Michael is StartMiUp network coordinator and project manager at Philipps University of Marburg, where he holds the professorship for General Business Administration, in particular for Technology and Innovation Management, and serves as Executive Director of MAFEX. He has his own practical start-up experience. In parallel to his academic career, he led a public company he founded in the IT industry as a board member for almost ten years and now serves on the company's supervisory board.

Michael gives the following tip to start-ups: "Anyone who founds a company naturally wants to make their start-up project a success. But especially with innovative start-up ideas, there is always a risk of failure. People don't like to talk about this. Personally, I would not speak of failure when a start-up project is stopped at an early stage, but of a successful termination! Therefore, conditions for a possible exit should always be included in the business planning. This shows professionalism and saves valuable resources, which you can then use for the next start-up project with more experience!"