Practice immersion
The master in innovation and entrepreneurship offers many opportunities to gain practical experience that will prepare you for the real challenges of scaling a business or driving change in a global organization, including opportunities to found your own startup business during your studies and plug into Europeโs largest startup hub to help it grow.
As an integral part of our Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MIE) program, Vali Berlin - Entrepreneurship Hub at ESMT Berlin plays a crucial role in supporting students throughout their entrepreneurial development. Vali fosters entrepreneurship for economic, environmental, and social value in Europe and beyond. The core mission of ESMT Berlin and Vali is to create and spread knowledge that advances business and society.
Vali supports responsible entrepreneurship for sustainable value in four primary areas: venture building, corporate entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, and research. Our aim is to foster entrepreneurship that generates economic, environmental, and social benefits through initiatives in these key areas:
Specifically for MIE students, Vali collaborates closely with ESMT Berlin to offer specialized startup and innovation programs within our venture and educational funnel:
These initiatives guide students through every phase of the entrepreneurial process, from ideation to implementation. This ensures that students gain the practical experiences and insights needed to successfully launch and sustain impactful businesses.
Explore your opportunities
Sustainability Bootcamp
In collaboration with Vali Berlin, the sustainability bootcamp brings students, corporations, startups, NGOs and other like-minded entrepreneurial talents together to conceptualize solutions for the greatest challenges of the 21st century that can then be developed into new ventures.
Vali Berlin serves a platform on which the ESMT community can engage, develop new ideas, find collaborators and acquire resources to develop and scale their startup.
The Vali community consists of a broad range of individuals and organizations, including students, alumni, faculty, serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and subject matter experts.
Value Proposition
- Workshops, guest lectures, coaching and mentoring with entrepreneurs, sustainability and industry experts
- Work with corporates and other key players of the innovation and sustainability ecosystem
- Receive insights from industries
- Exposure to find (external) co-founders
Click here for more information on the Sustainability Bootcamp.
Summer Entrepreneurship Program
The Summer Entrepreneurship Program (SEP) helps you develop and elaborate your own startup ideas. Over three months during the summer, you will work on every aspect of your startup, from finding co-founders and identifying trends and problems, to building your product or solutions and pitching to Venture Capitalists (VCs) and angel investors. The program includes an ideation process where you will either generate or validate ideas. Participants benefit from expert mentoring, access to the ESMT and Vali Berlin network, and a structured series of workshops led by entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
Value Proposition
- Identify problem opportunities
- Validate problem and solution through customer discovery
- Connect with tech and business talents
- Meet potential co-founders
- Gain valuable insights into trends, technologies, and sustainability
- Develop landing pages, prototypes and an MVP
- Receive mentorship and coaching
- Meet the Vali network, including investors and serial entrepreneurs
- Get access to the Vali Hub in Berlin-Schรถneberg
Internship
Alternatively, you can pursue an internship at a company's innovation or intrapreneurship unit. Between April and September, the internship will have a minimum duration of 12 weeks, but you may choose to do a longer internship of up to six months.
ESMT's Career Services team helps you to find the right opportunity and prepare professional and convincing applications for your chosen positions.
Internship examples | MIE 2025:
- Student with a background in Economics and Musical Studies: Private Equity Intern at capiton in Germany (Private Equity)
- Student with a background in Commerce: Venture Capital Intern at SBI Ventures Europe in Germany (VC)
- Student with a background in Economics and Management: Corporate Venture Capital Intern at Deutsche Bank in Germany (Banking)
- Student with a background in Socioeconomics: Business Development & Sales Intern at Tucan AI in Germany (Technology)
- Student with a background in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering: Revenue Operations Intern at Pliant in Germany (Fintech)
NEXT program, Deep Tech Innovation Program or Corporate Innovation Project
The NEXT- B2B Accelerator Program supports ventures created in the Summer Entrepreneurship Program in six different areas:
- Product-market fit
- Human capital
- Fundraising
- Legal
- Administrative
- Tax issues.
Learn more about the NEXT program
You will have the opportunity to join and advise startup founders by participating in the Deep Tech Innovation Program. ESMT Creative Destruction Lab Berlin the first CDL Lab in Germany.
Learn more about Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
For the Corporate Innovation Project (CIP), you will either deliver an innovation consulting project or develop venture ideas together with a corporate partner.
International exchange semester
Students who choose to do Corporate Innovation Project (CIP) will have the opportunity to spend an academic term (term 4) abroad at one of ESMT's top-ranked partners in Europe and beyond.
"SEP was an extensive program that allowed me to focus on the founding process under the guidance of more experienced entrepreneurs."
Ian Wainana, Master alum
"The integration of this 6-month internship in the master curriculum at ESMT is the highlight of the whole program. It enabled me to use the knowledge I gained in the business world and it also helped me establish strong networks with top organizations."
Anish Kakroo, Master alum
"Vali supported My Top Career with continuous feedback, insightful workshops from experts in the Berlin startup scene and the mentorship program."
Francesca Manganella, Davide Bonomi, founders of My Top Career
"The weekly cohort chats with all the SEP co-founding teams, the continuous idea exchange and support from our mentor Oliver Hasse, and the rich series of workshops and hackathons with experts and serial entrepreneurs organized by the Vali team, proved to."
Ludovica & Maria Vittoria, founders of Berglin
