Anyone who has the right business idea to start a company in the middle of their studies is faced with a really difficult decision: continue studying and get a degree? Interrupt your studies? Or even drive on two tracks? Uniglobale spoke to five founders from the IT industry who were faced with exactly these questions while studying. More start-ups are currently emerging in the digital environment than anywhere else. Advantage: In many cases you don't need more than one computer. Disadvantage: Founders have to be quick, because imitators are particularly quick to appear here.
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Father entrepreneur, son entrepreneur? This is true for Felix Bauer and somehow his path was predetermined. “My father is a great role model who gave me a lot of good inspiration,” says Bauer. In Hanover, his role model successfully runs a publishing house and “I saw from him how well entrepreneurship can work.” He also learned from him early on about the dark side of self-employment, namely “Entrepreneurship also means working, working, working.” At the same time, his father also shows him that “as an entrepreneur you can organize your own time and make things happen.” Nevertheless, Bauer initially completed training as a media designer in a small advertising agency. An experience he doesn't want to miss because it shows him what it means to earn money as an employee. Not a good time for him. “I felt like I was on a hamster wheel,” is how he describes the time, looking back. The Hanover native remains loyal to the industry and studies media economics at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, a private educational institution with only four locations in Germany. Bauer never saw himself as a student. “I always saw myself as an entrepreneur,” he says about himself. In parallel to his studies in Cologne, he is already setting up his first online shop. “During my studies I didn’t have any major responsibilities. So it was a good phase to try things out,” he says. His father gave him a lot of encouragement and encouragement during this time. He initially sells books through sales channels such as eBay and Amazon before setting up his own shop. There he learns the basics of eCommerce: implementing payment providers in different shop systems, shop design, search engine optimization, SEA, newsletters, pricing and marketing. Above all, he notices how starting a business can also work in a niche. Topics that the 29-year-old needs every day in his own company today. His start-up Warenkorb.com, founded two years ago, is a full-service agency that advises online retailers on their projects and wants to help them make them successful on the Internet. Bauer met his co-founder while he was studying. A stroke of luck. Because “not many students wanted to become self-employed, most were looking for security in their professional life,” says Bauer. The farmer is certain that entrepreneurship is a question of personality, “but the fire for it has to be lit.” As an alumni, he now uses the opportunity to inspire students about entrepreneurship. Just like his father did back then.Message filtering service for Twitter: TAME
“The period of product development and iteration is now over for us,” says founder Torsten Müller (31) of tame. People no longer want to apply for funding programs and scholarships. “We are currently in the process of checking whether we have created something that the market will accept.” This is important because the Berlin start-up’s product has experienced all the ups and downs of starting a company over the last three years. Müller met his co-founder during his studies. Subject: Journalism. The idea of founding something that could check Twitter news and videos for credibility for editorial teams and journalists was quickly born. A developer was brought in and in the first few weeks we shuttled back and forth between Hamburg and Berlin, between the university and the founders' living rooms. The product is tinkered with until the prototype receives the Exist funding program. Further rounds of financing will follow. Finally the final launch last autumn. The media is enthusiastic and users quickly follow suit. But the first big setback came in Silicon Valley, the Mecca of the global digital economy. Networks should be established with the big players and investors and additional money collected. This time: unsuccessful. “Only now is it getting down to business and getting close to what entrepreneurship is probably really about,” he says. Give up? No, not his case. Because Müller is also an athlete, a very good one in fact, he says. Before the founding, he played basketball almost every day. As a team athlete he learned a lot. Also that a game can sometimes turn around before you finally win. So wait and move on. Because the founding euphoria still continues for him. “Even when I was studying, I had the feeling that I wanted to do something of my own.” He says that he didn’t start his studies at the time in order to earn money afterwards as an employee. Müller noticed how it felt in his early 20s. The son of a police officer was completing training in a small PR agency in Siegerland. “We had done great projects and some exciting things,” he says looking back, “but I felt that I liked tackling things and doing them myself. I wanted to be my own boss.” Looking back, he says, his time at the agency was more formative than his studies. “You can’t develop the start-up mentality during your studies,” Müller is certain, “you get the impression through working. As far as I know, all founders feel this way.” So what advice does he give aspiring founders? “Besides practical experience? Above all, ensure the right work-life balance,” says Müller and does it himself. He recently married his long-time girlfriend. His best man? His co-founder and fellow student, of course.Learning app for instruments: FLOWKEY
Play the piano? No, how boring! This is what many people thought in their childhood who were tormented by their teachers and parents with scales and hours of practice. “Piano lessons can be so much fun if you learn your favorite pieces,” says Jonas Gößling, founder of flowkey, a very young start-up that helps people learn to play the piano even without sheet music. The only requirements: a computer and an instrument that you can practice on at home. “We are currently still working hard on the tablet version,” says the founder. Flowkey is a learning app and it works extremely simply: using a specially developed form of presentation, selected piano pieces are instructed depending on the level of difficulty. A microphone on your own device analyzes and evaluates your own learning successes. The system reacts to the user's playing speed, provides assistance and recommends targeted exercises within the piece. In this way, Gößling himself has already learned a few piano pieces and is now sitting down at the studio piano to prove it. He played the instrument as a child, but as often happens, playing music fell by the wayside due to school and studying industrial engineering. Much to my own regret. The interdisciplinary research project in the master's degree program on video-based eLearning at the TU Berlin came at just the right time. With the idea of starting a business in mind, he and his two co-founders applied for the Exist start-up grant – and received it! While still studying. “If we had realized during the Exist year that the idea wasn’t working, we would have continued studying for a master’s degree,” says Gößling. Despite a lack of entrepreneurial role models - both parents are doctors - he wanted to become a company founder as a child. While he was still a student, he tried his hand at becoming a small business owner - although behind his parents' backs, but "even then I realized that you can achieve something if you dare." It looks like he's right, because after that With a scholarship, flowkey was able to convince four private investors to join the company. Nevertheless, entrepreneurship was neither a topic at school nor at university. »Studying so that you can manage a company later? This possibility was only discussed in passing. I first had to discover for myself what entrepreneurship actually means.« Gößling got the opportunity to do this through the student management consultancy, the Company Consulting Team (CCT), in Berlin. On the one hand, he earned good money for his studies by working as a consultant for companies, and on the other hand, he gained insights into business management virtually for free. “Being able to absorb information quickly and create good presentations are extremely important,” he says. Skills that he also needs as the founder of flowkey. »This time trained me a lot.«Cooking Assistant: COOKBOT
When asked whether he is a good cook, Frederik Arnold answers with his typical reserve. Sure, he says, there is more cooking at home in his shared apartment than with other students his age. But does that make it better? Somehow this wait-and-see statement suits the student. After graduating from high school, he went on a trip. His career prospects at that time? Still unclear. Working in the theater would have been an option. “I played in the youth theater or worked there in technology or as an assistant director.” At the same time, he is already programming the first online pages. He quickly realized that digital language solutions particularly appealed to him. Whether theater or computer – they have one thing in common: language & words. Arnold therefore enrolled in computational linguistics at the University of Saarbrücken and has since then been working with programming languages, but also with semantics and phonetics. Two years ago in the fourth semester: Two years ago the practical semester was on the schedule. “We had to present a short lecture about a fictitious idea to selected representatives from business,” he says. The birth of Kochbot, a mobile kitchen aid that can search for specific recipes after entering individual preferences for ingredients, taste or regional cuisine. Everything controlled purely by language. The idea catches on. It is realistic and practical, says Arnold. His lecturer at the time, who actually conducts research at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), also thinks so. From now on, the DFKI will provide Arnold and his co-founders with enormous support. »It was then that we realized that the research project would become more than just a study project. What we did worked,” he says looking back. A trade fair stand with a specially made show kitchen, which was bubbling and sizzling at this year's CeBit, confirms this impression. “Steaming cooking pots make everyone curious,” he knows. Nevertheless: Arnold didn't want to interrupt his studies for Kochbot. First the bachelor's degree, then starting a company. The application for the start-up grant therefore took a good year. Arnold expects approval in the fall. Until then, he stays relaxed. He is not afraid that other founders might pass him by with the idea. Copying the technology is not that easy, he says. “I always wanted to start something and do my own thing,” he says. Kochbot is expected to be founded next year. If not, then he'll get his master's degree. »If Kochbot doesn't work, I'll find something else. I have so many ideas. The main thing for me is not the money anyway, but rather the joy of solving problems.«Jump 'n' Run game: MrSkyjump
Winter 2013: When fellow students asked Tim Reiter during the cold winter weeks whether he still wanted a beer or a party, the 20-year-old regularly said no. After the hours in the lecture hall, he didn't go to the nearest bar or disco, but rather went back to his desk. The computer science student will spend an estimated 300 hours at the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe (KIT) over the next few weeks until the first prototype is built. “Yes, the project was very complex, but I just couldn’t let it go,” he says. Reiter has programmed a game for all mobile devices and called it MrSkyjump. The special thing about the jump 'n' run skill game is that it can be played with or against each other. The data and scores are saved in a cloud, then synchronize automatically and can therefore be accessed on different devices. “Players can therefore start on their smartphone and continue their game later on their computer or game console,” explains Reiter. At the beginning of this year, together with his second programmer, he applied for Microsoft's Imagine Cup, a technology competition that aims to promote students' projects and their implementation at an international level. “Many KIT students take part,” he says. But not everyone gets that far. After several rounds, he first won the national competition in Berlin in the spring. As the winner, a few weeks later he boarded the plane to the international finals quite excitedly. Destination airport: Seattle. Possible winner's prize: $50,000 and shake hands with Bill Gates. Pure thrill! “For the English presentation, we basically learned every sentence by heart so that we could present our project perfectly,” admits Reiter. MrSkyjump didn't win and Reiter didn't meet Bill Gates either, but there was still a few days of sightseeing in Seattle. Back in Germany, after the experiences of the last six months, the question now arises all the more: What happens next? “We currently need financing to be able to employ employees,” says Reiter. The chances of a capital injection are not bad in Karlsruhe, as companies that specialize in the development of games have settled in the Swabian city. Reiter doesn't want to leave any stone unturned, but remains calm. He works from stage goal to stage goal. Next stop: first get a bachelor's degree, then a master's degree. Interrupt or even give up studying for MrSkyjump? “Absolutely not,” he says, “the great thing about computer science is that you can quickly implement your own ideas without a large budget.”Related articles:
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Anyone who has the right business idea to start a company in the middle of their studies is faced with a really difficult decision: continue studying and get a degree? Interrupt your studies? Or even drive on two tracks? Uniglobale spoke to five founders from the IT industry who were faced with exactly these questions while studying. More start-ups are currently emerging in the digital environment than anywhere else. Advantage:
