Project Study with SUPPLYCO AI
📌 Key facts
Students will design and validate a market entry framework for SUPPLYCO AI, covering market analysis, customer segmentation, and a business development playbook for the US industrial manufacturing sector.
- 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 a short paragraph on why this project interests you.
- 📌 Key facts
- 💡 Background
- 🦾Who We Are
- 🎯 Goals
- 🎓 Profile
- ➕ Additional Information
- 📄 Requirements to any Work
- 📝 How to Apply
- 📬 Contact
💡 Background
AI is beginning to reshape how manufacturers and distributors find and win customers. Yet most companies in the US industrial sector have no clear framework for which accounts to prioritize, how to reach them, or what to say. Generic B2B tools do not account for the long relationship cycles, fragmented data, and domain-specific trust dynamics that characterize industrial buying decisions. SUPPLYCO AI has built a sales intelligence platform purpose-built for this market, and early traction is strong. The next challenge is systematic: who are the right customers across the full US industrial landscape, and what does an effective approach to reaching them look like? This project designs and tests that answer.
🦾Who We Are
SUPPLYCO AI is a New York-based startup building sales intelligence software for industrial manufacturers and distributors. Our Supplyco platform, helps sales teams identify high-fit prospects, prioritize their territories, and act on buying signals in real time. Current customers include robotics manufacturers, CNC machine tool suppliers, and industrial automation companies across North America and Europe. The company is part of the NVIDIA Inception Program, Anthropic’s Start-Up program and has raised a total of $9.8M USD from top investors.
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.
🎯 Goals
Design a rigorous, evidence-based market entry framework that answers: which segments of the US industrial market are the best fit for SUPPLYCO AI, and what does an effective business development approach look like for each?
Students will work through four sequential tasks:
Market Analysis: Map the US industrial manufacturing and distribution landscape. Identify key sub-sectors, their structures, how buying decisions are made, and where unmet need for sales intelligence tooling is greatest.
Segmentation Model: Define and score a prioritized universe of 200+ target accounts based on strategic fit, decision-maker accessibility, and estimated value. Document the logic clearly enough that it can be maintained and extended after the project ends.
Business Development Playbook: Design a structured framework for reaching target accounts, covering the right personas, the right messages, and a repeatable engagement sequence grounded in how industrial buyers actually evaluate software.
Field Validation: Test the framework through direct stakeholder conversations with people at target companies. Capture how they think about the problem, what drives their decisions, and what the framework gets right or wrong. This is the primary research component of the project and the basis for the final academic report.
🎓 Profile
- Enrolled in a Bachelor's or Master's program at TUM (Business Administration, Management & Technology, or related)
- Ability to conduct structured primary research through stakeholder interviews
- Organized and self-directed, equal parts design and validation over 3 months
- Professional-level English
- Interest in B2B software, industrial technology, or startups is a plus
- Prior experience in market research, business development, or customer interviews is a plus
➕ Additional Information
Students will receive structured onboarding, access to SUPPLYCO AI's tooling and prospect data, and bi-weekly feedback sessions with company leadership. Top-performing students may be offered extended collaboration opportunities following the project.
📄 Requirements to any Work
The project has two deliverables of equal weight:
- The framework: a documented market entry plan covering segmentation logic, scored account list, and business development playbook, detailed enough to be handed off and used by SUPPLYCO AI after the project ends.
- Evidence of execution: a structured log of 60+ stakeholder conversations with findings, performance metrics, and an honest assessment of what worked.
Additionally:
- Final academic report (15 pp/person, APA7, Times New Roman 12pt, double-spaced)
- Summary presentation for SUPPLYCO AI leadership
We do not want your research to gather dust on a shelf. We warmly encourage you to also create some or all of the following:
- Infographic representing key findings on how industrial companies evaluate and adopt software
- Slide deck summarizing the market segmentation model and playbook
- 3–4 LinkedIn posts or tweets on the most important findings
- Optional: Medium article letting people outside the university know what you learned
Please note that these deliverables are not officially required.
📝 How to Apply
If you are interested, please contact <xxx> and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (click the button to email all) 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!
If you are interested, please contact Jannik (SUPPLYCO AI) and Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (click the button to email all) 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 in Word as *.docx).
We're greatly looking forward to hearing from you!
📬 Contact
Jannik (SUPPLYCO AI, Co-Founder & CPO) 👉 jannik@supplyco.ai
Isabell Welpe (Chair for Strategy and Organisation) 👉 welpe@tum.de