Kick-off: Around 50 participants from five universities came together for the EXIST Women kick-off on Goethe University Frankfurt’s Campus Westend, marking the start of several months of workshops, mentoring, networking and entrepreneurial spirit.
They study psychology, mechatronics, artificial intelligence, graphic design, medicine or business administration. Some already have a start-up project; others only have a vague sense that entrepreneurship might one day become part of their lives. At the kick-off of EXIST Women, around 50 women from five universities met on Goethe University Frankfurt’s Campus Westend. Many arrived with questions, some with concrete start-up plans – and all left with the feeling that they were not alone. In just three hours, diversity became more than a network: it became a space in which the future suddenly felt like something that could be imagined together.
For a moment, the seminar room sounds as if someone has opened the doors to a beehive. Voices overlap: laughter, questions, names, degree programmes, half-finished sentences that already point towards the future. “What do you do?” “Where are you from?” “Have you already founded something?” “Are you still looking for someone to join your team?” Around 50 women are gathered in the room that afternoon. Some carry notebooks, others laptops. In some faces, there is a visible mix of excitement and relief – the kind that arises when you realise: I am not alone with this idea.
They come from TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Hochschule Darmstadt and Hochschule Mainz. They study or conduct research in computer science, biochemistry, medicine, psychology, business administration, mechanical engineering, mechatronics, design and artificial intelligence. Their academic cultures could hardly be more diverse: humanities, natural sciences, engineering, business, medicine, design and social sciences. Some are bachelor’s students, others are enrolled in master’s programmes, some are doctoral candidates, and others are already working on a start-up project within their university environment. Some have a concrete idea, a prototype or questions about building a team. Others are beginning with a hunch: that self-employment might be more than a distant, exceptional path.
Poonam Yadav, master’s student in Artificial Intelligence, TU Darmstadt
Three hours later, the initial buzz has turned into a community. New contacts have been made, first ideas for collaboration have emerged, and sentences can be heard such as: “We should definitely continue this conversation.” It is one of those moments that are hard to plan: when a support programme becomes more than a sequence of workshops – a milieu, a resonance space, perhaps even a small promise.
The compass
EXIST Women is a German federal government programme for women in higher education who want to explore entrepreneurial thinking, prepare a start-up or first find out whether this path is right for them. Each of the five participating universities in the Rhein-Main entrepreneurship support network brings ten participants into the programme; five women per university can receive a scholarship. The programme includes mentoring by experienced female entrepreneurs, local and nationwide workshops and coaching sessions, networking formats and start-up support – from business model development and validation to planning the next steps, such as team building or follow-on financing. In addition, each founder receives a material expenses budget of 2,000 euros. The project period runs from April 2026 to December 2026.
EXIST Women is a German federal government programme for women in higher education who want to explore entrepreneurial thinking, prepare a start-up or first find out whether this path is right for them. Each of the five participating universities in the Rhein-Main entrepreneurship support network brings ten participants into the programme; five women per university can receive a scholarship. The programme includes mentoring by experienced female entrepreneurs, local and nationwide workshops and coaching sessions, networking formats and start-up support – from business model development and validation to planning the next steps, such as team building or follow-on financing. In addition, each founder receives a material expenses budget of 2,000 euros. The project period runs from April 2026 to December 2026.
What do I want to build or change in the long term? EXIST Women provides guidance.
But even during the kick-off, the focus began to shift. Constantinides talks about the network, the impulses and the possibility of meeting potential co-founders. “I have the feeling that my entrepreneurial compass can develop, take shape and be strengthened,” she says. Many conversations had already begun, and she had received numerous impulses for further reflection. “I feel understood. It feels like blossoming.”
Blossoming is a big word in a start-up context, where people usually prefer to talk about scaling, market entry and financing rounds. But perhaps it describes more precisely what happens at the beginning. An idea does not only need capital. It needs language. It needs people who listen without immediately making it smaller. It needs others who ask: why not?
Many backgrounds, one track
Poonam Yadav, a master’s student in Artificial Intelligence, describes the kick-off with a word that is heard several times that afternoon: “happy”. She was happy, she says, because of the many different backgrounds: bachelor’s and master’s students, doctoral candidates, women from different disciplines and with very different projects. “Different women – that is amazing,” she says. In this slightly tentative phrasing lies much of what carried the afternoon: diversity not as a programme item, but as an immediate experience of added value.
The TU Darmstadt group is led by Simone Lühl. She is a start-up advisor at HIGHEST, the university’s Innovation and Start-up Center. She knows the early phases of start-up ideas: the enthusiasm, but also the uncertainty, the question of whether one already knows enough, and the reflex to wait for another certificate, another seminar or another form of confirmation. This is precisely where EXIST Women comes in. Not every participant has to found a company in the end. But every participant should have the chance to explore entrepreneurship as a real option – informed, supported and connected.
The Rhein-Main principle
The fact that the programme is organised across universities is more than a matter of logistics. It is part of the concept. TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Hochschule Darmstadt and Hochschule Mainz bring together different academic profiles, networks and start-up cultures. The programme leads are Simone Lühl from HIGHEST, Luna Köhler from Goethe-Unibator, Gessica Cafaro from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Dorothea Böhmer from Hochschule Darmstadt and Salim Zeyen from Hochschule Mainz. Together, they organise meetings, workshops, networking formats and exchange within the Rhein-Main start-up ecosystem.
Lühl describes it as a “real collaboration”. There will be recurring events where all 50 women come together, including a two-day bootcamp in cooperation with Futury. In addition, the participants will have the opportunity to take part in the INNODAY start-up fair with a joint stand. The advantage, according to Lühl, is that the women learn from one another. Perhaps one participant will even find her “co-founder match” within the larger cohort – someone who can support her on the path towards founding a company. Especially in a region where Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Mainz are geographically close but have distinct strengths, a single contact can quickly become access: to medicine, technology, design, capital, customers, research.
Experienced and committed EXIST Women start-up advisors: from left to right, Salim Zeyen/Hochschule Mainz, Simone Lühl/TU Darmstadt, Dorothea Böhmer/Hochschule Darmstadt. Below, from left to right: Gessica Cafaro/Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Luna Köhler/Goethe University Frankfurt.
Dorothea Böhmer, start-up advisor at Hochschule Darmstadt, describes the effect that became visible on the very first day. Simply bringing aspiring female founders together in one place, she says, is already valuable. Small groups become one large group. “We have a similar goal. We want something. We are planning something,” she says. That connects the women. Many had already said during the kick-off how good it felt to experience so many like-minded people at once. Lühl and Böhmer have also worked together for many years in other formats, such as foundersXchange, a regular meet-up for the Darmstadt start-up ecosystem. Each university has its own strengths, says Böhmer – and that is exactly why they can refer, connect and guide participants so effectively.
The next steps
In the coming months, the initial spark will turn into everyday work: attending workshops, meeting mentors, sharpening business models, interviewing target groups, testing prototypes, understanding financing options and practising pitches. Some participants will realise that their idea is bigger than they thought. Others will make theirs smaller, more precise, discard it or reassemble it in a new way. Teams may form. Conversations may become collaborations, contacts may become friendships, and vague questions may become decisions.
A start-up rarely begins with a finished business model. More often, it begins with an idea, a question and the right environment. That afternoon on Campus Westend, this environment could be felt: in the buzz of voices, in the laughter, in the quick notes, in the relief of discovering similarities among many different women. Not because they all want the same thing. But because they are all ready to take the next meaningful step.
Author/Photos: Heike Jüngst