thinc!

Back in the classroom to start my master's at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Feeling grateful and excited to spend the next 12 months here.

thinc! was never meant to be just another student initiative. It started with a simple gap: University teaches theory. Entrepreneurship requires execution. So generation after generation, students at thinc! built the environment they wished existed. Today, that means journeys into Europe’s leading startup ecosystems, hackathons with OpenAI, Google and Lovable, talent from KIT, TUM and ETH, founder formats, Pitch Battles and events connecting students from Oxford, Cambridge and LSE with some of Europe’s most ambitious companies. But the strongest proof of what thinc! can become is what happens afterwards. Former members are now studying at Princeton and Oxford, building companies, working at places like Mistral, raising some of Germany’s largest funding rounds, and still coming back to mentor, connect and open doors for the next generation. We build the people. They build the rest. That's what we mean when we say we build builders. Every generation before us left thinc! bigger than they found it. Now it's our turn. This is thinc! 2026/27 💙

2018: my first time in Germany. Berlin surprised me. 2026: somehow spent three months living in Berlin. (Berlin still surprised me) a lot happened between those two lines. I moved from Ukraine to Germany, finished school in Münster, started my bachelor’s at the University of Mannheim and joined thinc! then came thinc! Berlin Journey and our internship hiring event MATCHUP, where I ended up chatting with the Amperecloud team. A few months later, I was back in Berlin for an internship. three months of learning how data flows from solar plants into monitoring software, managing release process and product testing, and somehow combining coffee, Claude, Notion and startup meetings into a normal workday. 12-year-old me would probably look at me with those exact same big round eyes. even a last year pre Mannheim version of me would look at me the same way. and looking back, I can't really find the point where I “planned” any of this. you make certain decisions, without knowing exactly where they will lead. in between, there are people you meet, conversations you have and things you learn - all influencing what comes next and, eventually, who you become. now there's a new year ahead, and who knows: maybe another thinc! journey, another conversation, and another surprise 👀 LFG, i guess?

This year, we tried a lot of things differently. We brought new formats to thinc!, and kept building the ones that were already there. 100+ students met 10+ startups differently at MATCHUP in Berlin, where startups pitched to students. 60 people spent 30 hours building at Codex Hackathon in Munich. Students spent five days working alongside startups at the thincubator in Mannheim. And we started building a real thinc! presence in London. Now there’s a new team to take it from here. New questions, new ideas, and plenty more to figure out. We’re not planning to sit still. There are still new ways to thinc! 💡

"Always start with the problem. Never with a cool idea." From leaving Palantir to building Conduct into one of Europe's fastest-growing enterprise AI companies, Jan Philipp Haas shares his perspective on enterprise AI, founding teams, fundraising, London vs. Germany, and why the best companies are built around painfully real problems. A conversation packed with practical lessons for founders, builders, and anyone interested in the future of enterprise technology. #AI #EnterpriseAI #Startups #Founders #Entrepreneurship #EnterpriseSoftware #EuropeanTech #Leadership

We’re still smiling after this year’s Female Founders Night ✨ On March 6th we hosted our annual thinc! Female Founders Night at the University of Mannheim. It was an incredible evening full of energy, honest conversations, and so many inspiring moments. A huge thank you to our amazing speakers for sharing their insights, experiences, and perspectives, you made the night truly special 🫶🏼 We’re also incredibly grateful to our Female Entrepreneurship team for the passion and dedication behind making this event happen so seamlessly 💙 And of course, thank you to everyone who joined us and helped create such a warm, motivating atmosphere! We loved every minute of it and are already looking forward to the next one 🤩 Luisa Gallardo Leon Unicake GmbH Lea Frank Dr. Julia-Sophie Fuchs (geb. Ezinger) Anna Breidt OYESS Beauty GmbH Isabelle Guenou Polina Speidel Nina Schmidt fenou. Svenja Lassen Dr. Andrea Rösinger Daniela Bach Anne Geiger Cassie Yusofi Amritha R Warrier Aya Jaff Jasvin Bhasin 🧩⏭️ Bain & Company Insiders Technologies GmbH

We brought Y Combinator's elite founder network to Mannheim. Last week, we proved that world-class startup wisdom doesn't require a flight to San Francisco. 3 YC founders. 90 minutes of unfiltered insights. 1 room full of ambitious students. We brought Stefan Schaff (Codyco (YC F25) | AI Receptionists for Hotel Groups), Alexander Sporenberg (OpenLaw YC F24), and Chris Cardé (HeyCharge YC S21) to the University of Mannheim. 60 minutes of moderated discussion on getting into YC, scaling without breaking, Europe vs. US strategy, and why so many YC companies fail. 30 minutes of raw Q&A where students asked what they actually wanted to know. Founders stayed for networking, talking hiring opportunities and answering "how do I actually start?" over Red Bull and real conversations. Massive thanks to Finn Ehlers and the team for making this happen: Elias Nothnagel, Sofia Armstrong, Noah Genzmer, Kolja Gerstenkorn, Anastasiia O., Henock Yared . #thinc #YCombinator #StartupCulture #Mannheim #Entrepreneurship

Last semester, we sat down and realized something. Munich opened our eyes. Berlin pushed us further. We'd hit the national maximum. So we asked ourselves: what's next? Higher. Further. The continental maximum. London. No city in Europe has raised more venture capital. No city hosts more world-renowned VCs. No other place on the continent holds more valuable startups. It's the beating heart of European tech. And this week, thinc! is landing in the middle of it. Days packed with legendary VCs and hypergrowth startups. To every partner making this journey possible: thank you! London, let's go. #thinc #Startups #VentureCapital #London #StudentEntrepreneurship