Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis or Project Study
๐ Key facts
Contents
- ๐ก Background
- ๐ฆพWho We Are
- ๐ฏ Goals
- ๐ Profile
- ๐ง Topics of Interest
- ๐ Further Reading
- ๐ Requirements to any Work
- ๐ฌ How to Apply
๐ก Background
What do you need to get venture capital for your start-up? Most venture capital goes to companies founded by men. Just 7% of VC-backed founders are women, and the numbers are even worse for Black and Latinx founders โ only 1% of VC-backed founders are Black, and less than 2% are Latinx. Companies founded by women also get less moneyโan average of $77 million compared with $100 million for male-led startups.
How does education affect the investment decisions? How gender? How ethnicity? How previous companies? How skills? How previous start-ups? It is your job to find out how the global flows of venture capital are directed, who gets the most, and who the least? And maybe: Who achieves most with the funding they get? For that you can use out LinkedIn and Crunchbase accesses.
๐ฆพWho We Are
The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on doing 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. Topics such as Agile Organizations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies and organizations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.
๐ฏ Goals
- Desk research on international venture funding by education, nationality, ethnicity, gender etc.
- Research Crunchbase for companies with funding
- Research their founders on LinkedIn to identify their education, jobs, and other backgrounds
- Interviews with VCs, founders, and opinion leaders (contacts available)
- Measure and visualize the global VC funding flows
๐ Profile
- Reliable and self-driven
- Enthusiasm for entrepreneurship / VC / diversity / data visualization
- Ability to do sophisticated internet, desk research, and connect with practitioners
- Passion to learn more about the future and do research with impact
๐ง Topics of Interest
- Femaleโfounded startups
- Diverse founders
- Founders by nationality
- Founders by university
- Founders by education
- Founder teams by team characteristics
- Founder teams by background and work experience
- etc.
๐ Further Reading
๐ Requirements to any Work
We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of a bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:
- Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
- Slide Deck - summarize your research and possibly present it
- Extract most important sequences from podcasts, videos, and other media
- 3-4 Tweets about the most important findings and summarizing the topic
- optional: Medium Article - let people outside university know about your research and start your personal brand
๐ฌ How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (e-mail below) by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline your tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)
We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!
๐ welpe@tum.de