Hello, and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from Startupradio dot Joe,
your Startupradio podcast and YouTube blog from Germany. Welcome
another guest from Frankfurt in our series, Tech Startups
Germany, with the European Enterprise Network, Hessen. Hey, Max. How are you
doing? I'm fine. Thank you very much for the invitation. Happy to talking to you
today. Totally my pleasure. As I said, our enabler today is
Hessen Trade and Invest and the Enterprise Europe Network. This
recording was made possible by Hesen Tread and Invest and the Enterprise Europe
Network, Hesen. These organizations have made tremendous
contribution to helping start up businesses succeed and thrive,
providing a range of services from helping to find friends to
ongoing partnerships. By taking advantage of these resources,
start up companies can network and develop innovative strategies for
success on the international stage. The dedicated
support of HDAI and the enterprise you work work
Hessen is paramount in providing start up businesses with the tools
for lasting success. You can learn more in
the show notes down here in the show notes down here below
wherever you will looking at this or listening to this. For everybody who's
watching, sorry for the red eye, but allergy season is
up on us again. Now that we
have everything out of the way I'm sorry. That that that
that was a lot of initial stuff. Maximilian,
would you like to introduce yourself and how you, an Austrian guy,
ended up setting up a AI Startupradio
in Frankfurt? Yeah. Sure. Thank you very much. So hi, everyone. My
name is Max. I'm 26, and I'm originally from Austria in Vienna, as Sir
already mentioned. And, yeah, how we came up Menninger scavenger here in Frankfurt is
actually I was doing an internship already more than a year ago here in
Frankfurt where I fell in love with the city, and we got to know
the, like, props on the stage to our very good lawyer, doctor Jan Felix
Kumpka, who was of big help of all the bureaucracy that's going on
around founding a Startupradio who suggested us because we really
trusted him to set it up here in Frankfurt where he could be of help
the whole time. So, yeah, started here and stayed here.
As everybody can tell, not everybody from Austria need to have an
accent like Schwarzenegger. I have to admit right now, I do
believe his accent is kind of an act, that
people instantly recognize. Oh, that's a kind
of branding stuff. You studied
in Vienna and balcony. But what I found
very interesting, you have been a professional
athlete for some time according to your LinkedIn profile, which,
by the way, we are also linking down here. Can you talk a little bit
about that, what you did here, and what kind of sports?
Sure. Of course. Very happy to. So, yeah, I was playing, hockey
from a very young Joe, actually, from 4 years on. And, yeah, I
went through, like, on the national level to an international level and
was captain of the Austrian youth hockey national team here. Played couple
of European championships, won I think in the end, there was 4
championships of the Austrian in the Austrian level. Yeah.
It was a really great time looking back into it. And, yeah, I'm busy from
time to time. And we're talking about here field
hockey, not ice hockey. Right? We're talking about field hockey. For me, it's always clear,
but for someone who didn't play field hockey, obviously, ice hockey is the first thing
that comes to mind. Okay. You did a
few internships, including at Deloitte where we did not
met, and you have been at
the Financial Times Challenge. What was this all about?
Yes. It was actually a very cool initiative by the Financial Times. Back then, it
was supposed to be in London. And luckily, obviously, it was COVID, and I was
doing it back from my living room. Nevertheless, the challenge was really, really
cool. It was for 3 days on where you had to basically, the
Financial Times gave you the most pressuring issues of the time, and you
were supposed to build a Startupradio it that more or less solves those
issues. So I would say it was, totally cool. You were
given, experts and access to a lot of knowledge,
from experts from the Financial Times and could build, in a nutshell, the start up
in 3 days that then got accessed by XUEZ.
Mhmm. Mhmm. What what was your start up idea?
Our idea was actually back then because it was the time a detector that detects
particles in the air to make, like, an early detection
system for transmittable diseases like COVID.
I I assume they will still be useful in the future. And
then you started your own company in January 2020,
stopped that and started with scavengerai according to your
LinkedIn profile. Can you take us through this journey? Because,
you stop Joe company and then you instantly start with another
in an AI company. How did you meet your cofounder? How how
did you get started with the idea? Definitely. So
back then, I like my background is a bit of a different one. Like, I
actually studied business law, which has way more of a law focus than a business
focus, which is also Joe reason why I worked first at Deloitte because I said
I wanted to get a bit of a background more into business and then also
started the first company, which back then was called Walking Art, and
it was more yeah. My first steps into entrepreneurship, I would say, together with a
colleague of mine. What we saw during COVID that, like, the art sector is
struggling a lot because artists don't have access to art,
or, like, to exhibitions anymore and they're art fans. So we said, okay. We're more
or less in a nutshell to an online art gallery where they can host online
exhibitions and so on, which was very nice. But
then I joined because it was actually a case that I was way more interested
in the business side, and I joined Bocconi University in Italy to
study management there. And as then, the work required a lot of
personal meetings with the artists. It was a local business focused in Vienna.
It was not possible anymore. But, luckily, in Bocconi, I had
my lovely cofounder Felix, who is leading the tech part at
Scavenger, who I reached out to to very, very early
on. And, Yeah.
He was a fan of the idea. We talked to it a lot. And
yeah. So over long nights and early mornings, we talked in coffee chats
at Macquarie University about it and, in the end, decided to fund together.
I see. So, basically, you're an Austrian guy and your cofounder
is German? Yes. My cofounder is German. He's from Aachen.
From From from Aachen and from Austria, and you end up setting up
a company in Frankfurt. That is pretty
interesting. How did you get started? Can we first
talk about what scavenger does and then how he got the idea
to do actually something like that? Because for me, personally, to
have, a business lawyer
doing AI is is quite a stretch.
Definitely. So Felix and me both, before doing our masters, we worked in big
corporates first. And we were basically coming back from our summer internships
where we worked in big corporates before, and we saw a problem that all of
the companies say that data is super important, yet nobody really likes to deal with
it. So you end up that all of the companies have tons of data. They
create more and more data every day, but they lack the time and they lack
the resources to actually draw any insights out of it. And that was a problem
that I'm sure your listeners, like, also know of that. It's really difficult if in
a company you have to take a decision but do not have the necessary insights
into your data to actually take that decision. So, yeah, long story short, we came
back from that summer internship. We exchanged that idea. And
luckily, you got very early on on initial funding. Like, I was still then working
with my internship in Frankfurt at a venture builder with focus on software and
AI, where I got more in touch with that. Felix was working before 2 years
as a lead in software development, so he also had a bit of more experience
in that field. And so, yeah, Felix built a short POC overnight. We reached
out to early investors, Scott from Catelligent and Volker Ford and
Ashkara, a very early investor early on that believed in the
idea, where back then, it was just Felix, me, and the pitch deck and the
POC that he built overnight. And, yeah, then
we quit our jobs because we thought it might make more sense to work on
this full time than before work and after work. And, yeah, here we are.
It is quite interesting.
If I wrap it up, my understanding is from what you
guys are doing is you have 3
distinct AI tools that help you analyze
data you have from your own company, Menninger
up data, doing statistical analyzes, and
generate an output in in
simple language. In which languages
is this available? And can you take us a little bit through the
journey? Is, like, 22 of those tools, are they for
cleaning, for aggregating data, or how does it work? Yeah.
Definitely. So in the end, what we wanna do is offer customers a one stop
solution. So they can upload as you mentioned before, they can upload any kind
of data. Any kind of data sounds generic, but it's on purpose. It is generic.
So you can imagine you can upload 27 excels, free PDFs, a
word, whatsoever, or connect your company databases to it.
Yeah. Once you've done that, you can ask a very simple question. Like, normally, you
would always ask yourself like, okay. How can I improve my profit? From a
user perspective, that's everything you need to do. And then as you mentioned before, we,
in the back, actually have developed 3 different AI tools that are connected
together in one workflow to solve the problem of the user in less than 10
seconds, but you can also only use 1 out of the 3 tools if you
want to. And, yeah, actually, very correct, as you mentioned before. The first
tool, it all starts with data clean, where we have a tool that automatically detects
anomalies inside the datasets, also does all of the statistical data
cleaning, and separates the numerical from texture data.
2nd, we save the texture data. We forward the numerical data to the next tool,
which is more or less the key of scavenger dotai, which first has an
algorithm that detects based on the question you asked, based on the data that got
uploaded, what's the right mathematical numerical test to run. But then
we don't stop there. We don't run 1. We run, like, 100 of tests simultaneously,
choose the one which has the highest statistical fit, also safe that where
already the textual data is waiting. And lastly, we have an interpretation
agent that enriches all of it with industry data, looks at the question, looks at
what outcome we've generated, and translates all of it into a nice looping dashboard
that answers the question that the user asked before. That is pretty
interesting. How far along are you? You guys
just straight erased. By the way, that was the trigger,
while we're talking today. You raised €1,100,000 in pre
seed funding. Investors includes HTGF, the
high-tech, By the way, everybody who like to,
get to know the CEO down here in the show notes, we link our interview
with him and Camp Storm Ventures from
Vienna. So you're in pre
seed, how far along are you and what kind of
data can you work with, and how do your clients look like?
Is it like the handyman from around the corner, or is it like the big
international banks? Definitely. So,
both, actually. All of the options you mentioned below.
Joe, yes, all all of
them, basically. So the way what we say at the moment, we
launched our 1st MVP back in November 2023. And this
MVP, we're at the moment trying out and testing out with pilot partners. Why are
we doing that? Because we say, okay. We wanna be as close as we can
in development to our potential and future customers while we
already generate from that, value for them. So, actually, a win win situation,
ideally. How are our customers look like? I'm actually unlikely not allowed
to do some big name dropping here, but we're working with big
enterprises, Joe, like, the big ones that you actually know to, like, the
classical SMEs in Germany. And, yeah, based on that,
because in the end, the software itself is very, very flexible. It's a very
mathematical software that with the LLM layer that we put on top make
it accessible for also people who don't necessarily studied
statistics or mathematics to understand it, which then I would
say in, big enterprises, we always talk to head
ops and depart head of departments, and in smaller companies, SMEs, we always talk
to the c level executives. And yeah.
Because you also asked before, and I totally forgot to answer it, like, the
software at the moment is available in English, but it's no problem to
switch language. It also works in Italian, German, French, and Spanish,
if I remember correctly so far. But we're happy to add another language if the
language barrier should not be covered by that yet.
Mhmm. There is right now
a lot of
tools out there. There's like a sea of tools in data
analytics and AI. How are you guys different
here? Definitely. I mean, we are obviously in a client.
We do look at the competition, and we see that it's a very crowded space.
Yet one thing we've always tried to mention is, like, we really wanna
live by that, is that in the end, you have a technology, like, at the
moment, it's artificial intelligence that you want to use not for the sake of using
artificial intelligence, but to actually solve the problem of the user, which in the
end is the good thing. How you solve it, the user doesn't care. So the
way that we say it is, like, yeah, we have developed, in the end, its
free AI tools that are AI powered, which are, at the moment, the best possible
way to solve the problem for the user. But as described before, we have
developed this one stop solutions that is powered by the free tools where the user
literally doesn't have to do anything else than throw all of the data in, ask
the questions, and we do all the analytics more or less like a consulting project
on a click for them. You're not permitted
to drop names, but can you drop industries? And what kind of
industries are your customers right now working? Yes. Definitely.
So we're working a lot in the food and beverage sector. We're working a bit
in the, in the sports sector as well because
also there, there's a lot of data available. And we're working also with the
classical, I would say, like, German hidden champions, let's say it
like that. Mhmm. Scalability is
often a challenge for AI startups. How do you guys plan
to scale in terms of operations and infrastructure?
Definitely. So in terms of infrastructure, Felix and the tech team here did a
really, really great job and set everything up in a very modular structure. In
tech terms, it's called microservices, which allows us
to have a very, very scalable approach of the software.
Also at the moment, like, which is one of the few of the reasons why
we got the cool investment is that we're really set up for scalability,
and our costs in that case are very, very low. So that's very
nice. In operational levels, like always, it's something you have to do with time. We
are gonna grow. Like, with the investments, we're gonna grow up to 20 people
because, obviously, operational load is getting heavier. But, like, we're also covered
with the investment to, to lift that definitely.
Mhmm. You talked about investments. After pre
seed, it usually suggests that you want to do a
siege round. What are you guys' long term goals?
And, when when you go to the website, you can basically register
to be a test client. Do you have any guesstimate when
you'll be open to all clients out there?
Yes. That's a very perfect concession. Love to love to tease it out here
at this at this point. So, yeah, actually, at the end
of Q2 2024, so, like, in end of June, we're
gonna launch the whole software live. So from then on, you
can actually you don't need to be a test partner anymore, which obviously also has
its advantages. Joe if you still want to be a test partner, happy to work
with you. Yet from end of June 2024, your whole software
is gonna go live. Mhmm. I see. I
see. What other
plans do you have? We're now drifting a little bit into into the
outlook area, in terms of geography, but
I would believe everybody from the European Union is pretty safe
in throwing your data into the,
analytics tool because you're based in the European Union.
Do you plan to expand for international clients?
Yes. Definitely. Like, first grade that you mentioned it, like, at the moment, which is
very, very important for all our customers that we have so far, is that all
our servers, our databases are in actually in Frankfurt in Germany
as well and are 100% GDPR compliant, which
obviously is is huge. So I would say, like, also due to, as mentioned before,
the language variant because we're already set up very, very well in terms of
data security, which in Europe obviously is way more protected than when you look
to the Asian market or the American market. Joe I would say, like, also in
case of those crucial issues, we're already set up for expansion here.
Mhmm. You already have
4 investors. Mhmm. I I was
wondering, and for most people who are listening to this are
wondering, are you open to talk to new investors?
Yes. Definitely. I mean, like, before the round, after the round, and vice versa, I
would say. So we're always open to talking to new investors.
Actually, like, straight after the free seed round, straight after the closing, we
already went into talks with new investors for the seed round, which
we still is far away. Like, should be closed at the end of
2025. But it's also always great to
talk to investors and interesting people during times where there is not the regular
fundraising chaos. So, yeah, very happy to also get in touch now.
The regular fundraising chaos. Ah, yeah. I see.
Usually, a lot of people are out here, looking for
potential employers. Are you guys also looking for new
people out there for new hires? Yes. Definitely.
Always. Like, we know that one of the key assets we have at the moment
is great people, and our product and our company is only as good as the
people that we have on board. So, yes, 100%. We are
actually trying to as said before, we're trying to grow from 10 to
20 people this year, meaning that we have still 10 spots available,
if you're hearing this. Still, there's a bit of a focus on the
tech team, yet we're also slow and steady trying to set up the business
side. So, actually, no matter which background, we're always happy. We also have a
spontaneous application field at the moment on the website. So always happy to
receive application from bright people. Everybody who'd
like to talk to you, we do have the LinkedIn
profile of your LinkedIn, our blog post, as well as
your career website in our show notes here.
Since this is an interview with Hessen Trade and Invest,
you would be, if you would like to address
the decision makers here in the state by, like, one
question, one idea for improvement, something like
that. What what will you say to them? What would
your, what what would be your wish for the
future? Definitely. So first of all, I think that's
actually, there are a lot of cool things going on right now in Frankfurt with
the lately founded AI Hub, the Kaee Hub, also has CNEI and
so on. Yet I do think that especially in the early stage of a
start up, like, the less bureaucracy you have, the better. As also
in the tech market, speed to market is absolutely crucial. And I
remember we as well, we were sitting in front of a lot of applications that
back then, like, it takes a lot of time. You're not allowed to be funded,
like, officially incorporated back then. So I think those
bureaucratic hurdles are quite steep at the moment still.
So reducing that and making it actually easier for start ups to catch
up with competition as fast because, as mentioned before, speed is one of the most
important things in during this phase. Mhmm.
I see. So get more speed. But but I have to admit
that could be something I say, although for
Germany, not sure what they can do about it here.
Maximilian, it was again a pleasure to have you here. Thank you for
Hessen Tried TO Invest and Enterprise Your Work Network
for sponsoring this podcast. It was a pleasure to have you here. Thank
you. Thank you very much for the invitation. It was really fun. Thank you. Have
a good day. Bye bye.