Start-Up Initiative SMILE

SMILE.start supports the start of entrepreneurial independence. This is where start-up founders, business people, artists or freelancers receive the necessary tools for professional and personal qualification and development.

Just how good is an idea? What do potential customers think about a new service or product? With the help of modern market research methods, SMILE provides answers to these questions. SMILE.markttest also supports the process of designing prototypes of products or services. Existing data is reviewed and analysed.

Freelancers have to deal with unique entrepreneurial challenges. The SMILE.freiberufler module prepares them in the best possible way for their start in the world of business.

SMILE.medibiz supports young companies in the healthcare, biotechnology and e-health sectors as they pass through the early growth phase. SMILE.medibiz is funded by the Leipzig Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer.

Women start businesses differently! As part of a scholarship programme, SMILE team members can address the particular challenges faced by female start-up teams.

From theory to practice: SMILE prepares founders for the real world and teaches them how to turn knowledge into skills. In one-on-one and group workshops they learn how to present themselves and convince others of their idea.

The software service provider Webdata Solutions supports its customers in optimising profit margins and using resources efficiently. The company’s services include software-based solutions for market and product range analysis, price monitoring and price management. Among the company’s customers are well-known online shops and leading brands. In addition, the company cooperates with a number of technology and distribution partners. The two co-founders and former employees of Leipzig University, Sabine Maßmann and Dr Hanna Köpcke, today are part of the company’s management team. In the early phase, the start-up received financial support from the TGFS (Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen). Today, Webdata Solutions has about 15 employees.

The online radio station detektor.fm, operated by BEBE Medien GmbH, offers an online radio programme with news items on politics, business and culture as well as modern pop music. detektor.fm is also a service provider for podcasts and audio productions. The radio station is aimed at young people, mostly academics, throughout Germany, especially in large and university cities. Before founding the station in 2009, the founders worked with SMILE to develop a business plan. The co-founder and current managing director Christian Bollert is, like many other employees of detektor.fm, an alumnus of Leipzig University.

Since its foundation in 2009, BEBE Medien GmbH and its radio station detektor.fm have received numerous awards, including the German Radio Prize (2012), the European Podcast Award (2012), the Ernst Schneider Prize (2017) and three nominations for the Grimme Online Award (2011, 2013, 2017). Moreover, detektor.fm is the audio partner of many newspapers and organisations, such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Zeit Online, taz, Politico Europe, the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO).

Effigos AG specialises in the visualisation of complex information from the life sciences. For this purpose, the company creates highly detailed 3D graphics and interactive applications all the way down to the cellular level. Effigos AG'’s digital models are used in educational institutions, science, the press and industry and commerce. The current chairman of the board, Dr Jens Grosche, and former biologists and bioinformatics researchers from Leipzig University are members of the founding team. In the early phase of the company’s foundation, the firm was supported by the Leipzig Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) and the Saxon Development Bank (SAB) as part of the programmes “Wirtschaft trifft Wissenschaft” (Business Meets Science) and “Gemeinschaftsaufgabe Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur - GRW” (a joint initiative for the improvement of regional economic structures).