Munich Startup: What career path have you had so far?
Christina Harbauer: I studied mechatronics with a focus on automation technology. During my doctorate at TUM in the field of ergonomics, I concentrated on developing ergonomic exoskeletons for commercial use. In 2021, I started a spin-off with one of the developed exoskeletons together with my co-founders Martin Fleischer, Noah Gerullis, and Peter Schaefer. And we officially founded in 2025 to take Ease forward.
The leap from research to application
Munich Startup: What motivated you to found the company?
Christina Harbauer: Already during my studies, I was enthusiastic about the agile and fast-paced work in startups, thanks to the “Think.Make.Start” course. Since then, I wanted to found my own startup and build something with my own small team that makes the world or at least the lives of individual people a little bit better. But there was always a missing spark. When my research on exoskeletons led to this team forming and the feedback from users was so positive, I knew that now was the perfect opportunity.
Munich Startup: What would you have liked to know before your first founding?
Christina Harbauer: The path to success is individual. What works well for one startup doesn’t necessarily have to be the path to success for you. Many will think your idea is bad at first, but you shouldn’t let that discourage you. You always have to be open to input, but you always have to weigh it against your own individual situation.
There is no standard success recipe that you can apply – you learn a lot, fail a lot, and have to be open to new beginnings. And yes – you hear that often beforehand, but you only really know what it means when you experience it yourself. But the foundation is a good team, a good network, good relationships with potential customers, self-confidence, and a little bit of courage.
Munich Startup: How has your company been financed so far?
Christina Harbauer: We are fortunate to currently be funded by the EXIST Research Transfer Phase I as part of the EXIST program by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus).
Harbauer: Ideas emerge in dialogue and through sports
Munich Startup: When and where do you get your best ideas?
Christina Harbauer: Through sparring with my co-founders as well as my mentors and coaches. As a team, we are all very creative problem solvers, but we sometimes have different approaches. This allows us to challenge each other very well and get each other to take new perspectives and generate completely new ideas.
My mentors always help me when I focus too much on a problem. They always bring valuable, pragmatic input from outside and help me take a step back and approach the topic from a new perspective and solve it.
Otherwise, also quite classically during sports, while driving or when I’m out in nature.
Munich Startup: What are your 3 favorite work tools?
Christina Harbauer:
- Quite old-school: pen and paper. It helps me to quickly write down thoughts, organize them and sketch solutions.
- I don’t have a real favorite, but LLM tools for inspiration for texts. Even though I always rewrite them afterwards, it makes me much more efficient
- Microsoft Teams: I work with it so much every day that I simply can’t do without it. Even if Teams has its quirks and sometimes is a bit unwieldy. It makes my everyday life so much simpler, both in team communication and in communication with our customers.
Munich Startup: Your top tip on the subject of “pitching”?
Christina Harbauer: Have fun! It’s your topic, your expertise, your stage. Show them with your whole personality how wonderful your passion project is, and then they will be excited too.
Founding with impact and at the right time
Munich Startup: Does it seem like a good time to found a company right now? Why?
Christina Harbauer: Yes – for us at least it was the perfect time. Technological maturity had been achieved and demand is steadily increasing due to labor shortages and demographic change, which is now increasingly noticeable in the logistics industry. Ergonomics and employee health have such a high priority as never before. Despite the economically tense situation, companies are currently investing very readily and saying clearly: “Ergonomics has no price”.
Munich Startup: Which technology or industry would you bet on with your next founding?
Christina Harbauer: B2B hardware startups always have the problem that they require a large initial investment and then also have very long, complex sales cycles. That is of course risky. But these are the startups that also have the potential to have a large impact on the world and society.
Accordingly, I would probably bet on a startup that offers a combination of scalable software with a not too complex hardware component.
Munich Startup: What could be improved at the Munich startup location in your view?
Christina Harbauer: There are almost too many offers – but too little overview. There are incredibly many events, but they have such a broad scope that the added value is not always guaranteed. And attending all of them is almost impossible if you also want to work on your startup content.
I would like more topic-specific, focused programs that not only offer “quantity” but real added value – and more targeted visibility for B2B and hardware startups. This simply increases the chance that an investor, mentor, or coach finds the right startup for them and vice versa.
