Gründen@Würzburg and the Wirtschaftsjunioren Würzburg (young economists Würzburg) selected the most innovative startups of Würzburg again in 2023. The winners of the categories "Global Hero" and "Local Hero" are committed to accessibility and sustainability - both teams consist partly of THWS graduates.
Published on 16 July 2024
A higher education institution is not only a place of teaching and research - it is also a place of innovations. According to the German Startup Monitor, higher education institutions are essential drivers for innovative entrepreneurship. About 49.2 percent of startups questioned in the survey had received support by higher education institutions before or during the founding process. According to the study, in addition to providing a network of contacts, support by individuals like professors were among the most important supportive means. The entrepreneurship programmes also prepared the graduates for founding.
This can also be seen at THWS and Würzburg's entrepreneurial landscape. In degree programmes like Business Administration, E-Commerce, or Media Management, there are entire lectures dedicated to entrepreneurship and workshops on idea generation. In addition, the EntrepreneurSHIP project team is offering advice and events for interested students from Würzburg and Schweinfurt. This is improving the startup culture at THWS and further expands the network to Würzburg's entrepreneurs.
The winners of the Würzburg Startup Award 2023
The support of founders and innovation spirit among THWS graduates is also reflected in the city's startup scene. The most innovative startups of the city and the region of Würzburg were again honoured by the Würzburg Startup Award. Four of the six participating startups are linked to THWS - among them the two winning teams.
For the eighth time, the founding network "Gründen@Würzburg" has issued the startup award in the category "Global Hero 2023" for business models that show potential for supra-regional success. At the same time, the young economists (Wirtschaftsjunioren) have awarded the startup award "Local Hero" for the fifth time. This award honours regional founding ideas. The software startup Eye-Able received the "Global Hero 2023"-award. The company has been dedicated to increased online accessibility for more than three years now. Balcony power plants and the vision of a more sustainable Würzburg secured the win of the "Local Hero 2023"-award for the founders of Main-SteckerSolar.
"Global Hero" Eye-Able for online accessibility
The founding team that received the "Global Hero 2023"-award consists of Oliver Greiner, Chris Schmidt, Tobias Greiner, and Eric Braun. Together, the founding team managed to develop a software that supports website operators to make their online offers barrier-free. "The decisive factor for founding was our vision of making the Internet more accessible to everyone. Before that, I had not even thought about becoming self-employed," Oliver Greiner remembers. He just got aware of the need because of a friend who had to terminate his studies due to impaired vision. Up until today, most advertisement offers are barely accessible for people with impaired vision.
After Greiner had become aware of the problem, he spent his remaining time at THWS to work out the concept, always driven by the thought of helping people with and without disability to have equal access to information on the Internet. "Professor Dr. Michael Müßig pushed me to work on my startup idea. Without him I might not have had the idea to start a company," Greiner clarifies. His personal motivation as well as support through THWS were key factors that enabled him to finally turn his idea reality.
Now, over three years after their launch in April 2021, the co-founders have won the Würzburg startup award "Global Hero" - a present of the city honouring their commitment, as Oliver Greiner thinks. Because despite their current goals to open locations all over Europe, the Würzburg-based startup does not lose its attachment to the region. "The good infrastructure and the central location make Würzburg a good location for entrepreneurs. That is why we still have our main location in in Margetshöchheim near Würzburg," Greiner explains.
Main-SteckerSolar: Becoming the "Local Hero" through balcony power plants
Another startup team that has benefited from the advantages of Würzburg's entrepreneurial landscape is the team of Main-SteckerSolar, the winner of the "Local Hero Category of 2023". Maximilian Braun, former THWS-student, and co-founder Julian Entner, alumni of Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, have spent the last two years on making Würzburg more sustainable.
House owners are already widely relying on photovoltaic plants to generate electricity independently and sustainably. While writing his bachelor's thesis in 2020, Braun became aware that the little sister of the PV-plant, the balcony power plant, was still relatively unknown in comparison. In 2021, Braun and Entner realised their business idea to offer individual energy production methods and optional installation. "To us, the solution in the fight against climate change is the balcony power plant," Braun emphasises. Main-SteckerSolar wants to demonstrate how simple the installation of balcony power plants can be, and the energy costs households can thus save every year.
Because Braun only developed his business idea of Main-SteckerSolar towards the end of his studies, he did not know about support offers by THWS back then. This is why Entner and he were on their own when it came to creating the first business plan up to registering their business. "Having started a company myself, I now know how important financial support and a good network are at the start of self-employment," Braun concludes. In order to minimise financial risks and to get easier access to the entrepreneurial network, he recommends that students toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur should get informed about support offers at the higher education institution.
EntrepreneurSHIP at THWS
To maintain the network with Würzburg's entrepreneurial scene and to encourage students to start their own business, THWS has established the EntrepreneurSHIP-project. "EntrepreneurSHIP does not only stand for entrepreneurship itself, SHIP is an acronym for Sensitisation and Heightening of Innovative Potentials," explains Dr. Felix Liedel, research associate at EntrepreneurSHIP. Against this background, the team wants to inform about their own offers regarding startups and wants to qualify THWS students to start their own business. A solid founding culture was especially important in light of knowledge transfer, according to THWS. That way, ideas developed at THWS - like those of Eye-Able and Main-SteckerSolar - could develop their full potential in the economy.
