Founder of the month: heat_it

24.07.2019 Daniela Musial-Lemberg Founder of the month

Our founders of the month July are heat_it. As beautiful as summer is, it has one major drawback: itchy mosquito and painful wasp bites. Fortunately, the scientifically proven principle of hyperthermia - treatment by means of heat - is available to treat the symptoms. Available products could not convince the four founders and so they made the heat_it a reality. We interviewed the founders about the idea, the founding period and future prospects.

What does your company stand for?

With MARA, we help companies better understand consumers by automatically evaluating vast amounts of customer feedback. With the help of deep learning, we analyze online customer reviews, for example, and derive deep insights into the topics that move consumers.

In addition, as a team we stand for open interaction with each other, a strong desire to learn – something you do automatically every day when you start up – and the will to build a company where everyone feels comfortable.

Where and how did you come up with the bright idea to found the company?

Our foundation is essentially based on Tobias’ dissertation. During his doctoral process and even directly in his defense, the point kept coming up that you could “make something out of it”. However, Tobias first joined a top tier strategy consulting firm as a data science consultant right after his doctorate, and that’s where he met Ingo. About one and a half years after Tobias, Max completed his doctorate at the same chair – that’s how the two of them knew each other – and with the support of our joint PhD supervisor and the KIT, we applied for the Exist-Gründerstipendium and were accepted. Now, since April 2020, we are in the process of turning Tobias’ prototypes from the dissertation into a product, have already come quite far on this path and have been able to win our first customers.

How did the founding team come together?

The four of us knew each other from our studies, had already worked together successfully on various projects and were looking for a project for an inventor competition. The idea for heat_it came at just the right time. We started product development with the help of the Institute for Microstructure Technology at KIT and applied for a patent. We had no idea that this could become a start-up, we just wanted to build a cool product.

What do you see as the advantages of being your own boss?

You’re challenged in more ways than almost anywhere else, so you learn an incredible amount. The freedom you have is great, and at the same time the responsibility to manage your own time properly is great. After all, it wasn’t the “stupid” boss who imposed the task on you, but you yourself decided that the chosen task is the most important task at this moment in order to bring the start-up forward. Working as your own boss is so motivating that the high time commitment usually doesn’t feel like work.

What qualities should you bring with you as a founder?

The ability to work in a team and flexibility are the top priorities here. You can’t always work in your own specialty and only do what you feel like doing at the moment; the challenges are simply too diverse. A certain tenacity is also necessary, because bringing a product to market is a real marathon.

Where do you see the hurdles on the way to a successful company? Where did you get support?

In order to bring a medical product to market, the regulatory requirements are high in addition to the “normal” challenges of a hardware start-up. This would hardly be possible without the manifold support e.g. from the KIT and IMT, the Cyberlab Accelerator, the Life Science Accelerator and a long list of individuals and organizations sympathetic to us.

How did you deal with the higher workload during the start-up phase?

We have been used to the high time commitment for quite a long time; after all, the “heat_it project” initially ran parallel to our studies for a long time. Fortunately, we had completed our studies during the start-up phase and were able to concentrate fully on the start-up.

Do you have any tips for other young company founders?

Network and keep your eyes open! There is an almost unmanageable number of support opportunities in the early stages: great business plan competitions, pitch contests, consulting services, and and and. You can get a comprehensive “package” of benefits by joining an accelerator.

The team is the most important thing! Within the team, it must be possible to communicate openly about needs, strengths & weaknesses and sensitivities. Only if people work closely together in a spirit of trust can they overcome the many challenges that await them when founding a start-up.

Support our crowdfunding campaign currently running on Startnext (until 08/18/2019). This way you can experience first-hand the launch of the heat_it and make it better yourself in the future .

Info:

Company: heat_it – Kamedi GmbH
Founders: Stefan Hotz, Armin Meyer, Lukas Liedtke, Christof Reuter
Foundation: October 2018
Email: info@heatit.de
Homepage: www.heatit.de
Industry: Consumer goods

Founder of the month: heat_it

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