Bachelor / (Executive) Master Thesis at the Center for Strategy and Organization
📌 Key facts
The objective of this IDP project is to create a Natural Language Processing (NLP) and/or web scraper tool to develop a “hardware intensity” measure for every start-up in our (existing) dataset based on different available secondary sources (e.g., patent databases).
- When: Start anytime. Applications are open!
- How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV, grade report and research interest.
- 📌 Key facts
- 💡Background
- 🦾Who We Are
- 🎯 Goals and Topics
- 🎓 Profile
- ➕ Additional Information
- 📝 How to Apply
- 📬 Contact
💡Background
Semiconductors are a foundational technology often described as “the oil of the 21st century” and powering everything from AI and data centers to automotive and industrial systems. Yet semiconductor startups operate in a uniquely complex environment, with long development cycles, high technical uncertainty, and demanding commercialization paths. At the same time, venture capital is structurally geared toward opportunities where uncertainty can be reduced quickly through staged learning, which aligns better with “asset-light” models. This creates a growing tension: some of the most strategically important innovations may be the hardest to finance. To shed light on this tension, we will develop a company-level “Hardware Intensity Index” for a dataset of 3,000+ semiconductor startups and use it to analyze VC funding patterns within the industry to derive a focused action plan for entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and researchers.
🦾Who We Are
I am a Senior Consultant at McKinsey & Company and PhD student at the Chair focusing on deep tech entrepreneurship. My research examines how deep-tech ventures, especially in strategically important domains such as semiconductors, are financed and scaled, and which innovation signals, investor behaviors, and ecosystem conditions shape their funding trajectories and commercialization success. My educational background is in Business and Management.
As Chair for Strategy and Organization we are focused on research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future such as Deep Tech, (Gen) AI, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Leadership, and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organizations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.
🎯 Goals and Topics
Our goal is to build a robust NLP and web-scraping pipeline that systematically collects and processes public text signals for semiconductor startups. Using sources such as company websites, relevant directories, and patent text (e.g., abstracts and metadata), we aim to extract and standardize information that helps characterize how “hardware-intensive” a venture is. This will enable us to construct a scalable, company-level “Hardware Intensity Index” for a global dataset of 3,000+ semiconductor startups. With these enriched data, we will analyze patterns in VC financing trajectories and identify if and if so where hardware-heavy ventures face funding bottlenecks.
🎓 Profile
Students should have a strong academic background and, as usual for an IDP, strong hands-coding experience. We look for students with experience with NLP pipelines and/or web scraping in Python (e.g., Selenium). Passion for (deep-tech) entrepreneurship is a bonus but not required.
➕ Additional Information
We have a strong base set of high-quality data available for students to work with, although additional quantitative data gathering and validation will be expected to enrich the existing dataset.
In some cases, multiple students may be jointly developing/validating the same datasets. Collaboration will be encouraged where feasible.
📝 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Henri Stehle via email (Subject: Application Semiconductors & Venture Capital Thesis - [Name]) by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline your tentative research idea/interest in the email, as well as your ideal start date.
We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!
📬 Contact
Henri Stehle (Chair for Strategy and Organization)