Category: 1.6 Software Startups

  • Interview with GSO on academia and entrepreneurship

    Interview with GSO on academia and entrepreneurship

    The German Scholars Organization (GSO) just published an interview with me on how to create startups from research in Germany How can you spin your research into a startup? We asked Dirk Riehle, professor of Computer Science and advocate for founders with an academic background, for insights and advice. Before becoming a professor, Dirk has…

  • Upcoming talks on First Ph.D. Then Startup

    Upcoming talks on First Ph.D. Then Startup

    Next month, February 2021, I will be presenting lightening talks at both FOSDEM 2021 (Feb 6th) and FOSS Backstage 2021 (Feb 10th) about how to get your Ph.D. and have a startup too. At FOSDEM it will be a 5min. presentation, at FOSS Backstage a 15min. presentation. Both conferences are free to attend virtually, and…

  • Ten years of student startups

    Ten years of student startups

    A main reason why I became a professor is to create and guide student startups, in general, and from my research projects in particular. It has been a bumpy ride, to say the least, but I guess, every learning curve is. Data points (startups) are still not plenty, but I can nevertheless discern some learnings.…

  • The Perfect Professor for University Startups

    The Perfect Professor for University Startups

    A professor, so my belief, can play an important role in generating startups from University research. Most professors don’t, but some do, and I wanted to summarize my experiences as to what would be the perfect combination in one person. Situation There are three ingredients to get a university startup set-up and off the ground:…

  • Cargo cult startup incubators

    Cargo cult startup incubators

    The continued creation of me-too startup incubators reminds me of the (South Seas’) cargo cult. Richard Feynman tells the story this way: The cargo cult people were natives of the South Seas who, during the world war, benefited from Western civilizations bringing cargo to their land. After the war ended, and the cargo stopped coming,…

  • Professors and Startups

    My primary goal in becoming a professor was to turn my (hoped-for excellent) research and teaching into startups. For that reason I created the Startupinformatik program and set-up my teaching to support it. Sadly, I’ve been noticing over the years that things don’t seem to get easier but harder. Specifically, “the system” (I’ll explain below)…