Venture Lab Software/AI
In 2011, Marc Andreessen famously said that “Software is eating the world”, thus encouraging entrepreneurs around the world to explore opportunities in this space. 10 years after, Software has not finished eating the world and Artificial Intelligence will be a $ 60 B + market growing at 40% per annum. For all of you who are studying at TUM, may it be as Computer Science students or as domain experts, this represents tremendous opportunities to find a niche, start and grow your own company.
We are here at the Venture Lab Software/AI to help you navigate the founder journey, starting from any initial intuition you would have, validating ideas to getting started, raising funding and growing your company. We offer you a strong team consisting of former entrepreneuers sharing your enthusiams for startups and eager to support your endeavours.
Venture Lab SW/AI Mission
The Only mission of the TUM Venture Lab SW/AI is to help entrepreneurs.
This comes in the following areas:
- First, accelerating scalable business ideas and startups in the Software & AI field.
- Second, advancing the development of software/AI solutions for business ideas across disciplines and Venture Labs, as Software/AI will be a major component in any new venture.
- Third, supporting scientists in turning their research and intuitions into viable business ideas.
The TUM Venture Lab SW/AI is the central platform for business models based on AI and Software 2.0 and promotes interdisciplinary innovation with other TUM Venture Labs (deep-tech software development). To achieve this, various educational courses, venturing programs, networking events, and access to resources and funding are offered.
Who are we looking for?
You can think of being an entrepreneurship at any stage in your studies.
You can be on day one of your Bachelor studies if you have an intuition that it is possible to start a business. You can be finishing your PhD and want to see how your research can translate into business opportunities.
You can be a founder or part of a founding team …
What we are looking for, what matters is that via your studies, your experience, you can make an hypothesis that “something can be done differently” to provide value which can become a source of a stable business.
Learning how to formalize these hypothesis, to develop first products, to test these hypothesis, and to pivot when you discover better insights until you have the elements for a stable business, these are the steps by which goes an entrepreneur.
Our target groups are directly aligned with our two main goals, namely providing a universal learning platform for all AI & SW enthusiasts, while at the same time helping experts in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Softwaredevelopment scaling their business ideas. Our target group consists of three generic groups.
Scientists:
- You are a scientist (PhD student, postdoc, professor, etc.) at TUM and want to learn more about how Software Engineering and/ or Artificial Intelligence can support your field of research? No matter where your research focus lies, our educational offerings can support you.
- You are close to finishing your dissertation and want to evaluate whether it could be turned into a business? You are not sure how to do that or where to find the right co-founder? Check out our venturing formats.
Students:
- You are studying Informatics (or similar) at TUM and would like to explore how to use your skills to tackle real-world problems, eventually even founding your own company? Join our education and venturing offerings.
- You are studying in a field other than Informatics, but are curious why “software is eating the world”, want to better understand software and artificial intelligence and collaborate with Informatics students? Then our education offerings might be just the thing you are looking for.
Why should you join?
Have you ever wondered as an experienced scientist if your research topic can be commercialized? Perhaps you are interested in hearing stories of other researchers that founded a successful technology-based company or are even looking for potential co-founders? As a student you might love building tech prototypes in your free time but are just not sure if entrepreneurship is the right thing.
Whether you are a student or researcher, an individual or a team, with or without informatics experience – we are there to support you!
Become part of the TUM Venture Lab initiative to further develop your business ideas and start your venture. The SW/AI Venture Lab can support you across different stages to translate your research strength into applied innovation, with special offers in:
Education offerings provide cross-functional market-driven applied technology skills for future entrepreneurs.
Venturing offerings help dedicated teams of entrepreneurs on their path from idea to venture, based on the domain-specific expertise of TUM and UnternehmerTUM.
Events & Network offerings help individuals and teams to connect with the entrepreneurial network within and beyond the Software/ AI Venture Lab.
Space & Infrastructure offerings provide you with the necessary workspace, resources, data- and computing infrastructure to turn your ideas into reality.
Offerings
The SW/AI Venture Lab aims to empower students, researchers, and entrepreneurs at TUM to apply software and artificial intelligence.To enable a tailored support for your specific needs, we have devised a four-layered offerings portfolio.
The SW/AI Venture Lab offers:
- Various educational courses to get you started or dive deeper - see subpage Educational Offerings
- Venturing programs for your unique business idea - see subpage Venturing Offerings
- Networking events to get involved in the community - see subpage Networking and Events
- Access to resources and funding - see subpage Resources and Funding