KONUX develops and manufactures customized sensor solutions based on its patented optoelectronic measurement technology. This measurement principle can be used in nine different sensor types to date and can measure a wide range of mechanical and geometric parameters such as torque, pressure, force, and angle.
The interdisciplinary founding team consisting of Husam Ghanem, Andreas Kunze, Vlad Lata and Dennis Humhal has now grown into a company with almost 30 employees.
Andreas, just 24 years old, heads the international business of KONUX Inc. as Chief Executive Officer. Previously, he worked in strategy and technology consulting and completed a degree in business informatics and the entrepreneurship program “Manage & More” at the Technical University of Munich and Stanford University. The young entrepreneur hasn't yet completed his master's degree: "I decided to focus on the company over my studies," he says with a mischievous smile, adding: "I should have put my studies on hold earlier. This isn't a general recommendation, of course, but it would have helped me to be able to fully concentrate on KONUX earlier."
Lack of space due to rapid growth
His employees are crowded into a small space in a building on Munich's Nymphenburgstrasse. Since space is slowly but surely becoming really tight – within a year the number of employees increased from 4 to 30 – the KONUX team We've been searching intensively for new offices and have now found what we're looking for: On September 1st, we'll be moving into a new office, which, including the production area, will offer ten times the space of the previous office. Until then, everyone is making themselves as comfortable as possible, which includes wearing slippers.
When asked the famous recipe for success, Andreas Kunze answers without hesitation: "Absolutely, a functioning team is crucial. I couldn't imagine better employees; everyone is fully behind the project." He continues: "Everyone who works here is 1,000 times better at what they do than I could ever be." To strengthen the team spirit, they regularly go out for lunch at the Italian restaurant around the corner. "It just has to be," explains Andreas, who originally comes from Lindau on Lake Constance, where he used to earn a few extra euros as a surf instructor at his uncle's surf school. "The team is simply the be-all and end-all. If something isn't right, you can forget about your startup."
Matching ideas within the group is also important: "Continuing to do something the same way because it's always been done that way is one of the worst things I can imagine," says Andreas, adding: "Innovation always means change. That's why we try to incorporate the opinions of everyone on the team. My job is ultimately to make decisions. I usually just make a decision based on a list of pros and cons."
Investor from the USA
With Michael Baum, himself a multiple successful founder from Silicon Valley and initiator of Founder.org, Konux has found a well-known investor. While Andreas Kunze says investors in the US are generally more risk-averse and "a bit faster in everything," the United States is "not generally the golden solution for everyone."
And of course, the experienced entrepreneur Baum also put Andreas and his team to the test before deciding to invest: "You're out on a mountain bike tour and at the steepest point of the climb, you suddenly have to explain and defend your business model. That's not easy, especially if you're not that athletic," explains Andreas Kunze with a laugh. Ultimately, he successfully mastered this test as well. You can tell he enjoys his work 100 percent. For his young age, he seems extremely experienced and aware of what he says and how he delivers it.
“We are very grateful to Munich”
Despite the cooperation with the US investor, Andreas once again makes it clear that he is grateful to Munich and greatly appreciates the business location: "I enjoyed part of my training here, our offices are here and we all enjoy living here. Munich is a great place with many valuable contacts and established companies. Although everything is a little more expensive, this has also been an incentive for us to work even better and more effectively in order to achieve our goals as quickly as possible."
And he's also clear: "We're from here, we work here, of course we pay our taxes here, and we'll continue to do so. Just like creating more jobs." Nevertheless, there will also be an operational business in the USA in the future. This is because "Americans aren't so familiar with the bureaucratic German legal system or can't understand it, and they feel more comfortable with their own regulations if they're already investing money in a German company. Moreover, there's simply an even larger market for our products in the USA, and German technology is in high demand and popular in the United States."
Tips for customer acquisition from Konux founder Andreas Kunze
- Make as many appointments as possible
- Know what the customer wants and, above all, what he needs: Offer a solution to a problem
- Removing the customer's risk-taking and instead showing the benefits of cooperation
- Product must fit the customer: Extensive research before customer contact
