Entrepreneurial Realities

In this week's episode, Antoine and Christos , MD TUM Venture Labs Built Environment, meet Dénes Honus , a serial entrepreneur and currently Chief Commercial Officer of metr Building Management Systems . Together, they elaborate on the importance of built environment for societal challenges and the corresponding megatrends that shape the industry.

In this week's episode,  Antoine  meets  Patrick Strunkmann-Meister , the Founder and CEO of  BAO . Patrick tells about his experiences as an XPRENEURS mentor and tips on how young founders can identify the true value of their technical solutions and convince potential customers.

On this week’s podcast, Antoine interviews Ravi Venkatesan . Ravi was last on this podcast on episode #14 as the founder of GAME (Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship to illustrate how entrepreneurship can be a force for social good. Ravi is not here in his new capacity as Chairman of The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, he is back this week to speak about his latest book: “ What...

This week's  TUM Venture Labs  podcast features two inspiring guests from Infineon : Nico Kelling , Head of AI Center of Excellence, and Lamin Ben-Hamdane , Head of Start-up cooperations. Together with Antoine , we deep-dived into: Infineon’s Digital Agenda the vast potential of AI for the semiconductor industry how innovation cooperation works for the benefit of both: start-ups and Infi...

In today's episode, Antoine meets  Markos Kern , a serial entrepreneur, CEO of  LYMB.iO , and co-founder of  Civil Relief Munich . He tells us about his newest organization ( Civil Relief Munich ), which he co-founded to help thousands of people who had to fly due to the war in their home country. Three weeks after its creation, Civic Relief Munich has gathered a permanent team of 8...

In this week's episode, Antoine meets Andreas Schwarzenbrunner , a Partner at Speedinvest . Andreas introduced Speedinvest and his way from TUM to a VC fund in their discussion. Furthermore, Andreas explained how Speedinvest values early-stage start-ups and added some valuable tips about fundraising.

In this episode Antoine meets Gregor Haidl , a Senior Investment Manger at High-Tech Gründersfonds (HTGF) and TUM Alumnus. The HTGF is a German-based VC fund with public and private investors. In their discussion, Antoine and Gregor are talking about the operating model of the HTGF as well as how early-stage teams should engage with their first customer(s) and early adopters.

We are back from our short break:  Antoine Leboyer  and  Roman Werner , the MD of our  FAB Venture Lab , discuss with  Judith Camarcat , VC Associate at  Five Season Ventures , the latest trends, and challenges in Food Tech. In their exciting discussion, they cover the topic from a business as well as a research angle and especially spotlight the DACH market.

First Momentum Ventures is the first student-run VC fund founded by Sebastian and his co-founders. In this week's session, Antoine and Sebastian are talking about the story and business of First Momentum and what fellow students can learn from it.

In this week's episode, Antoine discusses with Nicolas Kozakiewicz , Chief Innovation Officer of Worldline , the hype and reality of the Blockchain. Therefore, they elaborate on the technology's primary use cases, the chances, and their limitations.

To reinvent urban mobility Pascal Blum and his Co-Founders developed electric mopeds and founded their own company, unu motors . In this week’s episode, Pascal and Antoine discuss unu’s path to a successful startup and its challenges along the way.

Entrepreneurial Realities, listen to Mark Gazeki , a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, to start the year. Mark talks about his lessons learned during the founding and scaling companies and his tips for other founders.

We conclude this 2021 year with a thoughtful interview with Ravi Venkatesan. On this podcast so far, we have discussed with Entrepreneurs, VCs and Thought leaders to better understand some of the aspects of building companies. There is another aspect of entrepreneurship which is to be a force for positive societal change. This is for this purpose that Ravi Venkatesan has created India’s Global All...

This week's TUM Venture Labs podcast features the winners of the TUM.ai Makeathon . As a Munich-based student initiative, TUM.ai aims to have a positive impact through combining AI with entrepreneurship including their Makeathons and projects such as TUM.ai Entrepreneurship Lab in Ghana. In this episode, we talked about the exciting combination of Venture and AI, as well as the Makeathon , AI4Good...

It is not obvious that all Tech Entrepreneurs are charismatic figures like some of the greatest entrepreneurs. Many aspiring students at Munich TUM need some form of encouragement and confidence. Too many believe that their technological prowess is only what they need to succeed on their ventures. Richard Tedlow is Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School. Immediately after his...

Peter Raulerson is a former SW CEO - Technology Consultant. He has worked on a large number of engagements related to Go-to-Market redesigns for HW and SW Companies. Along with former Plantronics Europe GM Jean-Claude Malraison and Antoine Leboyer, Current MD of the TUM Venture Lab for Software and AI, he has co-written Building Routes to Customers: Proven Strategies for Profitable Growth . One of...

One of the many misconceptions on Entrepreneurship is that it is linked with innovation and reserved for brilliant young graduates. At the Harvard Business School, Professor Royce Yudkoff has done a comprehensive study of different types of entrepreneurs that, at a stage in their career, want to use their experience and position to become entrepreneurs by acquiring an existing company with their m...

Bill Reichert is a founder of Garage.com, a legendary Tech investor, and a current partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures. He is also the writer of the great and essential: "Getting to Wow!" Silicon Valley Pitches Secrets for Entrepreneurs , which is simply the best book I have read to understand how to make a strong pitch to a VC. He speaks to us from Silicon Valley about how to make a good pitch, the...

Harvard Business School Emeritus Professor  Bill Sahlman  has run several of the most influential classes on Entrepreneurship which have inspired many entrepreneurs worldwide. His research has had an immense influence. His book on  How to write a business plan  is a major classic. His case studies are being taught at TUM and in every Entrepreneurial minded university worldwide....

Daniel Garnitz is the Co-Founder and CEO of  FAAREN , a Wurzburg-based provider of solutions to enable car dealers to offer car subscriptions to their customers. FAAREN was founded three years ago. They recently closed a significant funding round which values them in the double digits range. Daniel talks about the fundraising process, which was not an easy one, and presents valuable insights,...

This is a crucial episode of Entrepreneurial Realities for all startups we work with at TUM. They are very strong on technology but lack marketing experience and sensitivity but need to gain visibility and market insight to get prospects and clients. This is a similar experience I went through personally in my former company. The person who helped us overcome this challenge and build a fantastic M...

Of all Early Stage/Deeptech Venture Capital Firms, UVC Partners is unique for us given its proximity to Munich TUM and the impressive set of successful companies they have invested in and supported. Today, we speak with Andreas Unseld, TUM Alumni and partner at UVC, on a series of topics: how he became a Venture Capitalist, what he is looking for in projects he invests in … and as always, what he...

This is a follow-up to last week's podcast where we interviewed Tom Eisenmann from the Harvard Business School. In this conclusion of our two-part series, we now turn to Martin Bitzinger . Martin is Group Vice President Product Management at Canadian Telecom Giant Mitel . He is also a TUM Alumni 2001 whose personal story you simply have to hear. Yes, Entrepreneurship is hard and even the best entr...

We now embark on a two-part series about the challenges of entrepreneurship. Professor Tom Eisenmann is co-Chair of the Harvard Business School Center of Entrepreneurship . He recently wrote an important book called Why Startups Fail: A New Roadmap for Entrepreneurial Success , which is an essential complement to the “Lean Startup”. It looks at ventures which followed this approach and yet failed....

In a recent edition, the Economist identified Tracking Space Debris as a fast growing business. In this interview, we hear from Luisa Buinhas , Christoph Bamann and Stefan Frey , the three founders of Vyoma who are developing innovative solutions to tackle this topic. In detail, we hear the three founders, how they met, gained their domain expertise, and raised funding.