The Business Model Canvas gives your idea the structure it needs to survive contact with reality.

What is a business idea, really? At its core, a business idea is two things in one: a problem you want to address, and a solution you believe can solve it. Both halves matter equally.

Building a company involves many steps, from choosing the right legal structure and exploring funding options to refining the business model and market strategy. While the process can sometimes feel overwhelming, it is also an exciting and rewarding journey.

The founder’s sense of self needs to evolve just as much as the company does. Speed, control, and hands-on execution are vital early on, but later they can become obstacles to growth.

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.

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.

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.

A Manual of Me is a structured self-description. Each team member reflects on how they work best and documents their preferences for communication and collaboration.

The Max Planck Society stands for research excellence – but how do you turn discoveries into real-world impact? MAX!mize helps researchers transform insights into innovations and even launch a start-up.

Here’s a quick and honest overview of financing options for your start-up – with pros, cons, and practical tips to help you decide.

This tool guide offers practical tips to help your start-up team work smarter, create faster, and grow your business effectively.

Let’s talk about how and why intellectual property can be a key success factor for your science-based start-up.

Thinking about founding a start-up? The key question is: Is your technology ready for the market? Get to know the 9 different levels of technology readiness.

You’ve got groundbreaking research? To build a successful start-up, a business plan is essential – a clear roadmap to guide your journey from idea to impact.

Whether you're looking for your first investor, a trusted advisor, or even your future co-founder – your stakeholder network can be the difference between potential and progress.

From idea and teambuildung to business model and branding - step by step to your science-based start-up.

Inside the Bootcamp: How future sciencepreneurs win a spot in Phase 1 After submitting a promising application, selected start-ups enter a three-day Bootcamp where their ideas are challenged, refined, and tested from every angle. But only those that convince the expert jury on the third day of the Bootcamp make it to Phase 1. Curious how the decision gets made? Get an interesting glimpse into the process from a jury member’s perspective. As an expert in the innovation of busi

Basic research at the highest level and its transfer into practical applications are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, scientific excellence and commercial success often go hand in hand, as many Nobel Prize winners from Max Planck Institutes who are involved in business start-ups or innovations have shown. This is precisely where we want to pick up and use MAX!mize to encourage and enable researchers at the Max Planck Institutes to successfully transfer their scientifi

In 2025, two new batches will start. Batch #5 has already kicked-off. A total of 10 teams were able to convince the Bootcamp jury and are now in Phase 1. If you are also thinking about applying for our start-up incubator with your research-based start-up idea, you are welcome to do so from 17th of March until 7th of July, where the application window for Batch #6 opens. We collected three top things for aspiring future Max Planck founders to do right now. Rights: Kimberly Kob