The Hamburg collaborative project beyourpilot is proving to be a successful initiative to support people from academia who are interested in founding a company. A study from last year shows that the number of start-up consultations and the resulting start-ups has increased by more than 60 in the last four years. Particularly in 2019 to 2021, there has been a consolidation of collaboration despite the pandemic.
The start-up advice provided by beyourpilot is rated very positively overall. The personal and trusting contact as well as the solution orientation of the advisors are appreciated. The respondents would like to see continuity and an expansion of the support services. One of the most important topics is the financing of their start-up project. They want funding with little effort, with easy and quick access to money. The founders also want funding and support offers for non-tech or impact start-ups such as social enterprises. Overall, the survey confirms that beyourpilot makes an important contribution to strengthening Hamburg as a business location.
In Hamburg, most knowledge-based start-ups are concentrated in the fields of IT, internet and telecommunications, electronics, technology and mechanical engineering, as well as health, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. About 44 percent of the founders have received public funding, with the EXIST start-up grant being the most frequently mentioned. 18 percent have raised equity capital, while 43 percent intend to do so in the future or again. The majority of start-ups consist of two or three people. The share of women is 20 percent, while around 40 percent of the start-up teams have at least one team member with a migration background.
Methodological procedure and interpretative notes
Survey period: 2019 to 2021
Number of survey participants: 250
Type of survey participants: individuals and teams (one person per team)
Survey period: 2.3. to 25.3.2022
Survey completed: 190
Aim of the survey: Evaluation of the beyourpilot start-up advisory service as well as gaining knowledge about the start-up ecosystem in Hamburg, especially of the start-up founders who receive support.
Target group of the survey: founders with knowledge-based and innovative start-up ideas from the Hamburg metropolitan region, especially from the beyourpilot network. Only individuals or teams who had already founded or were in the process of founding at the time of data collection were surveyed.
Quantitative online survey: The questionnaire contained closed and open questions.
Sample size / number of responses: The number of founders who answered a question depends on the filtering of the survey. Multiple answers were possible for some questions.
