Name:
Philipp Waibel, Jan Mendling, Lukas Pfahlsberger
Project:
Noreja Intelligence GmbH
Founding date - How long have you been working on your idea?
The decision to found a start-up was made around November 2020, but the product itself was already partially developed in 2019 as part of a research project. The official founding of the GmbH was then in April 2021.
Founding triggers: How did you come up with the idea?
Towards the end of the research project with the company Ramsauer & Stürmer, we realized that the approach of our process analysis software (process mining) was unique on the commercial market and had great technical potential. The real deciding factor was the research partner's interest in cooperation, who could well imagine that their customers could also see added value in such software and would also be prepared to pay for it.
Founding moment: How did you know that you wanted to realize your idea?
The decision was actually very easy for all of us. The big advantage of founding a tech company from a university spin-off is the low capital investment. As a result, the opportunities were much greater for us than the risk.
Elevator pitch of your project:
Noreja helps companies to uncover, optimize and monitor business processes by analyzing data from IT systems. This identifies potential for improvement, allowing a company to reduce process complexity, make more flexible and faster decisions and free up tied-up capital.
Elevator pitch about yourself:
You could call us process enthusiasts: Our vision is to bring process management into the age of Big Data. And because a process data stream does not adhere to departmental or company boundaries, it is important to us to change the awareness of companies towards a process-oriented organizational structure, because "everything is a process"!
How many of you are in the founding team and how did you come together?
We are three founders in total. We basically got to know each other through Jan, who was a professor at the Institute for Data, Process and Knowledge Management at the time. We were all working together on the research project in question. Philipp completed his doctorate at the same time in 2021. Lukas is currently still studying for his PhD with Jan as his supervisor. The positive thing here is that this constellation allows research and start-up to be optimally combined.
University:
WU Wien (Institute for Data, Process and Knowledge Management)
How did your university support you when it came to founding and entrepreneurship?
The idea was developed through the research project at WU Vienna and as part of the research project we were able to gain important experience regarding the practical applicability of our ideas as well as develop an initial prototype. At the same time, the WU Vienna Entrepreneurship Center provided us with important contacts (e.g. the law firm that supported us in founding a limited liability company) and forwarded information on funding programs.
Do's: What would you recommend to any founder, or what would you do again?
It is important to build up a good network of supporters and partners so that you can get inspiration, feedback or help early on. Ideally, you should start doing this during your studies, your first internships and then when you start your career. Otherwise, it will be difficult to generate the first good leads and appear confident enough, especially in the B2B sector.
Don`ts: What would you do differently? What was your biggest learning?
One thing that we are not 100% sure was/is right is the decision to raise capital. We are currently financed via bootstrapping and have not raised any external capital. The future will show whether it was right to make this trade-off between scaling and self-determination. Without external capital, it simply takes longer to build up the headcount quickly - both in sales and in product development.
How to start? - What would you recommend to anyone interested in starting a business?
With regard to B2B, it is a great advantage if you have already gained initial professional experience in the area in which you want to start up and are therefore familiar with the key potentials and problems in the industry. What makes customers tick? What is the real problem? What are customers willing to spend money on? How should you present yourself in a sales pitch in order to be heard? It may well be worth being a little patient here in order to hit the ground running at the right moment and with self-confidence. This means: do lots of different internships in industry or consulting and look at as many angles as possible in the shortest possible time.
