TUM Alumni Adam Probst wants to take the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence to the next level. To this end, he developed a tool that helps companies utilize Artificial Intelligence even more efficiently.

BROAD TARGET GROUP 

“In the future, all industrial areas will be based on Artificial Intelligence”, Adam Probst believes. “And we assist those companies that build AI products. We automate Artificial Intelligence and thus support companies in the development and application of their processes and products.” His product is comparable to a tool that is created at the interface between software development and Machine Learning. The target group here is broad and covers all areas that use algorithms or Artificial Intelligence: from online shops that want to offer their customers suitable products, to predicting damages, for example in buses and trucks to the medical sector, in which AI assists in detecting diseases based on X-ray images.

“TUM PAVED THE WAY FOR ME”

Initially, Adam Probst enrolled at TUM with the expectation of one day working as an engineer in the automotive industry. Later on, the entrepreneurial scholarship of UnternehmerTUM in 2009 was a major factor in his decision to set up his own company: “UnternehmerTUM showed me a world that was completely unknown to me at the time: entrepreneurship.”

With the support of Helmut Schönenberger, today’s TUM Vice President for Entrepreneurship, he later went to Silicon Valley for a semester abroad, where he entered a Master’s program at Stanford University. This was a time that had a decisive influence on him and offered him a glimpse into an up-and-coming start-up scene.

After quitting his job, he attended the “Digital Product School” of UnternehmerTUM, where he got to know his co-founder Hamza Tahir (Master Informatics 2018); computer scientist Benedikt Koller joined later. “TUM paved the way for me and continues to be my companion on many levels. Academically, as an entrepreneur and above all as a networking hub on the global stage”, Adam Probst points out. “The entrepreneurial university prepared me in the best way possible for setting up my own business.”

BAVARIAN CAPITAL INSTEAD OF SILICON VALLEY 

Despite the contacts he made in Silicon Valley during his semester abroad, Adam Probst founded his start-up in Munich. Although Silicon Valley stands for progress, tech giants and rapid growth, Adam Probst sees disadvantages as well: “If turnover does not double in a very short time, the ‘investment’ plug is pulled or the employees leave to join another company in the neighborhood.” Munich, on the other hand, is an economically strong location with many advantages for developing a company in the long term: “Germany has a healthy industry that has organically grown.”

Apart from that, the cost of living and the salary expectations of employees are more moderate in the Bavarian metropolis on the Isar river. “Our home country can definitely hold its own on the international stage.”

Due to its good network and support programs, his Alma Mater became a springboard for Adam Probst: “TUM played a crucial role in my decision to set up my own company.”