Munich Startup: What was your career path after your apprenticeship?
Lisa Oberaigner, Co-Founder & CEO of Emidat: I’ve been active in the climate tech scene since 2018. Back then, I co-founded the “Sustainable Entrepreneurship Initiative” at TUM and led the “Climate Club” at CDTM (Center for Digital Technology and Management). Right after graduating from university, I started looking for co-founders and developed initial ideas from Boston at MIT. Eventually, I moved back to Munich, partly because of the CDTM. Originally, we had planned to found the company in Berlin.
Crazy topics
Munich Startup: What motivated you to start a company?
Lisa Oberaigner: In my second semester at TUM, I had the opportunity to attend guest lectures from founders whom I found to be extremely inspiring personalities. I loved the energy of the people, even when they were working on such crazy topics.
Munich Startup: What would you have liked to know before your first founding?
Lisa Oberaigner: I believe I was already well-prepared, thanks to my experiences at CDTM and some internships in the startup and venture capital sector. Still, the truth is: you’re never really “ready” anyway. Because you just have to learn a lot “on the job.”
Munich Startup: How has your company been financed so far?
Lisa Oberaigner: Emidat currently has angel and VC investment, and of course revenues. The first five months we were bootstrapped.
Munich Startup: When and where do you get your best ideas?
Lisa Oberaigner: When I listen to inspiring people giving talks or in podcasts. Reading a book also stimulates my thinking.
Munich Startup: What are your 3 favorite work tools?
Lisa Oberaigner: First, Notion, it can literally do everything. Second, “noise canceling headphones” to tune out the hustle and bustle from time to time. Third, HubSpot—I still spend 80 percent of my time selling, the tool is just incredibly powerful.
Lisa Oberaigner: “What sticks around is the feeling”
Munich Startup: Your top tip on “pitching”?
Lisa Oberaigner: What sticks around is the feeling. If you seem nervous, people will get nervous too. I recommend: just have fun and take the pressure off. My co-founder Flo used to say at the beginning: if it’s really bad, at least they’ll remember it.
Munich Startup: Does it seem to you like a good time to found a company right now? Why?
Lisa Oberaigner: It’s always both a good and a bad time to found a company. If you, like I did back then, want to found a company at some point, the best time to do it is now.
Munich Startup: Which technology or industry would you focus on for your next founding?
Lisa Oberaigner: Very likely something related to climate change again, then probably hardware.
Munich Startup: What could be improved at the startup location Munich from your perspective?
Lisa Oberaigner: First, you can feel the internal momentum, which is significantly fostered by strong support from institutions like TUM and CDTM. What’s still missing now is international attention, so that more capital flows into our region and we can think even bigger. Additionally, it would be important for established players at this location to think a bit bigger as well.
What would the world look like if there were more successful female founders?
Munich Startup: Which founder would you like to meet in person someday? And what would you ask them?
Lisa Oberaigner: Melanie Perkins from Canva. As far as I know, that’s the most valuable female-founded startup in the world. Canva was also very profitable early on, but continued to raise VC money because Perkins wanted to build the biggest company in the world from the start. I would ask her why she thinks there are so few highly successful female founders. And what the world would look like in her view if there were more of them.
