The Steps You Need to Take to Become a Unicorn Founder- Analyzing the Career Paths of Successful Entrepreneurs

Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis or Project Study

📌 Key facts

• Mission: Determine the commonalities in the career paths of successful founders and argue which steps are the most value-adding to their success. • When: Start anytime. Applications are open! • How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV and a grade report and a tentative research idea (research question, data, and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)

Contents

• 💡 Background
• 🦾Who We Are
• 🎯 Goals
• 🧠 Topics of Interest
• 🎓 Profile
• 📚 Further Reading
• 📄 Requirements to any Work
• 📬 How to Apply

💡 Background

You are currently sure that having McKinsey, BCG, Morgan Stanley, or Goldman Sachs on your CV is a safe bet for your career. Or do you have Amazon, Google, Facebook, or Microsoft on it, and this will open you all the doors you want? Any of those companies will likely look great on your CV and might even get you that next incredible interview. But do they prepare you for your future as an entrepreneur? Which university should you go to if you want to become one? Which skills should you acquire? What should you study? Which companies teach you the best skills? Let us find out together. You can even possibly get access to a unique LinkedIn dataset with the CVs of millions of people and our Crunchbase database access.

🦾Who We Are

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 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.

🎯 Goals

• Research successful founders through lists like the Forbes 30 under 30
• Analyse their CVs according to categories (education, extracurricular, memberships, jobs, etc.)
• Interview entrepreneurs and VCs to understand what has shaped them, what they look for in entrepreneurs
• (potentially: analyse LinkedIn dataset)
• Create exemplary CVs for entrepreneur archetypes
• Formulate recommendations for CV building/ skill acquisition

🧠 Topics of Interest

• Differences between founder CVs and traditionally "successful" CVs (e.g., Investment Banking or Consulting)
• Best universities for entrepreneurship
• Best companies where entrepreneurs learn their skills
• Skills of successful Entrepreneurs

🎓 Profile

• Reliable and self-driven
• Enthusiasm for career management / your own brand & future / entrepreneurship / venture capital
• Ability to do sophisticated internet, desk research, and connect with practitioners
• Passion to learn more about the future and do research with impact

📚 Further Reading

Tips for a Successful CV

C urriculum vitae (CVs) tell the stories of the professional lives of university scientists, documenting their careers and showcasing their accomplishments. A well-crafted CV can help a job applicant land an interview--instead of having her materials shredded or buried in a file.

www.sciencemag.org

https://news.crunchbase.com/news/heres-where-funded-founders-went-to-school/?utm_source=cb_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210401&utm_content=intro&utm_term=content

📄 Requirements to any 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:

• 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 the university know about your research and start your personal brand

📬 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!

👉 welpe@tum.de