cioplenu

Why did you found your start-up, what problem are you addressing and how do you solve it?

During our master's thesis at the Frauenhofer Institute, we dealt with digital process documentation. It quickly became clear to us what immense potential there is for digital solutions in production, not only in German industry, but also internationally. With our software, we offer the technical platform for interactive, image-guided instructions for technical processes such as maintenance. So it became clear to us early on in the research and development phase that we wanted to build our own company with it.

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

What is special about our business model is that we combine an extremely simple application, a wide range of applicability and enormous technological know-how. In addition, we are a very young and dynamic team that is one hundred percent focused on customer value.

What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome at the beginning?

The first years we developed our software in a small team of three without any funding. Very soon we had a strong technical solution. However, it is much easier to find customers when you can refer to relevant customer references and initiate necessary developments based on this collaboration.

What was the most valuable advice someone gave you during your start-up phase?

One of our mentors at the Frauenhofer Institute advised us early on to solve problems fundamentally and ideally through solid technological innovations. That advice is still a big part of our product DNA today. We have developed many functions that optimize and simplify current processes in industrial companies by a factor of 10. This is achieved through our software features that none of our competitors can offer.

What has been your biggest success to date?

We recently opened our second location, we continue to grow strongly and accordingly continue to hire highly motivated and qualified employees - even during the current Corona crisis. As founders, this development makes us very proud.

What have you learned so far?

Every day is full of lessons. If in the beginning it was more about learning about our customers' needs and applications and technological knowledge, today we are much more in demand as managers. Again, the company is constantly evolving.

If you could start all over again, would you do it exactly the same way?

We would probably decide differently in one case or another, but in the end you are always wiser. In the beginning, we assumed a slightly different use case for our software, but regular testing in the market allowed us to identify bugs and opportunities. Maybe we should have invested in a fully automatic coffee machine earlier, as our portafilter coffee machine took a really long time to start up.

What would you recommend to other founders?

It may sound a bit trite among founders, but passion for what you do is the most important thing. Especially in times of AI, air cabs or blockchain, our topic seemed a bit boring for outsiders. 'Process documentation in industry', you might think there are more exciting things. But we were passionate from the beginning and still are. Even if in the beginning the one or other founder award passed us by because of the next AI startup.

Who would you like to have dinner with and why?

Aaron Levie, who founded box.com (one of the largest cloud storage companies) while in college and beat out big players Google, Microsoft and Dropbox. What really impresses me, apart from the success of the startup, is his authenticity. He's stayed grounded to this day and still runs the company with his college friend. He also shows backbone in the current 'Black Lives Matter' debate and positions himself accordingly. Besides the economic pressure of being a start-up or a company, it is important for us as founders and entrepreneurs to stay down-to-earth, to take social responsibility and to be authentic.