![[AI & Startups] The automated startup - How AI can boost startup performance by reducing resource-scarcity](https://images.spr.so/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/j42No7y-dcokJuNgXeA0ig/ce760182-b481-4df6-af32-475934ca35c2/gradients_10/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
📌 Key facts
- Build the “Automated Startup”: Investigate how advanced AI - particularly generative models and AI agents - can reduce resource scarcity in early-stage companies by taking over critical tasks supporting the founding team.
- Analyze Hiring Trends: Scrutinize startup job postings, O*NET occupational data, and real-world examples to identify which skills and positions are most in demand - and which can be delegated to AI.
- Construct an “AI Task Database”: Develop a blueprint of specific tasks AI can reliably perform, freeing up startup teams to focus on strategy, innovation, and product-market fit.
- Provide Actionable Roadmaps: Conclude with concrete strategies for founders, investors, and policymakers on harnessing AI to streamline startup operations and fuel growth in resource-constrained environments.
- When: Ideally start before April 2025, but flexibility is possible. Applications are open now!
- How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV, a grade report, and a short bullet-style thesis proposal.
- 📌 Key facts
- 💡 Background
- 🎯 Goals
- 🎓 Profile
- 📚 Further Reading
- 📄 Requirements to work
- 📝 How to Apply
- 📬 Contact
- 🦾Who We Are
💡 Background
From developing MVPs to scaling fast, startups live on the edge of resource scarcity. AI promises to change this game:
- Era of Automation & Innovation: Breakthrough tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI systems have opened up new frontiers in automation - especially valuable when startup teams are small, scrappy, and strapped for time.
- Hiring Beyond the Founders: Startups often hire for roles in marketing, sales, customer support, or product development. Could AI handle portions of these tasks - freeing up human talent to focus on high-level strategy?
- Beyond Hype: Drawing on robust job and task data - like the O*NET database - enables a clear-eyed view of where AI can genuinely replace or augment human effort. Coupled with analyzing real job postings from startups, this will ground your insights in real-world trends.
- Constructing the “AI Task Matrix”: Ultimately, you will map out which tasks can be automated today, which may be automated soon, and which remain uniquely human—offering a strategic framework for AI-driven startup growth.
🎯 Goals
Your thesis will explore how AI can supercharge startup performance, reduce overheads, and optimize talent usage in lean organizations.
- Leverage Data: Use startup job postings, O*NET occupation/task data, and other empirical sources to identify the most common roles beyond the founding team.
- Assess AI Capabilities: Determine how generative AI tools can replace, augment, or streamline these tasks, referencing empirical studies and real-world examples.
- Construct the AI Task Database: Build a detailed repository of tasks that AI can handle—highlighting efficiency gains, cost savings, and strategic benefits.
- Provide Recommendations: Outline actionable steps for founders, venture capitalists, and policymakers to harness AI’s potential while mitigating ethical, social, and skill-gap concerns.
🎓 Profile
We’re looking for a highly motivated student - bachelor, master, or EMBA - excited for the intersection of AI, entrepreneurship, and data analysis.
- TUM Enrollment: You could be in Management & Technology, Data Science, Informatics, Economics, or any program at TUM with the right analytical base.
- Methodological: Familiarity with empirical research methods and excitement for exploring creative data sources.
- Founder’s Mindset: A passion for startup culture, emerging tech, and the hustle it takes to make big ideas happen in small teams.
📚 Further Reading
Your thesis will integrate insights from classic and cutting-edge research on automation, AI, and skill development:
- Frey & Osborne (2017): The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?
- Stephany, Teutloff, Ole (2024): What Is the Price of a Skill? The Value of Complementarity
- Schulte-Althoff, Matthias (2023): What's to Automate? A Task Analysis of AI-enabled Start-ups
- Recent scholarly and industry reports on generative AI’s impact on specific tasks, industries, and skills (e.g., Dell'Acqua et al. 2023, McKinsey & Company 2024, etc.)
📄 Requirements to work
We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:
- Slide Deck - summarize your research and possibly present it
- 2 LinkedIn-Posts about the most important findings and summarizing the topic
Please note that these deliverables are not officially required.
📝 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact Philipp Lemanczyk 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 a Word or PDF - bullet points only)
We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!
📬 Contact
Philipp Lemanczyk (Chair for Strategy and Organization)
Please add the following subject in your email: “Application-Automated-Startup” and your name
🦾Who We Are
Philipp Lemanczyk is a PhD student at the Chair for Strategy and Organization focusing on Information Systems and Entrepreneurship research. Before embarking on his PhD journey, he worked at McKinsey & Company as a consultant focusing on strategy, organizational & digital transformation, and M&A. He holds a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from TU Darmstadt.
The Chair for Strategy and Organization is 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. Topics such as Agile Organisations 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 organisations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.