Max's Impact Story: Balancing Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability at Tomorrow University

Max Elster sits in his office in Zurich, when my colleague Julia and I meet him via video call. No need to warm up. Max is a great conversationalist. It doesn’t take us long before we are entrenched in a deep conversation about what’s ahead of him when he starts his Professional Master's program in Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, and Technology at Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences on April 22nd. 

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Currently, a product manager at Starmind, a Zurich-based tech company providing AI solutions to enhance human intelligence, Max will be among the earliest students who get to learn on our mobile-first learning platform while working full-time.

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"What convinced me about Tomorrow’s concept was the combination of the very relevant subject matters, especially the combination of tech, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. I haven't found this elsewhere."

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When he thought about going back to school for an Executive Master’s degree, he wanted to pursue topics that really interested him and learn how to connect them intelligently.

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"I am more of a doer, and decided that I needed to attend a program that is practical instead of academic."

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To say that Max is a doer is a bit of an understatement. He seems to have had several lives already. In 2015, when he was a student in Witten/Herdecke, he had his own podcast, “Feed Your Brain”, interviewing the likes of Blinkist founder Holger Seim and the Chief Political Officer of President George W. Bush. He still remembers how empowered he felt when he bought his first microphone and broadcasted it out of his room. “I started because I liked podcasts myself. But I also discovered that I have a nag for entrepreneurship.” More than that, during his three-year stint as a podcaster, he developed an interest in language and the developing technologies around it. Together with two co-founders, he created an app that documents and transcribes meeting notes, turning the spoken word into text. He sold the idea a little over a year into it, convinced that he will start another company when the right idea comes. 

Max is looking forward to joining a diverse community of students and maybe even finding a new co-founder. “The program is a great chance to meet people from different cultures and backgrounds. They might think about problems differently or have new ways to discover solutions.” Besides the international network, Max also expects to find a startup spirit at Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences, given that it was just founded by two serial entrepreneurs not too long ago.

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"It’s exciting to be part of the change in education as it takes place and to learn how Tomorrow’s platform and concepts make learning more accessible and fun." 

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Early April will be exciting for Max. As part of the corporate scholarship challenges, he entered two concepts and is in the group of students who could potentially win a substantial scholarship. April 8th and 9th is decision time. Julia and I keep our fingers crossed!

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Connect with Max on LinkedIn.