University teachers, scientists, founders – Klaus Sailer has already done a lot in his life. He studied physics and did his doctorate in biophysics, worked at Siemens and Infineon, first in technology, then in marketing, founded several companies – “with all the ups and downs,” as he says. Until he finally came to Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) in 2006. “I work half as a professor at the mechanical engineering faculty, and I am the managing director of the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE),” says Sailer. He likes this dual role. The university gives him access to its students and high-tech laboratories. But she is also a large steamer, with which one does not make as good progress as with the submarine SCE. “It’s a much smaller organization that can make decisions quickly and flexibly,” says Sailer.
The Entrepreneurship Center was a gift to the university. Falk F. Strascheg founded it in 2002 and has supported it ever since. Strascheg himself is the company founder and successful venture capitalist, for the SCE he is a sponsor and patron. “In the beginning there were three or four people who were supposed to look after spin-offs from the university,” says Sailer. The topic was new for the university at the time, and it took a while for its strategic importance to be recognized.
The staircase dates from the 1950s. But in the start-up incubator building on Lothstrasse, work is being done on companies for the digital world.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Today, the Munich University of Applied Sciences with the Strascheg Center is one of the leading start-up centers in Germany. Both have grown significantly over the past 20 years. The SCE now has almost 45 employees. Money from the Strascheg Foundation and funding programs from the Federal Ministry of Economics helped on the road to success. But it is not the case that money alone is enough to get ahead. “You not only have to inspire the students, but also the professors for entrepreneurship and get the university committees involved,” says Sailer. In addition, it must be possible to teach entrepreneurial thinking to schoolchildren and to develop a culture of innovation.
The university has long since been taken seriously by the competing Munich universities – TUM and LMU, each with their own business incubators. That wasn’t always the case and it’s “very nice” because we also work well together, says Sailer. Together they want to help young entrepreneurs to find solutions to social problems. For this purpose, the Social Entrepreneurship Academy was founded, which promoted, for example, Recup, today Germany’s largest reusable system for the catering industry, or Nearbees, a start-up that enables hobby beekeepers to market their honey at a fair price, so that they can make money in can invest in caring for their bee colonies.
Knowledge transfer is no longer a unique selling point of universities; Interested parties can learn a lot on the Internet, where lectures can be found in abundance. “So we have to see how we can offer the students added value,” says Sailer. Seminars and research programs that convey practical knowledge are crucial for this. And the opportunity to network with students all over Europe and worldwide, with start-ups, companies, incubators and investors, “with the real world”, as Sailer calls it.
That’s why the university doesn’t just teach how an innovation process works or how to write a business plan. There are also interdisciplinary projects at the SCE and the HM in which, for example, business administration students are brought together with prospective mechanical engineers and designers and have to solve a specific task in small teams – from the problem to the finished product and business model, for example for more animal welfare. “We try to reach as many students as possible,” says Sailer. “A good third of all university students take part in such a project with us and become part of our network.” A number of projects have long since become companies. Last year alone there were 35 successful spin-offs.