Getting ideas out of the drawer!
“Anyone thinking of getting a start-up going can’t contact us early enough,” says Christin Menke. But people who already have a complete business plan in their pocket will also find a welcome waiting for them in the former bank building on Geiststraße – in the University of Münster’s “REACH – EUREGIO Start-Up Center”. Christin Menke, 33, has been a member of the coaching team at REACH since 2020 and she provides advice for would-be entrepreneurs, from students to professors. It is a career which she never once dreamt of while studying sport in Bielefeld and Cologne. “There were 20 people in my master’s degree course, which actually produced two start-ups,” she says, “but I didn’t thought about the subject at all. It really was chance that led me to it.”
Christin Menke’s first job was in the development department of a Bavarian bicycle manufacturer. She later changed jobs and joined a service provider that dealt with approvals for products in the field of pharmaceutical and medical technology. When her boss there asked her if she would like to join his start-up, she said yes. “There were four of us, and we were naïve,” she says, looking back. “When one of our first customers expressed an interest and asked us to send a contract, I didn’t have a clue what they meant and had to find out first which contract they were talking about. At any rate, we didn’t yet have any contract at that point.” The document in question was a standard one in the industry, and they quickly cobbled one together. “Anyway, things had to be done that we hadn’t previously had anything to do with. At that time, we could certainly have done with support such as REACH offers,” she says. “Ultimately, it didn’t work out. But I learnt a lot in those two years – especially from our mistakes.”
Christin Menke now passes on her experience to others. For example, in the first start-up which she herself mentored: a company called “Truion” – which at that time was still called “CatSper” – developed a test which recognises when men cannot produce children naturally. “Couples who want to have children are saved a lot of disappointment with such a test,” is Menke’s conviction. Several years of experience had already gone into the idea when the founders took it to REACH. It’s exciting to help a start-up as it gets going, Menke says. “Now, the product has been on sale for about half a year, and clinics can carry out the test in any standard laboratory.”
Sometimes ideas turn up at REACH which surprise even a coach. The “Ambient Sphere” start-up, for example, develops background music for so-called “pen and paper” role-plays. “I had no idea before that there was a market for something like that,” says Christin Menke. “But there is actually a large community behind it.” At REACH, she sits at a desk in the spacious entrance area which is equipped with flexible chairs, tables and whiteboards. “It’s brilliant that everyone meets here in this space, because more ideas are generated in discussions than when people work alone,” she says. One of the ideas produced just recently is also clearly visible here: on the tables there are colourful vases made from recycled plastic.
Since 2019, 80 start-ups have already been engendered by REACH, which collaborates with the University of Twente in Enschede (Netherlands) as well as with Münster University of Applied Sciences. The coaching team is currently providing support for 159 more start-up projects. REACH needs patience and perseverance to raise awareness in all the University’s faculties for the idea of start-ups, says Menke. “At the beginning we were still benefiting from the previous structures,” she says. “Successful start-ups such as Pixel Photonics and E-Lyte had already been given support by the Innovation Office and had got off the ground in this way. The colleagues’ knowledge and the experience are really helpful now.” Christin Menke is enthusiastic about the products which “her” start-ups come up with, but her motivation comes above all from a conviction that good ideas – which the University is full of – should not be put away and left in a drawer. She also recommends students to consider a start-up as a possible career option. “It doesn't mean you directly have to become the next Elon Musk.”
Brigitte Heeke
This article is from the brochure "Twelve months, twelve people", published in February 2024.
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