Working at HM Professorships HM OnBoard New Appointees Portraits

New & Appointed

Name: Christian Klusmann

Professor of: Entrepreneurship & Digital Business Models

I’m from: I’m a child of the Ruhr region. I was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

Previously, I worked as: Most recently, I was Head of Start-up Coaching & Consulting at digitalHUB Aachen, where, amongst other things, I worked closely with colleagues at RWTH Aachen University as part of the ‘Exzellenz Start-up Centre’ project. In Aachen, my team and I supported digital and deep-tech start-ups from the pre-seed phase through to Series A, helping them with virtually every challenge involved in building a business.

My area of expertise in a word

(Graphics: HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences )

... and my motivation for teaching there:

Innovation and entrepreneurial thinking and action: on the one hand, we need a constant stream of innovation to tackle our enormous social and economic challenges. On the other hand, I would like to provide our students and partners with greater support in developing an entrepreneurial mindset and approach, and equip them with the necessary methodological tools. Ideally, this will lead to them setting up their own digital or technology-based business as a viable alternative career path to a traditional corporate career.

Why choose HM?

Hochschule München not only offers an excellent academic environment, but also close links to the professional world, which is particularly important in the field of entrepreneurship. As a professor in this subject area at Hochschule München, combined with my role at the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, I have the opportunity to teach students in a dynamic and forward-looking subject area where creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit take centre stage. Furthermore, I am drawn to the university’s international focus and its proximity to Munich’s start-up ecosystem, which is one of the most vibrant in Germany. This opens up numerous opportunities for collaboration, networking and direct exchange with start-ups and established companies. The chance to mentor future entrepreneurs and support them in developing new business models makes this role particularly exciting and fulfilling.

My highlight of the year


The professional highlights of the year were, in particular, getting to know and interacting with my colleagues at HM and the team at SCE. I was delighted by the warm welcome I received! Equally worth highlighting is the fantastic collaboration and interaction with our students in the entrepreneurship courses: whether as part of the ‘Real Project: Digitalisation’ and ‘Real Project: Health & MedTech’ for interdisciplinary teams from various bachelor's degree programmes, our Master’s programme in Entrepreneurship & Digital Transformation, or our continuing professional development programme, the Academic Programme for Entrepreneurship. What the students and participants have managed to achieve in such a short space of time in terms of prototyping and business model validation is absolutely amazing! I hope that my complete move to Munich will be one of my personal highlights of the year.

My leisure tip

(Graphics: HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences )

To round off, I’d like to take this opportunity to extend two invitations: anyone keen to exchange ideas with creative minds and start-ups from our community is warmly invited to visit our community space, the Precelerator. That’s also where our monthly ‘Brezelerator’ inspiration breakfast takes place. If you’re not really an early riser but are looking for inspiring talks and exciting panel discussions on the topics of start-ups and innovation in the evening, then do come along to our SCE Innovations Café. There, you can also chat directly with our start-up advisers. Over drinks and food, the event takes place on the first Tuesday of every month at 6.00 pm in the Steelcase Creative Hall at the SCE. I look forward to seeing you there!

The ‘New & Appointed’ series introduces newly appointed Professors at the HM and provides insights into their backgrounds, areas of expertise and motivations. Each profile concludes with a personal leisure tip for the HM community.