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Grants vs hiring a Förderberatung
Förderberatungen take 10-20% of your award and skip small grants altogether. Here's the alternative.
At a glance
Förderberatungen are real experts and earn their keep on six-figure Forschungstransfer Phase II awards. For a Gründerstipendium-sized application (€139,600 over 12 months) the typical 15% commission lands at €20,940 - paid out of money you have not seen yet, on a grant you may not be awarded. Grants charges a flat monthly fee, you keep the cheque, and the structural and language wins are about 80% of what a senior consultant brings. Pick a consultant when the stakes are eight figures; pick us for the rest.
Grants vs Förderberatungen / agencies: feature comparison
When to pick which
Pick Grants when
Pick Förderberatungen / agencies when
How the consultant fee actually works
Most German Förderberatungen quote a success fee of 10-20% of the awarded sum, paid after disbursement. Some add a base retainer of €2,000-€8,000 paid up front, win or lose. The model is rational - the consultant carries the risk of a 44.7% rejection rate (2024 EXIST Monitoring Report) - and that is exactly why it does not scale to small grants. A 15% fee on an EXIST Gründerstipendium is barely above their hourly cost; on a Forschungstransfer Phase II it pays for the next quarter. The agency picks the latter, every time.
What the consultant actually does, and what we automate
Strip the engagement down to its mechanics: a senior consultant brings (1) section structure that fits PTJ expectations, (2) language conventions reviewers respond to, (3) a pre-submission read against EXIST review criteria, (4) deadline shepherding. Items 1-3 are static knowledge - the same advice they give every applicant. We bake that into the tool. Item 4 is calendar discipline that any tool can carry. What stays uniquely human: insider context on a specific reviewer panel, hand-off coordination with your university, the politics of multi-applicant Verbund grants. Buy that hour-by-hour if you need it.
Hybrid: what works in practice
The pattern that wins for most founders: write the application in here over six to eight weeks (so the structure, language, and criteria checks land for free), then book one or two pre-submission review calls with a Förderberatung at their hourly rate. €300-€800 for two hours of senior eyes is a different conversation than 15% of the award - and you keep authorship of the document. Your university's gründungsbüro often offers similar reviews for free.
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