Start-up competition "5-Euro-Business" at THI – Students present their ideas in the online finals

The start-up competition "5-Euro-Business" entered the online finals last Thursday at Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences (THI) with the final presentations of the participating founding teams. Students from all disciplines proved their skills as entrepreneurs. Over a period of eight weeks, they had developed their own business ideas and put them into practice with a symbolic starting capital of five euros. Representatives from local companies and institutions were on hand to provide support and helpful tips. The event was organized by THI's Center of Entrepreneurship (CoE), which promotes the start-up activities of students and researchers.

Veronika Leitenbacher and Thomas Egen of "IMPROVE GbR" landed on the digital winner's podium with their app developed specifically to improve resource allocation in agriculture. The solution focuses on a competence-oriented allocation and management of employees. The idea originated from a project in the Flight and Vehicle Informatics course at THI. The idea was further developed in collaboration with Marcus Reszat, Managing Director for Entrepreneurship Teaching at the CoE. Business mentor Thomas Hirsch, Managing Director of HIRSCH Engineering Solutions from Eichstätt, provided support in designing the business model and business plan, which the team presented as part of the competition.

Second place was won by the five-member team "Auxillo GbR". The business idea of Carmen Gaugler, Franziska Kroneck, Christian Schönemann, Karolina Heigemeyr and Georg Lisca promises help with IT problems. On their online platform, the students would like to connect primarily older customers seeking help with the appropriate IT experts and thus offer quick solutions to everyday problems. The project was supported by mentor Karl Wirges from Elektronische Fahrwerksysteme GmbH in Gaimersheim.

The team "SPRYZE GbR" led by Andreas Riegler took third place. SPRYZE represents a web-based platform used by fans and followers to give their favorite influencers and content creators new ideas for future streams, videos, posts or stories. Dissemination and rating of content is done via likes. The business model is based on micropayments, a payment method for small amounts. Dr. Paul Spannaus, also from Elektronische Fahrwerksysteme GmbH, provided advice.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Hof, THI Vice President and Head of the CoE: "This year in the 5-Euro Business Competition, our students and doctoral candidates have once again impressively demonstrated that they can use the digitization skills they have acquired at THI to create future-proof innovations. By anchoring the topic of entrepreneurships in the THI's degree programs, our students can put what they have learned into practice in their early semesters and build successful startups from their own ideas."

A total of 33 students in eleven teams presented their business ideas at the virtual final event. The winning team received 800 euros for its performance, the runners-up could look forward to 600 euros, and there was 400 euros in prize money for third place.

"5-Euro-Business" is a project of the Bildungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft e. V. Regional partners are the Ingolstadt University of Technology and NEWEXIST - Die Gründerinitiative. The main sponsors of the project are the employers' associations of the Bavarian metal and electrical industry. The initial sponsor is the Interessengemeinschaft Selbständiger, Unternehmer und freiberuflich Tätiger e. V. (ISU).