cioplenu

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

During our master's thesis at the Frauenhofer Institute, we dealt with digital process documentation. We quickly realized the immense potential 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. 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?

The special thing about our business model is that we combine an extremely simple application, a wide range of applicability and enormous technological expertise. We are also a very young and dynamic team that is one hundred percent focused on customer benefit.

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

For the first few 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. This 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 so far?

We recently opened our second location, we are continuing to grow strongly and are therefore still hiring highly motivated and qualified employees - even during the current coronavirus crisis. As founders, this development makes us very proud.

What have you learned so far?

Every day is full of lessons. In the beginning, it was more about getting to know the needs and applications of our customers and the technological knowledge, but today we are much more in demand as managers. Here, too, the company is constantly evolving.

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

We would probably make different decisions in one case or another, but you're always smarter in the end. In the beginning, we assumed a slightly different use case for our software, but by regularly testing it on the market, we were able to identify errors 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 might 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 to outsiders. 'Process documentation in industry', you might think there are more exciting things. But we were passionate from the start and still are. Even if, in the beginning, one or two start-up awards passed us by because of the next AI start-up.

Who would you like to have dinner with and why?

Aaron Levie, who founded box.com (one of the largest companies for cloud storage providers) during his studies and prevailed against the big players Google, Microsoft and Dropbox. What really impresses me, apart from the success of the start-up, is his authenticity. He has remained down to earth to this day and still runs the company together with his college friend. He also shows backbone in the current 'Black Lives Matter' debate and positions himself accordingly. In addition to the economic pressure you face as a start-up or company, it is important for us as founders and entrepreneurs to remain down-to-earth, take on social responsibility and be authentic.