Foundation of the month: memperience
19.10.2022
Philipp Hauff
Founder of the month
With their VideoBook, the memperience team wants to revolutionize the experience of printed media. Julian from the founding team tells you exactly how it works - here and more in the podcast.
What does your company stand for?
In our VideoBook we combine the latest technology with the cherished photo book. Namely, a VideoBook is a photo book in which it is possible to view not only pictures and texts, but also videos with sound on paper pages. Every member of our team values innovation, new experiences and the opportunity to develop. Together we strive to create something new and great: With our VideoBook, we are revolutionizing the experience of printed media.
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Where and how did you come up with the brilliant idea to found the company?
After graduating from high school in 2018, I traveled the world for about 1 year, experiencing countless unforgettable moments, which I of course captured on photos and videos. Then, when I was back from my trip, I had heard from friends that they had created photo books of their trip to capture their experiences. Unfortunately, all the wonderful videos from drones and GoPros ended up on the hard drive. At the time, I already suspected that these videos, unlike the photo books, would probably never be viewed again. This got me thinking: why can we look at pictures in photo books, but not videos? Shouldn’t technology have advanced to the point where we could watch videos on paper pages in photo books? That’s when the idea of the VideoBook was born.
Where do you see the hurdles in the founding process? Where did you get support?
From my point of view, the process of founding a startup can be a bit more complex, especially for the first company you found. There are a lot of legal, tax and bureaucratic questions that you have to answer as a founder*in. These can certainly be a hurdle in the start-up process. However, at that time we were already lucky enough to have founders in our environment who supported us with some of these things. In addition, our father has also built up his own company, so we have also learned a lot from him.
What was one of your biggest challenges during the startup phase?
We founded our startup in the middle of the Corona pandemic. The resulting global supply crisis was certainly one of the biggest challenges in the startup phase when it came to product development.
Has Corona had an impact on your startup/industry so far and if so, what?
As just explained, we had to overcome some challenges due to the global supply crisis caused by Corona. For example, some components suddenly had delivery times of countless weeks and other components were no longer available. In addition, the prices of individual components exploded. Price increases of several hundred percent were suddenly part of everyday life. In addition to all the new challenges, we also had the chance to continue / finish our studies because of Corona. Universities recorded lectures and made them available online, and students were able to take exams virtually.
Which quality should you bring from your point of view as a founder? .
As a founder you should above all have a lot of stamina. There are always things do not run as planned. However, you should not be discouraged by this in any case. Rather, it is important to always look for new solutions, get feedback and try different things.
Do you have very practical tips for other young entrepreneurs?.
A great piece of advice would be to discuss ideas with others. The concern that someone copies your idea is always great, but ultimately the feedback gained from the conversations is much more valuable than the corresponding risk.
What would you perhaps do differently from today’s perspective / approach?
I think especially in the product development and the production process we would approach things differently now. However, we did not have the experience / expertise in many things at that time. Therefore, from today’s perspective, I would definitely talk even more with other founders, experts, etc. about our ideas and challenges to benefit from their feedback and suggestions.
What are your plans for the future? What are your next big milestones?
Currently we sell our VideoBook only to companies, where they use the VideoBook both for corporate and product presentation and as a customer gift. Our first batch have also already sold out. In the long term, however, we would also like to enable private customers to record their memories and greatest moments in a VideoBook. The next big milestones are therefore, in addition to the upcoming seed financing, the development of new product generations and adjustments in the production process.
Thank you very much for answering the questions!
PODCAST.
Listen in to our podcast episode Foundation of the month: memperience
