A resounding success: Mittweida Start-up Forum & Open Lab Tour

To begin with, Laura Tzschätzsch and Dana Fritsche, project staff members of the SAXEED start-up network at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, guided the participants on the Open Lab Tour through four of the university’s laboratories. Afterwards, the project leaders, Professor Ulrich Buser and Professor Alexander Knauer, along with site manager Dr Dirk Liebers, welcomed the guests to WERKBANK32. Among them were researchers, students, alumni, start-up founders and business angels from the region, who were then inspired by the start-up journeys and insights shared by the four speakers.
The presentation of the prostartup Award by Professor Detlev Müller to JoyJab GmbH, along with the excellent catering provided by Gasthaus Halsbach and the infused water from Techniker Krankenkasse, rounded off both events!

The Start-up Forum 2025 was completely fully booked: over 100 participants. A record turnout!
To make the presentations more interactive, participants were able to ask each speaker questions directly and digitally via their smartphones.

“I spent more time at SAXEED than at uni!”

That sentence stuck in my mind when Alexander Seyfert began to talk about how he got started as an entrepreneur. Born in the Ore Mountains, he set up numerous businesses whilst at university and worked for major event organisers in the region. But it was only his decision in 2012 to leave his “protected” life in Chemnitz behind and start a three-month internship in Silicon Valley that marked the turning point in his entrepreneurial career.
He recounted his spartan life in the “Hacker House” in San Francisco, sharing a flat with over 60 flatmates and sleeping in a $2,000 bunk bed that he couldn’t really afford. He stepped out of his comfort zone, made new contacts and worked as a product manager at Cooliris, Yahoo! and Amazon. Yet he always remained true to his Saxon roots and, in 2016, co-founded the Chemnitz-based blockchain start-up authentic.network. He then served as co-founder of MoneyScience™, a technology used in the Bright Money app to pay off debt efficiently and achieve financial goals. Finally, Alexander turned his attention to artificial intelligence. As CEO of Flume AI, he supports the construction industry in finding suitable materials.
To support other founders, he set up Threesixty Ventures, which provides funding for early-stage start-up projects.

“Development begins where the comfort zone ends.”

This is exactly what the second speaker, Robert Schlesiger, described as he took the participants on a journey with him – from his graduation from Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, through his work as an intrapreneur, to his role as sales manager at well-known start-ups.
His journey as a founder began in Memmendorf, a village near Oederan in the Ore Mountains. His first employer was mailingwork, a company specialising in newsletter software. This was followed by a risky leap into the then-unknown start-up Staffbase, which ultimately turned out to be a unicorn and gave his personal development “a real boost”, as Schlesiger put it. Now, as sales manager at the start-up SoSafe, he gave participants at the Start-up Forum insights into the topic of cyber security and highlighted how security training for staff can be made more engaging. Schlesiger regularly takes the plunge. He told the audience about his new passion, ice bathing, and the experiences he’s had outside his comfort zone.

How can an entire sector be transformed in just three minutes?
The start-up New Age of Food (NAF) demonstrates how the traditional catering industry can be transformed into a completely new ecosystem with the help of AI, automation and scalable cloud technology. Through vending machines! Using infrared technology, the machines can gently reheat meals in a matter of minutes and serve them 24 hours a day without the need for additional staff.
In her presentation, Odette Lamkhizni highlighted how digital processes and technologies can revolutionise food culture and why now is precisely the right time for such innovation. In an industry that has thought in analogue terms for decades, she believes: “Those who don’t embrace digital will lose out. Those who use AI correctly will win.”
At the Start-up Forum, she gave us exclusive insights into her ‘3-minute restaurant’: from 3D cameras and predictive maintenance to RFID-tagged reusable containers and dynamic sales forecasts. As the winner of the 8th Freiberg Start-up Competition and owner of the Gasthof Halsbach, she is now revolutionising her entire industry and region. The business idea she developed with her husband, Abdelilah Lamkhizni, combines the catering and retail sectors.
Her journey with New Age of Food and the Halsbach Inn shows that digital transformation can be a taste of success. It can ease the workload. It can secure the future – and, what’s more, it’s efficient, sustainable and cost-effective.

Digital forensics ‘made in Mittweida’: At the Start-up Forum, Professor Dirk Labudde from Mittweida University of Applied Sciences explained how scientific excellence and regional innovative strength have given rise to a unique ecosystem for digital forensics. Mittweida is now setting the standard, as FZ forensic.zone GmbH is regarded as the benchmark for security, investigative work and technological development.
In his presentation, Labudde demonstrated how Forensic.Zone combines the latest technologies, analytical methods and practice-oriented research to analyse digital evidence reliably, efficiently and in a legally compliant manner. The start-up focuses on the offences of child pornography, youth pornography and sexual abuse, as well as the associated preparation of IT forensic expert reports for law enforcement purposes.

Another insight from the Start-up Forum: your time at university is a particularly good time to take risks, follow a non-traditional path and pluck up the courage to launch your own venture.

This is confirmed by the team at JoyJab GmbH, which was presented with the prostartup Award 2025 by Professor Detlev Müller this year. Their journey began with a prototype created ‘on Dad’s kitchen table’, and this has now grown into a games studio of their own, founded by students and alumni of Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. The game developers and managing directors Jakob Ronald Maßalsky, Maximilian Putz and Jesco Vogt were absolutely delighted!

The Start-up Forum thrives on its partners and supporters: we would like to thank IMM prostartup GmbH & Co. KG, Techniker Krankenkasse, WERKBANK32 and TeleskopEffekt GmbH for their valuable collaboration.

We look forward to the next Mittweida Start-up Forum on 19 May in the summer term of 2026!