A typical Inside the Venture Master's Thesis starts with a needs analysis and project definition. We discuss if and how your challenges are suitable for a student thesis project and then inform students about project opportunities on MCEI's website and also within our network and scout potential student candidates. Start-ups interested in hosting an Inside the Venture thesis project are being requested to contact us with a brief project description! Of course, students who already have established startup ties or work on their own project can approach us anytime with project suggestions as well. It is important to note here that we have a confidentiality clause for the Inside the Venture projects.
The project tasks can range from developing a business plan with a pitch deck to market analyses, pricing analyses, competitor analyses or even dedicated analyses of the business model. Regardless of how you are tasked, the focus is always on an empirically grounded due diligence, pushing the envelope and deriving well-grounded implications.
This special type of Master Thesis consists of 2 parts (The two parts are seperate from each other with individual title but together form one thesis):
Part I: The startup project (Inside the Venture part)
Part II: An academic journal-style paper (Academic part)
An example theses:
Inside the Venture part: Business model development and market analysis for Awesome Start-up GmbH – Academic part: The impact of entrepreneurship education on venture creation
Why do we have these two parts?
Our experiences in many highly successful projects show us that this is a scheme which produces highly productive outcomes at top-level, enabling students to grow their skills significally and really give our startups a significant boost in acceleration and growth. A combination of writing a theory paper with managerial reports would not meet any standard – neither from an academic evaluation perspective nor for the stakeholders in question.
Please contact us, if you have further questions or need advice. Sample projects can be screened in the MCEI office upon request to gain a better impression on Inside the Venture Theses.
Bachelor students have the opportunity to write an Inside the Venture Bachelor's Thesis. The requirement is that it is conducted for the student's own startup. Differently from the Inside the Venture Master's Thesis it consists of only one part and has a more limited project volume as it integrates both academic and practical insights. Please arrange an appointment to discuss project feasibility before your Bachelor's Thesis topic application. Also note that the Bachelor's Theses applications can only be made during the centrally scheduled date in FSS. Please keep an eye on the relevant websites to know the deadlines.