Start-up Support: Turn your idea into a business
From your first business idea to launch: CBS supports you with expertise, networking opportunities, events, and start-up consulting.
Start-up Spirit aT CBS
Entrepreneurship is gaining momentum in Germany, and more and more students are drawn to building something of their own. At CBS, we don't just teach the theory, we walk alongside you from idea to launch.
Our professors bring hands-on expertise to every step of your journey. Whether you need help developing your business model using frameworks like the Business Model Components Map, crafting a compelling pitch deck, or working through the financial logic of a business plan, our faculty guides you with competence and commitment.
Through our Start-up service, we support you practically: from structuring your business idea and refining your revenue model to preparing funding applications. We actively help students access scholarships and grants such as the EXIST-Gründerstipendium, supporting you through the entire application process.
Our curriculum reinforces this with courses like “Business Plan Writing & Pitching”, “Entrepreneurship & Venture Lab” or “Innovation” and through our membership in the Gateway Hochschul-Verbund, you gain access to a wider network of events, mentors, and fellow founders.
At CBS, your idea gets the attention it deserves. And you get the team to make it real.
The Cologne Path: Your Roadmap to Starting a Business
Starting a business is rarely a straight road, but there are milestones that almost every successful startup passes through. The Cologne Path makes exactly these milestones visible: a structured, practice-tested roadmap that helps founding teams avoid overlooking anything essential. The order is not set in stone. Some teams develop a viable business model before analysing the size of their market. Others secure funding early, before the product is fully developed. What matters is that all stages are addressed by the end.
Why "Cologne Path"? When the Gateway Gründungsnetz came together in and around Cologne many years ago, the term was coined to describe the typical journey of a new venture and has since become the shared reference model for all member universities, including CBS.
CBS & Gateway: Building Businesses Together in Cologne
Every business starts with an idea. But when it comes to turning that idea into reality, questions quickly arise: How do you develop it into a viable business model? What does it take to be a founder? And how do you convince partners, investors, and potential customers to believe in your vision?
This is precisely where the collaboration between CBS and the Gateway Gründungsnetz e.V. comes in. Since 2023, CBS has been the first private university to become an official Gateway university in Cologne, joining a network dedicated to opening real doors for founders. The name "Gateway" captures this perfectly: a gateway and an entry point, all in one.
What this means in practice:
The CBS Gateway Start-up Service offers free, hands-on advice and support to students and alumni with a passion for entrepreneurship. The five Gateway universities – the University of Cologne, TH Köln, the German Sport University Cologne, Rheinische Hochschule Köln, and CBS – coordinate their advisory services closely and operate under a shared brand identity. This collaboration is made visible by a simple but meaningful commitment: all five start-up services carry the Gateway name.
Overarching coordination, joint events, and strategic alignment take place at the level Gateway Gründungsnetz e.V., an association that brings together not only the universities but also key regional partners: the Cologne Chamber of Commerce (IHK), Sparkasse KölnBonn, Kreissparkasse Köln, NRW.Bank, the DLR, Cologne University Hospital, as well as the City of Cologne and Köln Business Economic Development Agency. Together, they create the best possible conditions for founders in the region.
For CBS students, this means more than access to your own university's advisory team. It means tapping into Cologne's entire start-up ecosystem, with pathways to networks, funding, events, and expertise that extend far beyond the campus.
Gateway Events: Your Structured Path Through the Start-Up Process
The Gateway Gründungsnetzwerk e.V. offers free events for founders from universities and research institutions, guided by the Kölner Weg – your structured pathway through the start-up process.
Find the upcoming events here: Gateway Gründungsnetz e.V.
EXIST Start-up Scholarship: Your Funding, Our Support
As one of five Gateway universities in Cologne, CBS actively supports academic founders in securing an EXIST start-up scholarship. The focus is on ventures with genuine innovative character. Ideas that go beyond a business plan on paper. Our start-up coaches accompany you from your first idea through to a completed application: they help you sharpen your concept, develop your venture, and guide you step by step through the application process.
In 2024, CBS launched a pilot project as part of EXIST Women, run by the project management organisation PTJ (Projektträgerzentrum Jülich), through which CBS supported ten women interested in founding a start-up with a three-month scholarship, hands-on workshops, and networking events.
At the SKILLS-meets-STARTUP event in October 2024 scholarship holders from all participating universities received their certificates for completing the Cologne EXIST Women programme. Across all Gateway universities, 40 female founders had already achieved impressive milestones for their start-ups alongside their network partners.
"It is very important to us to give female founders in particular the opportunity, through the EXIST Women programme, to advance their venture quickly and effectively, and to strengthen their founders' mindset."
– Prof. Dr. Anja Karlshaus, President of CBS
Founders Factory: Start-ups & Students
Are you a CBS student interested in founding a start-up?
Then join the Founders Factory and connect with like-minded students!
This student initiative aims to exchange knowledge, support each other in the start-up process, and connect with entrepreneurs and mentors.
Interested in becoming part of the Founders Factory? Get in touch with the team at foundersfactory@cbs.de or join the dedicated LinkedIn group to connect!
Central Coordination:
Yuliia Prybytkovska
Programm Manager
CBS Gateway Gründungsservice
Startup-Support, EXIST proceedings
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Prof. Dr. Ulrich Anders
Prof. of Strategic Management
Board Member at Gateway Gründungsnetz e.V.
Consulting & Coaching in: Business Plans, Pitch Decks, Scaling, Software & Technology Start-ups
Our CBS professors in the start-up consulting
Prof. Dr. Nils Finger
Prof. of Supply Chain Management
Consulting & Coaching in: Logistics, AI
Prof. Dr. Mehran Najmaei
Prof. of International Business & Trade Management
Consulting & Coaching in: Trade, International Business with a focus on Asia & Africa
Prof. Dr. Alexander Hiller
Prof. of General Management
Consulting & Coaching in: Intrapreneurship, dual students
Prof. Dr. Uwe Schnetzer
Prof. of Marketing and Strategic Management
Consulting & Coaching in: Marketing, Transformation, Technology
Prof. Dr. Wulf-Peter Schmidt
Prof. of Sustainability
Consulting & Coaching in: Sustainable Start-ups, Transformation
Prof. Dr. Burkhard Bermes
Prof. of Engineering Sciences
Consulting & Coaching in: Technical Aspects of Product & Service Ideas, Intellectual Property Protection (patents), Dual Students
Start-ups Founded by Our CBS Alumni:
