Ever since the foundation of CDTM, entrepreneurship has been one of its fundamental pillars. Accordingly, CDTM supports entrepreneurship with a variety of activities aiming at facilitating the foundation and growth of entrepreneurial ventures. CDTM does thereby not limit its efforts to exclusively support members of the program, external ventures and individuals are welcome as well. The ultimate goal is to establish a lively and thriving start-up community in the area of digital technology. To reach this goal, CDTM includes entrepreneurial topics into the curriculum of its study program, organizes a variety of entrepreneurship events, serves as an incubator to digital technology start-ups and maintains an active network of entrepreneurial students and seasoned entrepreneurs as well as investors.

Two of the three core courses of CDTM’s curriculum revolve around entrepreneurship. The first one is called Managing Product Development (MPD) and teaches students how to successfully develop products that could be the foundation of a start-up. While doing so, there is a strong emphasis on the needs of potential customers as well as a business plan which is submitted to the Munich Business Plan Competition. The second one is called entrepreneurship laboratory (e-lab) and allows students to take on the perspective of an entrepreneur by having to solve a real-life strategic problem of a start-up. The students gather insights into how a start-up works by spending one day a week at the according company while working towards a solution for the problem they were given. In addition to these core courses, CDTM offers a variety of elective and facilitation courses on entrepreneurial topics such as the Internet Entrepreneur School, Entrepreneurial Negotiation or Business Planning.

» Managing Product Development | Entrepreneurship Laboratory

Besides a tight integration into the curriculum, CDTM strengthens entrepreneurship through organizing various events around this topic. The main events in this category are a recruiting fair for start-ups, a business pitching competition and a networking event. The recruiting fair called GROW is organized once a year and aims at bringing start-ups together with students who are interested in internships or permanent positions in an entrepreneurial environment. The business pitching competition called Entrepreneurship Camp takes place once a year as well. It targets prospecting entrepreneurs and helps them to develop a pitch for their ideas under the guidance of experienced founders. In addition to these yearly events, CDTM offers a networking event called Inspire&Dine which takes place three times during each semester. This event targets current students, alumni and external guests and consist of short talks and discussions on various topics often with an entrepreneurial focus.

» CDTM GROW Start-Up Forum | Entrepreneurship Camp | Inspire&Dine

In addition to organizing entrepreneurial events, CDTM also serves as an incubator for start-ups. CDTM provides student teams with office space, resources and access to its network to enable their first entrepreneurial steps. Such teams can thereby benefit from student projects run at CDTM as the results of such projects may contribute to the product or strategy of the according start-up team. In addition, the CDTM network can be accessed to receive consulting from experts on specific topics such as online marketing or patent law, seek advice from experienced entrepreneurs or get in contact with potential investors. In the past, student teams have made good use of these opportunities, successfully securing significant funding and building veritable companies.

Finally, CDTM maintains an active entrepreneurial network. Students are in close contact to alumni who have started their own companies. In addition, there are many opportunities throughout the semester to get in touch with seasoned entrepreneurs or potential investors, may it be inside the classroom after an inspiring lecture or outside of the classroom at one of the many official or private events of the CDTM community.

Besides activities focusing primarily on its students, CDTM also aims at strengthening the entrepreneurial community in Munich in general. As part of a program called the CDTM Start-up Club, CDTM organizes events exclusively for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and discuss common problems. The Start-up Club also provides coaching sessions on how to best tap the CDTM network as well as a coaching program where start-ups help each other out with knowledge and support in areas of respective core competencies.

» CDTM Start-Up Club | CDTM Alumni Club

As a result of all these activities, entrepreneurship is very present at CDTM and it happens fairly regular that current or former students found their own companies. About one third of all CDTM students work in an entrepreneurial setting after finishing the program. During the last ten years, former CDTM students have founded more than 50 companies. Many of these companies have become quite successful, like for example the event platform Amiando which was recently acquired by XING for 10 million Euros or the fashion portal Stylight which received a significant investment from Holtzbrinck Ventures, one of the sponsors of CDTM.

» CDTM related Start-Ups and Ventures