The Goethe University in Frankfurt, the local TechQuartier and the Yi Shi Foundation have evaluated academic work and carried out individual interviews for the study “ Scale-ups in Europe: an untapped potential ”. According to this, the three most important factors in successfully moving startups along the road to scale-up are authenticity, transparent personnel management and a culture of accepting the possibility of failure. A focus on growth is not sufficient on its own: “There has to be a match between the vision of the founders and their day-to-day behavior and communication,” the study claims. This includes the founders being closely involved in the operational work. One of the external factors in success identified by the study is easier access to the overall European market and a coherent understanding of the European startup landscape.

In the meantime, the Federal Association of German Startups announced at the end of January 2019 the launch of Startbase for the middle of this year. Together with the Börse Stuttgart Group, the intention is to set up a platform which maps the German startup landscape centrally and thus gives it more weight internationally. It should also provide support in developing networks. Registration is already possible on VentureZphere , a portal which will later be imported into Startbase.