The incubation program welcomes and encourages participation from all interested entrepreneurs, regardless of their academic background, founding experience, or business idea. To increase the chance to participate in the program, the following requirements are nevertheless desirable.  

1. Our incubation program prioritizes teams with a validated idea. This means that your team has, ideally, a pitch deck with a described problem-solution fit of your business idea. Teams must consist of a minimum of two and a maximum of five members.  
2. All team members should fully commit to starting a real venture (4-day work week). They should commit to certain in-person or hybrid events and should preferably work in our office space at the School of Entrepreneurship (HPI Campus II Building L) to enable ecosystem effects.
3. Teams or individuals without relation to the HPI are highly encouraged to apply. At best, however, one team member should have an HPI background. This includes HPI students, HPI PhDs, HPI alumni, D-School alumni, or E-School alumni. We can help you to find additional team members! 

The application period begins on Friday, July 28, 2023. The application period ends on October 08, 2023, at 11:59 pm.

We welcome applications from both individuals and teams, regardless of gender. You can apply with or without a business idea. If you don't have a team or an idea yet, don't worry! After the initial screening process, we will organize informal events to facilitate finding co-founders and/or refining your business idea.

Our incubation program prioritizes teams with a validated idea. These teams are required to upload a pitch deck explaining the details about:  

1. The business idea, including the business model and proposed problem-solution fit  

2. An Initial roadmap for implementation of the business model 

Please Note: Every team member must submit an individual application! 

The selection of suitable candidates and teams is carried out along four steps: 

1. After receiving your team or individual application, our team at the HPI School of Entrepreneurship will carefully review your CV and other documents provided. 
2. A subset of the teams may then be invited to interview with us during our review phase between mid-August and mid-October. 
3. The steering committee will decide on the acceptance or rejection of applicants.
4. In the final step, we will inform the teams about their acceptance status by 16th October 2023 at the latest.

You don’t necessarily have to bring your own idea. You can also be accepted as an individual and use the events before the Kick-off to find a team with an idea. However, the chance to get accepted for the incubation program is much higher if you already have a (validated) business idea.  

The idea is not only useful for you, but you investigated the problem space, potential competition and target market. Ideally, you have a pitch deck where you describe the problem-solution fit. 

In that case, unfortunately, you will not be able to proceed with our incubation program. However, if you are a student at HPI with a valuable business idea, we can support you further through the services of the HPI Entrepreneurship School.  

This is not an exclusion criterion. We will decide on an individual basis depending on your stage and the fit for our program. 

This is not an exclusion criterion if it's not a problem from your previous scholarship. We will evaluate the situation on an individual basis after applying. 

We encourage teams to use our physical facilities in Potsdam for regular check-ins. The teams decide how they arrange coping with the workload and coaching sessions. If you are not in Potsdam at all during the three months, we cannot accept you for the program. Regular input sessions will be offered in a hybrid format throughout the program. 

We expect that 75% of your team members work full-time on the project (~32 hours/week). The input sessions will be customised to your needs and we strongly advise you to attend.

Participants currently enrolled in one of the digital engineering study programs at HPI are eligible to apply for the HPI Founder Scholarship. The scholarship aims to support HPI students in their entrepreneurial journey. Participants are usually awarded a scholarship of 1000€ for each month of the incubation program (November, December and January). The awarding and the amount of a grant within the scope of the HPI Founder Scholarship guideline are decided by the current director of the HPI School of Entrepreneurship. There is no legal claim to the allocation of scholarships or other financial support.

Each team can receive a budget up to 2000€ to cover costs for the development of the business model. This includes for example software licenses or necessary business travels. After we have received the invoice for the booked service, we can transfer the amount for the respective service back to you. The teams are responsible to keep track of their budget. 

The program aims to empower young tech entrepreneurs in order to scale business models fast and quickly. The focus is therefore not on specific deliverables, but on the development of (disruptive) business models to create a positive impact for the most pressing global challenges. 

While we will keep all information within the HPI School of Entrepreneurships support team, we cannot guarantee complete confidentiality of information leaking to the outside world.  

We do not anticipate any intellectual property created as a direct result of our program. Furthermore, HPI does not consider use of office space and infrastructure as constituting a significant use of HPI resources with regards to IP.