The founding of companies as a specific form of technology transfer between science and industry is of outstanding importance for Germany, a country that relies on innovations. The reasons why inventors working in non-university research institutions are prompted to take the step into self-employment have been empirically under-researched. Florian Baumgartner investigates which relevant factors theoretically explain the act of founding a company and tests his hypotheses in a survey of 159 inventors at Max Planck, Fraunhofer, and Helmholtz institutes. He relies on statistically advanced methods such as Partial Least Squares and logistic regression. It turns out that inventors who behave entrepreneurially, are convinced of their invention, and receive support from promoters are more likely to succeed in founding a company.