From Würzburg to the World

What do graduates of Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) do for a living? In order to present students with different perspectives, Michaela Thiel, Managing Director of the central alumni network, interviewed selected alumni. This time it's Pierre Dubosq's turn.

Dubosq has worked in the German and international insurance industry in the core insurance sector for more than 20 years. His special knowledge of this market segment led him to found the company tech11 together with Matthias Reining. tech11 sees itself as a "close and reliable technology partner to the insurance industry", as it says on its homepage.

Mr Dubosq, how would you explain your product to a layperson? I am the founder, or rather co-founder and managing director of a technology company called tech11, which has developed a digital platform for the financial industry, particularly for insurance groups.

What was the decisive factor that led you to found the company? The decisive factor in founding tech11 was the desire to develop a digital platform based on the latest technologies in order to provide customers from the financial industry with a modern vehicle for managing their digital transformation. Previous comparable software products from our current competition tend to be so technologically outdated that we occupy an attractive niche with our modern platform, which also allows our customers to scale internationally and operate in several markets with a single platform.

What do you particularly like about being self-employed and what do you find most challenging? Realising your own ideas that start as a blank sheet of paper and develop into a medium-sized IT company that today inspires many colleagues and (hopefully also) customers is special. For a former student of business administration at the University of Würzburg, founding your own company is exciting because you have to build up and constantly develop all areas of a company. This is certainly also a major challenge, which begins with the question of financing and then gradually develops. And with each of these development steps, the challenges become more complex, but are then increasingly mastered by a growing team once you have managed to staff all areas of a company with smart and committed colleagues.

What qualities should you definitely have as a founder? Courage. Energy. And a vision.

What is your favourite student memory? The memory of exploring a new city, Würzburg, with completely new friends and having so much time to do nothing.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Are you not yet a member of the university's alumni network? Then you are cordially invited to register via the network's website. There you can also find the previously published interviews with JMU alumni and alumnae.