WISE*UP: Women in Startup and Entrepreneurship

With WISE*UP, you benefit from a varied programme of workshops, networking events on campus and individual consultation appointments with the start-up network as well as personal exchange with your mentor. The basis for our collaboration is a scholarship agreement. To ensure that each participant receives the best possible support, you undertake to take part in the workshops and events developed. The two central highlights - a joint kick-off with all participants and the final pitch event where you present your results - are mandatory.

Our programme serves to sensitise and qualify women to start-ups with a special focus on ideation, self-reflection, vision work and women-specific sensitisation topics. There is no obligation to found a company. At the end of the funding programme, you will present your start-up idea and the results you have achieved in a pitch presentation and a compact one-pager.

If you found your own company during the qualification phase or in a subsequent funding phase, that's great. However, if you want to take more time for your start-up idea, that's also fine - because the entrepreneurial spirit has no fixed schedule!

With our programmes and events specially designed for female founders, you know exactly what is important when setting up a business. You will have intensively analysed your strengths, your way of working and your visions, giving you a clear picture of all the dimensions of your start-up project. In our network, you will get to know inspiring female founders, benefit from their experience and make valuable contacts.

Numerous co-operations that have been established here are proof of this: The support of your cohort gives you a decisive advantage over lone fighters. In dialogue with like-minded people, you develop a viable business idea or take your existing concept further, validate your business model and make sensible adjustments. You know the next steps on your start-up journey - from finding a team to funding opportunities and follow-up financing - and are ideally equipped to successfully launch your company.

Currently, the proportion of women founding start-ups in Germany is still low, which means that the potential of women in the start-up sector is not being fully utilised. In terms of funding from the long-standing EXIST programme, the proportion of female founders has only averaged around 20 percent in recent years. This proportion should be significantly increased in the coming years.

Incidentally, the TU Braunschweig already stands out positively here: with 37% women among the students, the TU has recorded an average of 20% participation of women in the supervised start-up projects, 25% participation in the EXIST start-up grant/research transfer applications and 60% women among the start-ups over the past 5 years. We want to build on these strengths.