We've known red, white, and green since childhood. But blue? And watermelon and grapefruit instead of apple and lemon? These new gummy bears are the result of an innovation process involving thousands of people, driven by the Munich startup innosabi.
Reach your destination faster in connected times
The names of innosabi's customers are familiar. They include major corporations such as Kärcher, Postbank, 3M, Liebherr, and Continental. These companies have recognized that innovation cycles are shortening and product development must be accelerated. They themselves must adapt the way they develop their products to digitalization – and become more agile, more connected, and more open in their processes.
Innovative power of the swarm
The four innosabi founders met while studying in Munich. They recognized the fear of large companies regarding digitalization and the opportunities offered by agile crowd innovation. Thus, Jan Fischer, Moritz S. Wurfbaum, Catharina van Delden, and Hans-Peter Heid founded innosabi in 2010.
The crowdsourced innovation software brings committed people together in virtual placeswhere they discuss their ideas – and Innovation arises from collaboration. This is then translated into concrete products or services that are oriented towards the market. Like the Gold Bears Fan Edition with a new flavor and different colors. Or a truly user-oriented online banking service, where new features were developed in collaboration with customers.
Big Data for innovation – the way to the future
“I want our platform to be the digital home for innovation projects in large companies.”
This is what the scenario will look like in five years, if Catharina van Delden, CEO of innosabi, has her way. To achieve this, algorithms need to become even more intelligent, and the companies' various innovation processes and programs need to be more closely networked, and ideally, the community networks of existing customers need to be connected. And then big data algorithms should be run on top of them. That's exactly where the potential lies, says the innosabi managing director.
Great will, good team
And how did the founders get to where they are now? Catharina says:
“One of our most important success factors is the diversity of our team. This is what made our company possible.”
The common thread among the founding team is that they all shared a strong desire to start a company. And they are all alumni of the Technical University of Munich. However, each comes from a different field – mechanical engineering, finance, electrical engineering, marketing – everything is there – and the four entrepreneurs also have very different personalities. One is more of a networker, another is strong analytically, the next is a sales ace.
The biggest mistake
One of the biggest mistakes a founder can make: keeping their idea secret. The innosabi founders talked about what they were planning and where they wanted to go from the very beginning. "Thus, we've convinced many people to help us—out of intrinsic motivation. Our advisory board is made up of top-class members. These are all people who want to support us, and they don't get a cent for it." says Catharina.
Yes, all founders
Although they studied in Munich and have some of their roots in the Bavarian capital, their network wasn't established from the beginning. Building good contacts was a gradual process that the four founders pursued through a targeted selection of suitable conferences and following the motto "We mustn't be seen together! Everyone must fan out individually and talk to as many people as possible!" Her mentor from the very beginning, Alexander Lang, Managing Director of IMAN Solutions GmbH, supported her, as did the other advisory board members Barbara Wittmann, Dr. Stefan Ried, and Dr. Markus Pfeiffer. And Catharina has represented the Interests of startups in Bitkom as a member of the executive board. This was certainly the biggest step in expanding her network, especially at the board level in large corporations.
Munich's master of bootstrapping
The founders have also sought additional supporters – including through Manage & More, the MBA in Innovation & Business Creation, an Exist scholarship and the Startup Unit of the Chamber of Commerce and IndustryThe innosabi team lacked nothing in Munich. After all, as a founder, you have to focus on your business – and there's no better city than Munich for that if you're operating in the B2B sector.
Is there nothing lacking? When asked about finances, Catharina, who until recently lived in her student flat, says:
"We're the greatest masters of bootstrapping Munich has ever seen. And we went through many loops to get where we are today. Two of us are developers. This allowed us to try out a lot of things ourselves without falling flat on our faces and burning hundreds of thousands of dollars."
So far, the company has grown with two strategic angel investors, without any external capital. Before seeking external financing, the founders wanted to first understand their customers, the sales concept, their product, and the market on their own and establish a “Proof that the concept works”, as Catharina says.
innosabi before the next growth step
Now innosabi has reached this point – “We have phenomenal case studies, we have a very good product, we have satisfied customers,” says Catharina – and is now fully focused on scaling the business and international growth. The focus is primarily on partners who also understand the product and aren't afraid of B2B business with longer product cycles.
Munich Startup is excited and wishes innosabi much success on its future path.
By the way innosabi is looking for passionate new employees –– Developers, of course, and currently also a working student in marketing.
