Munich Startup: What does your startup Together do? What problem do you solve?
Christoph Kappes, Together: To date, there's no tool that allows you to do what's needed in business: speak and write together so that everything is done legally, trade secrets are protected, and the results are transparent. Providers like Microsoft are subject to data protection concerns and have backdoors; others lack key features, and messaging apps and boards aren't well-suited for sustainable communication. This is our starting point.
Together is a intelligent meeting hub, where interactive collaboration is so important that legally compliant results are achieved:
- Collaborative writing allows everyone to contribute—for example, to the agenda, but also to brainstorming sessions and minutes. This enables better-quality results. It also leads to coordinated and more legitimate decisions.
- We're improving collaboration with AI, for example, by correcting protocols and enabling prompts within the group. To ensure this is GDPR-compliant, we're also using German AI from Aleph Alpha.
- We help in trust-poor situations. These occur in small settings, such as committees, healthcare, government agencies, and consulting. But also in large settings: cross-cutting projects, working groups, condominium associations, joint ventures, and corporations. We support trust with identity verification via video ID, make documents verifiable (electronic signatures), allow pseudonymous use via wallet, and enable extended voting, such as with a board or other committee proposal. And all of this is optional; you can also chat away like Krokodil37.
- We have an entire conference floor for everyone, allowing you to organize communication functionally (Project A, Client C, Café). You know where your colleagues are and have short distances. This makes us an attractive option for distributed organizations with hundreds of people.
Together wants to focus on collaboration
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Christoph Kappes: Video conferencing software is currently at a low level of maturity. Physical speaking is being replaced by digital speaking, with a bit of "sharing" and integration. The concepts come from the video telephony hardware. Writing as a cultural form is not considered, but rather added on – in MS Teams, this is evident in the low use of collaborative Word in the cloud. And because collaboration requires a corresponding culture, development has stagnated. But speaking about what has been written and writing down what has been discussed – these belong together! You formulate while thinking, and when you write, your thoughts become clearer. This is why text collaboration can improve concepts, brainstorming sessions, agendas, and minutes. But there are also infinitely more cases where collaborative writing improves quality, is faster, and at the same time creates more legitimacy because everyone has been able to participate. This is how learners can develop tasks and become teachers, just as lawyers can work together, paragraph by paragraph.
All the components already exist somewhere, but nowhere from a single source, so well integrated, so useful even in larger and/or trust-based constellations, and with benefits in seamless, elegant user journeys. Perhaps you could say: we're the iPhone of meeting software. With us, you can introduce yourself, then sign an NDA, and then jointly create a project description that you send to everyone with one click. And all at an attractive price: with us, a Seat with 5 rooms costs a good 15 euros per month, which is a bargain for a German solution.
“Many have accepted that meetings have too few results.”
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Christoph Kappes: As the head of digital at many companies, I've seen that reality isn't as fancy as digital professionals might imagine. Many have resigned themselves to the fact that meetings don't produce enough results, that calendars are full, and that heads are already buzzing on Monday evening. Everyone knows how bad meeting culture can be when it comes to minutes, for example, and how much this costs in terms of money and lost productivity. As a crisis manager, I've even seen how meetings, as the "heart" of a company, can be the root cause of crises. And since I've learned firsthand how to improve management and meeting culture at many companies, I've put my small toolbox into a tool. Of course, this tool doesn't replace people's attitudes, but it makes it much easier to achieve good, accepted results without annoyance.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Christoph Kappes: We spent four years designing and developing the concept. The concept evolved logically and organically: Initially, the core was collaborative working, then the "floor" and "trust" features were added, and a "soft" dimension also developed to break down silos and counteract isolation. Therefore, after two years, we redesigned our technology and have since replaced some technology, for example, we replaced the video service. Now it's all about acquiring new customers and listening carefully to them.
Together: Profitable in one year
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Christoph Kappes: We want to be profitable in a year and then become a globally relevant player. But I have to be honest, given the current global situation, I'd rather think a little smaller right now.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Christoph Kappes: Our core team is a German-speaking team of people who get along well with each other – that's very helpful for an innovative product. We are located throughout Germany, not just in Munich. As a former Hamburg native, I live here in Munich, but so far I only know the Munich location from interim mandates, and hardly the Startup scene. But I'm looking forward to it.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Christoph Kappes: Those who are successful are not hidden in their market. And if they are stars, then they are rising.
