Contrary to the trend in other federal states, the founding of companies in Baden-Württemberg continues to gain momentum. This is shown by an analysis by L-Bank. While the average funding amount in start-up support was EUR 170,000 in 2013, it had already risen to EUR 210,000 by 2016. The state government has also responded to criticism from the start-up scene and announced a number of new initiatives. From June 2017, a state campaign for start-ups is to begin, and a concept for supporting small start-up firms with a budget of five million euros is intended to strengthen new ventures further.
Regardless of the political framework, it will remain of central importance for start-ups in the future to convince further investors and lenders with a compelling business plan. Our experience shows that this is still underestimated by founders. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing responsible for start-up support also observed greater success in ventures that were preceded by constructive, critical advice. In our view, besides the idea, a plausible business plan and a comprehensible financing concept are therefore of great importance.
