Bohème aims to bring the atmosphere of a newspaper-reading coffee house visit into the digital era. Instead of a paper newspaper on a traditional stick, the proprietor presents his customers with Bohemian-App editorial media available. We spoke with the founders.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product/service!
We, the founders – Mohsen, Vincenzo, and Amadeo – are all coffee culture enthusiasts with a passion for quality journalism. If it were up to us, European coffee house culture must flourish anew, especially in the digital age. After all, cafés are not just places for good coffee, but also places full of inspiration and exciting topics to discover. It's not for nothing that newspapers and magazines have always been available to guests.
But unlike back then, guests rarely pick up newspapers these days, preferring to use their smartphones. We wanted to build something cool for this target audience. That's why we now offer the free Bohème app, which allows our users to read the most exciting paid content from publishers completely free of charge and without annoying subscription offers. Our location customers, i.e., the café operators, pay for this service.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Sure, exciting articles in newspapers and magazines have been around for a while now... and digital reading isn't exactly new either.
But discovering paid content in cool locations on an app and reading in a relaxed manner without constantly being pestered by subscription offers is new. We work with iBeacon technology and can offer the reading experience super easy and straightforward—without the user having to register or log into a network. Thanks to a small iBeacon transmitter, the app detects that the guest is in the café and immediately makes all articles available to them for free on their Bohème app.
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
We are convinced it is due to the following three points:
1. None of us are from the media industry... that might help us approach things a little naively, or even more pragmatically. Even if we discover that some of our ideas don't work, we can put that aside without any idealism. We consistently succeed in creating truly relevant offerings for users and our location clients. I think, especially in the publishing sector, some people find it difficult to think beyond the long-standing, successful print strategies.
2. Our location partners and cafés create a great atmosphere in which our users can feel truly comfortable and either treat themselves to a break from hectic everyday life with a long read or simply discover the three-minute story out of curiosity.
3. The Bohème app comes at the right time… Discovering quality journalism without the hassle of registering is simply a good thing.
“The commuters love it”
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We're currently having a lot of fun with the development. We're talking to Germany's biggest publishers. In addition to the cool cafes we already have in Munich, we've also been able to win some of Deutsche Bahn as customers and partners. This is, of course, a tremendous success for a bootstrapped startup like ours, and one we can build on.
And with our innovative partner, Südostbayernbahn, we have exactly the right people on our side. We managed to implement this project there with record-breaking speed, by corporate standards. And the commuters love it. One commuter even bought a new smartphone specifically because of the Bohème app and the service it offers.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
The only true Munich native on the team is Amadeo. But the others also feel right at home here in Munich after long stays abroad all over the world.
We believe that Munich is a special startup location, especially institutions such as the university startup centers, such as the LMU Entrepreneurship Center, or the many incubator and accelerator programs, such as the Media Lab or Google Launchpad, which we were also privileged to attend, are excellent starting points for exciting projects. The quality and substance with which new concepts are brought to market is already very high. The network of innovative companies, other startups, and founders who are always open to exchange ideas is also enormous.
We would also start up in Munich again at any time.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
Of course, we have our sights set on becoming the “next unicorn,” and with our major partners like Süddeutsche Zeitung, Red Bull Media House, and Südostbayern Bahn, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn Regio, we are well on our way to making a difference.
We're also practicing all the startup clichés that come with it, like excessive Club Mate drinking, growing long founder beards, and using retro methods to make coffee in the office. 😉
By the way, there are failures, of course. They're simply part of starting a business. And as long as you draw the right conclusions from them in a timely manner, it won't be an epic fail.
7. Schwabinger 7 or Bob Beaman?
Neither of them… I’d rather go for Café Jasmin.
Thank you very much, it was great fun!
