This Max Planck start-up project is tackling a very human challenge: helping vocal musicians and DJs connect better with their audiences.

Explore the research-based innovations our Batch #6 Max Planck start-ups are pursuing. Each team is pushing ideas forward that could help define the future.

Picture this: you’re about to pour yourself a glass of wine or spread some jam on fresh bread. Sweet, fruity, perfect. But then a thought creeps in – how many pesticides made their way onto these fruits? It’s a bitter aftertaste, quite literally. Because in today’s soft fruit production, artifical pesticides are still widely used. They keep pests away, yes – but at potentially high cost to our health and the environment. Alternatives exist, but until now, they haven’t been tr

Great ideas and groundbreaking research are essential for start-ups – but they also require courageous individuals willing to step from academia into the entrepreneurial world. It's a fact that our economy depends on innovative ideas and groundbreaking technologies in order to continue to grow. The Max Planck cosmos and its basic research offers the perfect conditions for this. Are You Ready to Unlock Your Entrepreneurial Potential? Our MAX!mize Teams in action The Start-up J

Early‑stage founders often see themselves as visionary, creative, and highly motivated — and with good reason. In the beginning, confidence, endurance, passion, and willingness to take risks are the exact traits that help turn an idea into a promising business concept. In this phase, many founders naturally see themselves as innovators — the people who spot opportunities, experiment boldly, and solve problems from first principles. But when a product finds product-market fi

Florian Kirschenhofer with Pascal Schweizer refering about Liquidity Planning Securing funding is often seen as one of the biggest challenges in building a start-up. However, a strong financing strategy is not about raising as much capital as possible — it is about raising the right type of capital at the right time. For science-based, technology-oriented, or research-driven ventures, capital planning must be closely aligned with development milestones, validation steps, and

Starting a company is always a leap into the unknown. Especially in the early stages, when a technology is still being developed and its market potential is uncertain, raising private capital can be difficult. This is where public funding plays a crucial role. According to the Deutscher Startup Monitor 2025 , more than half of all start-ups in Germany consider federal funding an important financing option, and almost half already use it. In fact, state funding is currently th

Agile team retrospectives are more than just meetings. They are a powerful tool to strengthen communication, trust, and team dynamics . By reflecting in a structured way, teams can consciously shape their collaboration and continuously improve. Whether it’s the Hot Air Balloon Retro, Sailboat Retrospective, Start-Stop-Continue method, or Starfish method, all these formats share one thing: they bring teams together, structure ideas, and make successes and challenges visible .