Founding a company after graduating in Management & IT

Ms. Fritsch, where does your passion for IT come from?

I was already fascinated by IT as a child: At the age of 8, I watched with excitement as my mother stared at the screen of her PC and read the word "Snore!!!". This was set by a colleague of my parents and me. During schooldays I gained first experiences with programming languages. Nevertheless, I had to realize that a pure IT study does not correspond to what I would like to do later in job life. As a programmer, I would have missed the direct contact with different people, which is why I decided for the diploma program Management & IT.

What appeals to you about entrepreneurship and why did you decide to set up your own business?

A-SQUARE is a management consultancy that deals with IT: from digital transformation to process and project management to the ideal infrastructure. If there is a desire for change at customers’ side, we as consultants can quickly determine which areas need optimization and achieve a quick effect with the 80/20 rule. This effect favors further changes.
In consulting, we are not interested in selling anyone any product, but in finding out what is really needed. This can be an optimization of processes, changes in the way of working, but of course also supporting software. Especially the way "from paper to digital office" is an important step to save costs and also time.
As an independent consultant I have more possibilities than by being bound to a company, this is what I appreciate very much.

How did your study program Management & IT prepare you for your professional life?

The majority of the lecturers come from the field. You notice this in the practical relevance of the lectures and the focus of the content. In particular, the mix of IT and management allows for a broad spectrum of career opportunities. Despite agile methods, I still find it enormously important to have "interpreters" for these two worlds.
The basic knowledge needed was taught in the study program. In-depth knowledge is of course more difficult to impart here, there are simply too many subjects for that. In my opinion, this is also not essential for job life - usually the focus is chosen later then. This was not always clear to me during my studies.

How long was the path from the first idea of self-employment to the actual founding of your company?

Again and again I toyed with the idea of becoming self-employed. After seven years of thinking back and forth, the time had finally come and I found the right partner for self-employment. At the end of March 2021, I founded the company A-SQUARE together with my business partner, Alexander Christanell. As with many founding teams, we each have our own focus and so we complement each other perfectly!

What were the biggest challenges on your way to self employment?

We were lucky because a business consultant, a friend of ours, stood by us and provided us with tips. Furthermore, we had a tax consultant practically from the beginning. Through research and these two people, we quickly managed to gather the necessary documents and found the company. In retrospect, I have to admit that it took us almost the longest to come up with the name.

Would you describe A-SQUARE as a classic start-up?

If a classic start-up means a start-up with an innovative idea and a quick profit, I can only say "No by no means." A-SQUARE GmbH does not have an innovative product, but offers services. We did not need external financing for the foundation. Our goal is, of course, steady growth. Thereby the customer and his needs are always in the foreground.

Thank you very much for the exciting insights, Ms. Fritsch!