An interactive encyclopedia of craftsmanship—the founders of the Munich startup craftguide are attempting nothing less. Part of their mission: virtual reality machine courses for apprentices, allowing them to safely test manufacturing processes before coming into contact with the actual machines. Sounds exciting, but hasn't something like this existed for a long time?
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product!
It all started with old school friends Johannes (30, industrial designer) and Theo (29, carpenter). We now number a dozen and are working diligently toward our shared goal: to make skilled tradesmanship accessible digitally and interactively using modern technologies via the craftguide platform. The first concrete product is a virtual reality machine course that teaches the safe use of craft machines. The course is intended primarily for educational institutions, making craft training safer, more effective, and more attractive. In the long term, many more offerings are planned, aimed not only at apprentices and professionals, but also at the general public. We can't reveal too much at the moment – suffice it to say: We want to create a completely different relationship between people and crafts. And we believe that this is less megalomaniacal than it sounds.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Not at all! The market currently offers nothing even remotely comparable. Yet, today's available technologies open up far more opportunities for imparting skilled craftsmanship than has been utilized so far. We now want to tap into this untapped potential for the first time.
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
- Our idealism: We are convinced of the meaningfulness of our work and draw our motivation from making a valuable contribution to society.
- Our diversity: Each of us brings a diverse set of talents, skills, and professional experiences to the team. This allows us to see things from many different perspectives.
- Partner network: From the very beginning, we have placed great emphasis on establishing partnerships with other companies and organizations to create synergies.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We're currently preparing to launch our fully developed VR machine course. We're doing this in close collaboration with machine manufacturers and the Munich Carpenters' Guild, with whom we first tested the course at the beginning of the year. We also presented it at the Internationale Handwerksmesse and HOLZ-HANDWERK, where we were able to establish many more promising contacts. So, there's a great sense of optimism!
5. What does Munich mean to you?
For most of us, Munich is home – we're a "truly Bavarian" startup. Johannes, in particular, had his first startup experiences long before craftguide, which made it easier for us to gain a foothold in the scene. And besides, you simply know more people at home than anywhere else. This played a major role in our ability to build such a large and motivated team in such a short period of time.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
We will continue to work toward our goals with passion and dedication and focus on direct, personal communication with our business partners. So far, this formula has worked wonderfully, and we see no reason why this should change in the future.
7. Isar or English Garden?
Of course both.
