I was 34 years old when I founded my first company. I knew early on that there was no generous inheritance waiting for me. It was important to my parents that I grow up with this awareness. In the twelve years between studying and founding a company, I have built up a small financial cushion, good networks and knowledge. Looking back, this time was characterized by a lot of work and uncertainty. Sometimes I ask myself under what conditions I would have founded at an earlier point in time? After all, this country wants more innovations and start-ups. But what is necessary for this?
Germany’s prosperity is largely based on innovations from more than 100 years ago. The big developments after that – the computer I’m writing this on, the internet I’m about to send it on, and the smartphone that keeps me from writing, the AI correcting the text – the industries that fueled them , are not based in Germany.
Creating the conditions for innovation
Yet Germany is doing so much to catch up and be at the forefront again with “Innovation made in Germany”. Innovation agencies are set up, funding programs are knitted. The brightest minds in the country advise politicians and consider which measures still need to be tackled and which bureaucratic hurdles still need to be removed.
However, equal opportunities, affordable rents and the redistribution of wealth are rarely discussed. All things where innovation in Germany fails every day. A well-functioning welfare state and affordable housing could be real innovation boosters. You could free up resources for more people to think about solutions for a sustainable and liveable future – and to work on their implementation.
(Bild:
Oliver Ajkovic
)
As a co-founder of the feminist organization Superrr Lab, Julia Kloiber works on just and inclusive digital futures. She regularly publishes her column in the print edition of MIT Technology Review.
In order to innovate, you need to be able to take risks and fail. Above all, that means being able to afford to fail. The garage in Silicon Valley has become a symbol, it is considered the nucleus of today’s billion dollar US tech corporations, where new ideas can be tinkered with. But there is no space for creative development: in 2021, 8.6 million Germans lived in overcrowded apartments.
There is a lack of equal start-up opportunities
Many founders also initially live from their savings. But if, like 49.2 percent of people in major German cities, you spend more than a third of your net salary on rent, then there is not much left to save. If you grew up poor, you often stay poor in Germany. Just 21 out of 100 workers’ children go to university. And founding – regardless of gender – is usually a matter for academics. The figures show that it is not a lack of founding mentality that is failing, but rather opportunities.
No funding program, no matter how well endowed, will manage to remove these systemic hurdles. In order to promote the innovative potential of the many, social measures are needed first and foremost: a redistribution of wealth, educational equity and a fairer distribution of care work. These actions prepare the ground for a society in which many can participate in new solutions and innovations. After 137 years, with the right social framework, Germany may at some point be able to transform itself from a country of automobiles into a country of sustainable business and equal opportunities. As a founder and tenant, I hope that the lawsuit for personal use will not come before that.
(jl)