Consulting

From an innovation project or start-up idea to research transfer, HIGHEST is the central point of contact for navigating the next steps.

Consulting covers intellectual property, transfer and funding opportunities, business model development, as well as access to relevant partners and networks.

All consulting services are free of charge and confidential.

HIGHEST uses its own consulting framework for business model development: HIBS.

The HIGHEST Beratungssystematik (HIBS) is based on the Business Model Canvas. It provides a clear picture of where a project stands, which elements still need attention and which next steps make sense.

HIBS creates a structured roadmap for further development. At the same time, it provides a shared framework for consulting sessions, helping to set priorities and move key topics forward.

The result of the consulting process is an individual HIBS profile.

Out of the university, into your own business. Researcher becomes entrepreneur of the year. What seems to sound so simple, so tempting, feels more like pulling a train – for the one doing it. With the biggest roadblock being: money!

Start-ups need suitable funding that actually fits their needs and checks the right boxes. HIGHEST helps you get your funding off the ground by guiding you to the best suiting programs, and showing you the most promising routes to receiving.

Don’t hesitate to talk to our experts and learn about your options.

In the beginning, no one knows how relevant and groundbreaking your work could be. What we do know: these results of your research, are your intellectual property, and they need protecting. In doing so, you open a variety of options for your future endeavors like spin-offs, funding, or industry partnerships.

How would you go about doing that? That’s where HIGHEST comes into play to support you in the process:

That is exactly what we have to find out. And since the value of the work results is individual, so is our advice. Together we look at essential parameters (such as novelty value, unique selling proposition, potential competition and market potential) and thus help with clarity and certainty.

By the way: HIGHEST also benefits proportionally from the IP of the founders and researchers. Not in order to enrich itself. But to be able to continue to offer counselling independently of external funding. In addition, we use it to finance the costs of the patent application.

Efficient, easy to understand, and with your vision in mind. That is how we like to consult clients. In order to accomplish just that, HIGHEST advanced the classical canvas into its own method of developing business models: HIBS©.

What’s HIBS?
You came up with a genius invention, but you’re lacking the big picture? The result of your research project is groundbreaking, but you don’t know a market for it? Sounds like you could benefit from a system that is designed to fill in the gaps. We call it HIBS, a method that highlights what is missing, what your most valuable next step could be and what you have covered this far. Not only an important kind of business canvas but also the basis for our consulting.

Feel free to get in touch and get help with your very own HIBS.

Paperwork is done! Congrats, you’re an entrepreneur! But please, don’t pop the cork just yet. The thing you just launched? Well, it now has to reach the sky. Something we know a thing or two about.

HIGHEST’s client list shows a remarkable amount of businesses that broke through the “3 year anniversary” ceiling. Now, why is that? Well, we like to think of ourselves as the connecting tissue between science and business. As a unique group of people who know extremely well what you (students and researchers) are capable of and what the industry needs. And lastly, as business owners ourselves, we know which steps are necessary to get you into orbit.

But since talk is cheap, we let our numbers do the talking.

Next chapter: Research transfer.

You know better than anyone: Research is never “done”. There’s always more to learn, more to discover. Only question is: Who pays for the research?

Our answer: Get in touch for support in all aspects of applying for funding

HIGHEST unterstützt Sie bei Ihrem detaillierten schriftlichen Ansuchen auf Bewilligung Ihres Forschungsvorhabens, beziehungsweise auf Bewilligung von Geldern für ein solches Vorhaben.

Gut Ding.
Man sagt „Gut Ding will Weile haben.“ Von Geld spricht dabei niemand. Und wir können uns wenig vorstellen, das frustrierender wäre, als einer heißen Spur auf der Fährte zu sein … und nicht die Mittel zu haben, sie zu erforschen.

Wir sind Berater. Aber auch wir sind neugierig! Sind begeistert – von Innovationen und Forschungsergebnissen. Deshalb legen wir großen Wert auf gute Anträge und helfen Ihnen bei dem schriftlichen Ansuchen auf Finanzierung und legen sie in hoffentlich (be)willige(nde) Hände.

To make the best decision possible and make it to market, you need to know all angles and options and understand them well. Why choose A or B when you have a whole alphabet to choose from?

To aid you in exploring this world of possibilities, Darmstadt’s best consulting team in terms of commercialization strategies is right next door, here on the campus. Shoot us a quick e-mail or visit us to learn what would be a perfect fit for you.

Funding and acceleration. That’s the Hessen idea scholarship in short. Students and graduates of TU Darmstadt are eligible to apply twice a year – for a 6-month program – while they work on their business idea.

Validation phases – also known as “valley of death” – are rarely blessed with sufficient funding. When the risk is simply too big, investors shy away and brilliant ideas waste away in a drawer somewhere.

This is why validation is absolutely essential and can be your catapult into the market. It minimizes risk for investors and gives promising ideas a chance to be funded and realized.

More technology and knowledge-based start-ups. That is one of the goals of EXIST. To promote this, aside from funding, the EXIST program organizes  research facilities and provides expertise.

Especially in the life science sector, jumping from research to marketability is risky. Long development stretches and high cost of research are responsible for entrepreneurs not even attempting to hop. This is where GO-BIO comes in, and in early stages, too! It provides a certain financial flexibility and gives promising ideas a fighting chance.

This program has a two-pronged support plan for founders in the IT security field:

• Checking the technical feasibility of an idea and developing it for the market.
• Transfer into the market, trial of utilization scenarios, and realization of the business model.

For these two models, the StartUpSecure team are the right people to answer all questions about making a promising application for funding.

The Lean AI Startup Funding (LAISF) is a program designed to quickly test and validate your idea in the field of AI and turn it into a business case: 6 months of funding for either one person full-time or two persons part-time and 30.000 Euro Material Expenses for everything you need to prototype and test your idea.

The goal of the Lean AI Startup Funding is to bring ideas from research into practice. Research-driven startup ideas are usually very tech-oriented and have little market readiness. LAISF gives you both the time and the financial freedom to validate your business model, develop your prototype and raise your investment readiness level.

Research and development need funding. And since digital innovation is especially complex and extensive, Distr@l created four different lines of funding:

• feasibility studies
• digital innovation projects
• knowledge and transfer projects
• funding and validation/growth