Cologne University of Applied Sciences score to identify successful start-ups

Enter key figures and calculate the potential success of your own company: This is what the 4T-Score of the Rheinische Fachhochschule Köln, which has now also been verified internationally, aims to achieve.

What makes a start-up successful? There is probably no recipe, but there is a score from the Rheinische Fachhochschule Köln that aims to predict the potential success of start-ups based on four criteria: Team, Traction, Tech & Product and Timing. In future, VCs will be able to use the 4T-Startup-Score to check whether a start-up is promising - or not.

Start-ups with a score of 70 or higher have a 20 percent higher company growth rate than the average. Timing and traction in particular appear to influence the growth of a start-up. In principle, however, all four categories have an impact on the success of young companies.

In order to confirm the score internationally, 150 tech start-ups from Europe, China and the USA were examined. This showed that start-ups with a higher score really do have significantly higher growth. Back in 2019, the City of Cologne and the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce conducted a study on the 4T score, in which 120 tech start-ups took part. The study was based on key financial figures, patents and other factors, as well as the attitude of the founders and the team structure.

"I am delighted that the results have now been confirmed internationally and that we can provide start-ups with real guidance and arguments for investors with our 4T Score," says Kai Bühler, who conducted the study. Start-ups can complete the score online and have their business model evaluated based on the four categories.