services and always identify the best offers for you as potential founders.
Scouting: We identify potentially spin-off-relevant technologies and projects within the Max Planck Society. To this end, we highlight start-ups as a career option and inspire and excite future founders.
Coaching: We aim to transfer the contacts from scouting into as many high-quality start-up projects and successful companies as possible. We use existing programs within and outside the Max Planck Society and supplement them – where necessary – with targeted, unbureaucratic and fast coaching. In doing so, we cover the 5 areas: Product/Market, Financing, Technology/Product, Team/Supporters and Implementation/Execution with hands-on Business Coaching.ogy/Product, Team/Supporters and Implementation/Execution with Hands-on Business Coaching.
Funding: We assist with funding applications and fundraising.
Networking: Many founders with a technical/scientific background have a strong network in their technical field, but are insufficiently networked in other relevant fields. We help with access to appropriate and relevant networks – including through alternative entrepreneurial networks of MPF’s funders.
Ecosystem: We provide the best partners for all steps and support, for example, in the search for co-founders, we offer access to start-up services and always identify the best offers for you as potential founders.
Our idea is to flank and meaningfully supplement the MPG’s existing offers on the topic of spin-offs by creating awareness for the path of founding, identifying potential start-up projects and examining them for their prospects of success, as well as providing professional and entrepreneurial support for teams in the start-up process.
In addition to project-specific coaching, we offer workshops on various topics. For example:
On the way to product development, your biggest problem will not be technical or scientific advancement – but lies in understanding for which application your idea promises the greatest benefit. All activities of your start-up will then be directed towards the corresponding target application. We have developed the following guiding questions to help you find your first application scenario:
1. What is the core benefit of your idea?
2. In which application area is this core benefit particularly effective?
3. Is this new benefit quantifiable (cheaper, faster, better, easier, …)?
4. Does the problem have a high priority amongst users; thus, the challenges are big enough?
5. Do you have access to people in this application area?
6. How much do you estimate the use of resources to develop a finished product/service for this very application area?
We help you navigate through these questions and in the end find an application area that seems suitable to be solved first by your company. There are many ideas and possible application areas. Our experience is that focusing on one or two application scenarios is a strong marker for the success of a young company.
Max Planck scientists are among the best in their field worldwide. Many founders with a technical-scientific background have a strong network in their professional environment, but are insufficiently networked in other relevant areas, such as to potential users of their technology. This has to change if you want to become a successful entrepreneur as a scientist. Access to experts from the respective target market is important in the early phase in order to validate the basic idea and to work in a customer-oriented way right from the start. A pilot customer ultimately contributes to successfully steering a new product into the desired target market. It is also important to make appropriate agreements, as experts and pilot customers learn about new technologies very early on and the innovation is still in an extremely sensitive phase.
We help you to draw up a catalogue of criteria for selecting the right pilot customers, introduce you to the process of selecting pilot customers and support you in drawing up the relevant agreements.
Most start-ups want to be active in markets where there is a lot of movement. Due to this fact, dealing with figures is not a favorite activity for many prospective founders – because it is difficult to create a reliable plan for the development of a new company for the coming months and years. However, this should not be taken as a reason to do without financial planning altogether. This is a concept of how your start-up will be financed and remain liquid. Various problems that can arise when financing a start-up can usually be solved with good planning and sufficient time. Early and long-term financial planning avoids mistakes that can happen under time pressure and negatively affect the development of the business.
You need a financial plan for:
- The preparation of a business plan
- Preparing and conducting investor meetings
- The annual business planning
We help you bring structure to the concepts of capital requirement plan, financing plan, profitability forecast and liquidity plan and to develop an understanding of these financial planning tools. The result is an initial financial plan for your own business.
Contact us if you are planning a start-up, if you have already founded a company and want to take the next step successfully, or if you are simply curious about the topic. Even as a private sponsor with an interest in the topic of spin-offs from basic research, you are cordially invited to contact us!