Start a business

Take advantage of our offer for your start-up qualification - tailored to your personal needs. In seminars and workshops on business start-up, you will acquire specific knowledge. You can train your skills in the business plan game and broaden your horizons with practice units abroad.

Business start-up seminar
The seminar will teach you how to think and act like an entrepreneur. Not only for the professional option of self-employment, but also for a career as an employee, it is important to be able to assess the consequences of decisions made and to understand the connections between decision-making areas.
In the seminars Business Start-up I as a theoretical component and Business Start-up II as a practical component, business basics such as marketing, funding and cost accounting are interlinked and brought together in a business plan. Soft skills such as creativity and presentation techniques are also strengthened.
Place, time. Registration

Business plan game
Would you like to act and make decisions like an entrepreneur in competition? You can do so in a fun way at the campus cup of the four-stage, international business plan game priME-Cup. Once a year, all students at Fulda University of Applied Sciences are invited to take part in this two-day course. No previous knowledge is required.
Place, time, registration

We are happy to support you in realising your idea. Our advisory service is your point of contact for all questions relating to self-employment. Coaching provides you with customised impulses. We answer specific questions about your start-up in a personal meeting. For example, we will advise you on organisational issues and funding options, start-up coaching and discounted office space.
We will be happy to arrange an appointment with you.

Do you have an innovative, promising business idea? Then take part in the university-wide ideas competition and receive professional feedback!
You can find all the information about the Ideas Competition 2025 here.

Our expert jury will choose the best three ideas from the entries. The contributions will also compete for the Audience Award at an awards ceremony with representatives from the university, regional politics and business. In addition to cash and non-cash prizes, participants will receive professional jury feedback and individual coaching on their idea.

Individuals or teams who are studying at the university or whose degree was awarded no more than three years ago can take part.

Further ideas competitions:

Hessen Ideas

The Hessen Ideen competition pits the best entrepreneurial start-up ideas from Hessen's universities against each other. The aim is to expand the start-up culture, to network the universities more closely with each other, to support the ideas of their members and to publicise them beyond the borders of the state. At the level of those interested in founding a company, the competition aims to give participants the impetus to further develop and implement their idea. Fulda University of Applied Sciences may nominate up to three ideas.

Open Idea Competition from AI Startup Rising

The AI Startup Rising Open Idea Competition aims to motivate potential founders and those interested in founding a company to develop and promote innovative and AI-based product or business ideas or research results. Under the motto "Change the world with your #AIdea", the format is aimed at all students and AI enthusiasts who have innovative AI ideas and would like to take their first steps in the start-up world. The deadline for submitting ideas is 2 July 2024

The start of self-employment should be well prepared. Costs often arise in the preparatory phase that quickly exceed your own financial means. There are various financing options for the planning and early phase of a business start-up, which we will be happy to advise you on.

Hessen Ideas Scholarship
In the early phase of the written assignment of an innovative, knowledge-based entrepreneurial business idea, the Hessen Ideas Scholarship program supports university members and start-up teams with an affinity for start-ups for six months with EUR 2,500 per month per person.

EXIST start-up grant
The EXIST start-up grant provides twelve months of financial support for the development of a product/service idea and the written assignment of a business plan until the company is founded. The planned business idea must be an innovative, technology-orientated or knowledge-based product with significant unique selling points and good prospects of business success.

EXIST Transfer of Research
The program, which passes through two funding phases, is interesting for research-based start-up projects with complex and high-risk development work. In the first phase, research results with start-up potential are further developed and questions regarding their implementation in technical products and procedures are clarified. A business plan is also written assignment and preparations are made for setting up a company. The submission of application for the second funding phase is then carried out by the founded enterprise.

Start-up scholarship push!
You can apply as a founder to further develop your start-up. The funding amount is up to EUR 40,000. The condition is that your enterprise is not older than five years and has its headquarters in Hesse or establishes it there within three months of the start of funding.

Hessen Ideas Crowdfunding
Hessen's higher education sector has a state-wide crowdfunding platform where innovative ideas are presented and supported.
A co-funding budget totalling €50,000 is available for the ideas, whereby every euro raised is doubled as part of match funding (up to a maximum of €5,000).

Bitfall Studios GmbH

BitfallStudios GmbH is a game studio specialising in the development and distribution of computer games for the PC. The focus is not only on the games themselves, but also on the development of independent proprietary software solutions on which future productions will be based. With the current project "HexaWorld", they are developing a new type of puzzle building strategy game in which the player builds a medieval city and tries to earn as many points as possible. At its centre is a specially developed and innovative world generation software that procedurally creates authentic landscapes.

The founding team passes specialised developers from various disciplines:

Lara Klimm (Programmer), Nico Pattmann (CEO, Technical Artist) and Nico Wegner (3D Artist) as well as Felix Günther (Producer, Game Designer).

erveat.

erveat. is a food start-up that has set itself the task of developing and distributing innovative, purely plant-based products made from organic ingredients. With their actions, they want to contribute to a healthier and more sustainable diet in general, without having to compromise on enjoyment and flavour. The team wants to drive a sustainable change in nutrition and at the same time contribute to nutrition education. Their first product is "Linto", a tofu-like preparation made from red lentils, which was also available to buy at the regional Christmas market in Fulda in 2021.

Behind it are: Sanja Gerland, Lea Nußbeutel, Celin Issing and Laura Keil