Start-up Spring School
Launch your own start-up in five days: That's the Start-up Spring School from the Transfer Center enaCom (University of Bonn) and Start-up-Manufaktur, the start-up center at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. Here, you will develop your own start-up ideas as part of a team. You will be supported by our experienced coaches and learn everything you need to know about starting a business. In addition, successful founders enrich our program with authentic insights into the real world of start-ups. The Spring School takes place at the Transfer Center (Brühler Str. 7, 53119 Bonn) and at DIGITALHUB (Am Hauptbahnhof 6, 53111 Bonn).
Don't have your own idea yet? No problem—your enthusiasm is all you need!
Any interested member of the University of Bonn and H-BRS is welcome: students, researchers, employees, alumni.
By the way, we will also be offering a Start-up Summer School. Find out more here. The next Start-up Spring School will take place in Spring 2027.
Program
The Spring School offers a varied mix: every day there is a technical input on the planned goal for the day, as well as methodology training with personal guidance. There is also plenty of time for research and individual or team work. In between, you will regularly present your results and progress and receive personal feedback from the trainers and the group.
Registration is closed.
- You don't need to have your own start-up idea to participate in the Start-up Spring School!
- If you already have your own business idea and would like to work on it, simply contact the organizing team in advance (see contact details below).
- Registration is closed and the Spring School is booked out.
Agenda and course content
You will start with an introduction and get to know the other participants. After a creative brainstorming session, you will form teams and develop your first business models—supported by GenAI and Perplexity.
You formulate hypotheses about customer needs and test them directly in the field. Through interviews with potential users, you gather valuable feedback and refine your ideas iteratively.
After further interviews, you will analyze market size, competition, and trends. An inspiring keynote speech and testimonials from successful founders will give you valuable insights.
You develop initial prototypes or mock-ups of your products/services. Then you refine your pitches to present your business idea convincingly.
Professional communication training will prepare you for the stage. You will then present your ideas to a jury of experienced founders and coaches.
After five informative, exciting, and perhaps exhausting days of work at the Start-up Spring School, you will not only have gained important business experience, but you will also receive a certificate for participating in this professional training program.
Review
Start-up Spring School 2026
There is a great deal of interest in the Start-up Spring School—as evidenced by the record-high number of registrations for the 2026 Spring School. The participants who managed to secure a spot presented pitches at the end of the intensive week, ranging from digital learning apps to washing machine filters.
Start-up Spring School 2025
For five days, the participants in the Start-up Spring School 2025 worked on their own ideas. A highlight was the discussion with a guest founder, during which the participants gained insight into the regional startup scene.
Start-up Spring School 2024
During the multi-day workshop at the Start-up Spring School 2024, participants enthusiastically developed their own ideas and business concepts. At the end of the week, during the pitch presentations, four promising digital applications were presented to the jury.
Start-up Spring School 2023
The ideas presented by the participants of the Start-up Spring School 2023 were all focused on the goal of improving society and making people’s lives easier. With this mission in mind, the participants developed business concepts ranging from technical innovations to digital applications.
“For those interested in starting a business, the enaCom School offers the ideal environment to immerse themselves in the start-up world and advance their own ideas. The Summer School was where our Sweeternative team was born, and it helped us immensely in turning our idea into reality.”
Dr. Marcel Hövels, Participant in the Start-up Summer School 2022
“The enaCom School allowed us to run through the start-up project at a rapid pace. There we learned things that no lecture could teach us. Our team then put our summer school project into practice: without summer school, there would be no LightningPose.”
Jakob Vanhoefer, Participant in the Start-up Summer School 2021
Contact
Dr. Alexander Küsshauer
