Starting-up a business is not an easy task. Founding a chemical company, certainly, belongs to the more complex business ventures. The consequences are obvious: In contrast to vibrant founding activities in the IT and trading businesses, new chemical companies are scarce. Given the importance of the chemical industry in Germany and considering the changes and challenges of this branch, the lack of new companies is alarming.

ChiroBlock, that was a start-up venture 17 years ago, supports the chemical start-up ecosystem in Germany. We do know from our own experiences that sharing ideas, communication and education of the founders is more important than just providing money or lab space. Hence, we took part in this year’s “Entrepreneur Week“in Magdeburg earlier this month. Dr. Seidelmann shed light on the special issues and pitfalls of founding a chemical company an encouraged student also to consider a career as self-employed persons in start-ups.