This story was migrated from our old blog, originally published on June 8th, 2021.
New Blog
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
We started LIVEDAB with our own savings. Then it is just a story of young people working many long nights.Hannes Meine, CEO and co-founder LIVEDAB
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We are looking for users like wedding planners or re-sellers who would like to work with our software or sell it.Hannes Meine, CEO and co-founder LIVEDAB
Media Partnership
This podcast is in media partnership with the Hamburg-based startup blog Hamburg Startups (https://www.hamburg-startups.net/). They keep you up to date on the local startup scene in Hamburg, they organize regular events (in normal non corona times) AND they do have a special section on food startups as well. Even if you are not able to speak German, a visit with an auto-translate is worth it, since they also have an extensive directory of local startups on their website.
The Founder
We talk to Hannes Meine (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannesmeine/), the CEO and co-founder of LIVEDAB (https://livedab.com/). Hannes has a background in SaaS, marketing, and eCommerce. He started in eCommerce and online business at the age of 12, when he started a website for his sports team.
He worked for a marketing agency, where he oversaw marketing at a SaaS company, which also enabled him to work a year for them in San Francisco.
He did not want to start his company alone, only when his co-founder Adrian agreed did, he started LIVEDAB together with him.
We invested the first year in the product development. We first reached out to NGOs, but also sports and entertainment are of interest for us.Hannes Meine, CEO and co-founder LIVEDAB
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The Startup
The idea of LIVEDAB (https://livedab.com/) started with the idea to work with NGOs to draw attention to important causes. The Corona pandemic made the startup change this and now they are working with sports clubs, the entertainment industry or virtual event organizers. You can have a look at their solution here: https://app.livedab.com/campaign/new
With our tool you can actually track the interactions from single billboard advertisements.Hannes Meine, CEO and co-founder LIVEDAB
Venture Capital Funding
LIVEDAB is currently bootstrapped and after the next release of their software they are looking globally for investors for a series A investment, to scale. Their software is already available globally.
The pandemic made us change out business model and target group…. Now we work with sports clubs like Liverpool in the Premier League.Hannes Meine, CEO and co-founder LIVEDAB
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The Video Interview is set to go live on the 17th of June 2021, at 17.00 CET
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The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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Automated Transcript
[0:00] Startup Red Dot IO.Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startups.With News interviews and Live Events,hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from celebrate dot IO your startup podcast and you do blog from Germany today I have another startup in our media partnership with Hamburg startups here with usif you have not already done so wherever you’re listening to this or watching this hit thumbs up leave us a nice commentand make sure to hit the like And subscribe button this time I welcome harness to our podcast hey how you doing,Hydro nice to see you and thank you very much for the invitation and also thank you to Xena from Hamburg startups whole recommendation.No I’m happy to be here to be a we may add for everybody who’s listening to this on our audio podcast and our internet radio stationwe are actually recording a video so he saying he see me because he’s actually seeing me just to clarify this and Hannah’s I’ve been looking a little bit through your LinkedIn profilen what I saw is.
[1:21] Pretty interesting you have been you have a big background on.SAS e-commerce and marketing can you take us like a little bit through what you’ve done before and how it led to you to founding livedab.Yeah sure basically I’m working in the online business since.I don’t know since I’m 12 for a bit of studying years old yeah I’m always I’m always like played a sport online games and one day I wanted to have a website for my team so I just don’t know the Photoshop,and created my first website for my team and that was the starting point in the online business where I got in touch with.Yeah it was an online business and I also enjoyed.
[2:12] Talking with marketing people with Innovative people and also was developed us so yeah.Since since more than 15 years 16 years I’m I’m working in this environment and after that I continued with mysquid and thenswitched I started my career in Hamburg in the advertisement industry but worked for and tech company van for exhaust company and Hamburg and I was responsible for the marketing department.In this company I stayed there around five yearsand this company also gave me the opportunity to do abroad year in San Francisco so I got in touch with a lot of people from Silicon Valley and it was very inspiring.Then I came back and I had to start up in Berlin a ticket platform.
[3:07] Which which I started with a pot now and we be we did it develop the last ticket platform.I did some marketing and my partner was already in the event businessand from there I switch to digital Consulting help helped bigger companies chemical companies pharmaceutical companies to digital has eyes.There are internal processes.But yeah since I’m 15 I’m always tried things online found it online shops so I knew at some point I will always get back to front my own company and.Yeah that’s what I what I did before and that’s basically the start how I founded livedab.
[3:54] I would be a little bit curious because you said you have a you have an experience in marketing but it’s.When I associate marketing with software as a service task companies are usually think about Google AdWords Facebook advertisement sponsored tweet or stuff like that how did you ever get.The idea of building a company that provides marketing related filters how did you bump into filters.I bumped into felt ass.In 2017 there was a there was like a moussaka against minority in Southeast Asia and at this point I sought.It would be a great idea when it’s possible to there to put a message inside your profile picture at FacebookInstagram and WhatsApp and in 2017 it was not possible to do it by your own you always had to register at Facebook to get to to get this filter for your profile picture and I thought about an ideawhy not developing the software where everyone can have access without.Half an account on The Social Network so like Zas Moto like a like a software which work on every smartphone without the need to download an app so yeah I had this idea but.
[5:20] Based on my previous experience I I didn’t want to find my own company by my own so,at some point I met the old colleague Adrian and we talked we talked about this idea and he was verymotivated and he really he really like this ideaso we we had some follow-up meetings and yeah we did some brainstorming and decided to found this company together yeah that was the starting point tohelp ngos or to help companies to support a cause in the world that was my starting point how to file Point like.
[5:56] I’m a little bit smiling here because apparently the background stories of meetingshave been involving a lot of wine or bars in the past instead of radio including Germany’s business Angel of the Year 2020 who actually bumped into his.His first investment in terms of a person of houndourat the bar on a wedding so admittedly not his wedding or the wedding of his his future his future ininvestment but actually it involves something like that,how did how did you go brainstorm wizard like oh we sit over a beer or did you actually get yourself in a meeting room whiteboard and just threw our crazy ideasnobody was the first one we when we met in a bar because at this point I moved to Munich.
[6:51] And II was just for one day in Hamburg and I just contacted him and said Adrienne will do want to catch up and talk aboutthe the company we worked together in the past and he said yes of course so we met over a beerand yeah he like we just we didn’t talk about business or about the idea at first but I remember that the next day that he said he would like to also found his own company and then I was back in Munichand then a few weeks later I was back in Hamburg and I can’t take contacted them again and not to have a beer but to talk about.
[7:29] My idea had to explain it to him because he also had the intention to start something by his own.Lessons learned from this it’s always a good idea to ask a German hey can we catch up over a beer now you guys had the idea of having and filter.For ngos how did you proceed where did you get the funding how did you hire the first people how did it all get started.Yep we didn’t get any funding it was our private money so we invested our own money in the company.I’m responsible for the sales and the marketing and Adrian is responsible for the operation of the product product product product product development.
[8:09] Yeah we didn’t get any founding we founded the company by was our private moneyso yeah and the structure is that I’m responsible for the sales and the marketing and Adrian is responsible for the operations and for the product development and with our money we hired our first developerand that was that was the start that that was his team of three to five people.Young people working together yeah at long nights and because we had.In our Fields a lot of experience we didn’t need to invest a lot of external money because we could do this thing’s power own and yeah that was was our set up there was back in.19 May off 2019 so quick question do you currently have external investors.Let’s step from our private money 100% bootstrap okay I see that’s so like two years ago.Almost exactly two years ago you set up the company you’ve started with your own money you offered product for ngos.Where you guys are now so how can you imagine to work with the livedab to so that people.
[9:26] Listening to this or maybe even watching this get a kind of idea what you can do with your tool yeah the.When we started in 2019 we invested one year in the product development and the idea was.Of course to reach out loads ngos and getting in contact with them we did I think until now like10 to 15 projects for ngos but we also saw thatthe entertainment industry is the sports industry and also the the virtual event industry is pretty interesting and it’s interesting in our solution so we started with some,festivals like where was the music festivals and cologne in.Which which had a lot of guests like 5,000 people and we saw that from this 5,000 people like 2,000 people like to use our solution so we saw that there’s a new marketand we focus also on the entertainment market and the on the offline events Market.
[10:33] And yeah after after a couple of months there was.The pandemic and we had to change our whole business model because all local events were cancelled we wanted to work with restaurants togetherwe wanted to work with the sports industry but unfortunately it was not possible to access those events because everything was canceled.So we shifted our Target group to Virtual events and also too.To activating fans from home and that’s right now our Target group that we work a lot of with a lot of,virtual events but also professional sports clubs like Liverpool in the Premier League Bayern Munich basketballand Audi which is the sponsor of Bayern Munich basket by but also supporting still ngos like enablement it was it was a big campaign in Germany against women harassment in the in some text.
[11:36] Yeah so yeah we are looking forward.That the vaccine is coming and that we can also reach our our plant plan.
[11:48] Initially planned Market let me let me try to think about it from the perspective,of declined of your clients talking about like in and attendee or off a big soccer game of big football game of a big life event so there’s,somewhere a really big or.Almost everywhere very small qr-code you take your smartphone you scan it it says open this website you open it and what happens then.
[12:17] You got a virus on your phone.Exactly like you are you’re in the stadium and you maybe maybe you sit in your seat and there’s a fly out on your seat and there’s a QR code on on the screens are QR codes inside the stadium you can scan them getting on our landing page on theon this landing page you you can upload your own photo and then you can get the filter of the brand or the sponsor of the sports team or you have a filterof the two spots teams playing against each other and you can you can show your yeah you’re that you’re part of the community and share that you support your favorite sports club.And that’s one use case inside the stadium but actually our I the use of our customers are startingearlier to use sought to implement our solution they already implementing it when you buy a ticket because when you invest money to buy a ticket for a sports team that’s very emotional moment so when you get this ticket at homeyou can scan on the ticket the qr-code or you get a virtual emailand there’s a link placed and through this link you can activate our software and get get into the filter and show already before even the match started that you support yourself acting.
[13:30] For your basketball team or any other kind of spots so you can already show your anticipation of the big gameimportant word here in German for Freud so howdoes it actually look for your clients what can they do with it talking about Liverpool talking about Audi Target mode Bayern Munchen basketball team,how do they use it how do they apply it I assume they integrated into into their marketing efforts.
[14:06] Exactly.
[14:08] Yep they’re integrated in their communication strategy on different touchpoints they really like to use it to combine the offline entertainment and also the online the online world,like when you’re in the stadium or when you’re in an event you can you are in the UN the offline world and other people who watchingin the TV on the online stream and online world so with our solution it’s very easy to collect from both words photos and to show to show like a live stream and photo gallery of all the fans who support the sports teamthe main intention of our customers is to generate an authentic reach because through this photoswith sort of branded photos with the was a failure of the sponsor or the spots team our customers reach new targets groups because fan is chairinghis or her photo through social media Instagram Facebook Snapchat wherever and reaching private,private connections personalized friends and family.
[15:10] So that’s the main the main intention to use our solution to reach new Target groups and through an authentic way and for ngos they like to use our solution too,yeah to motivate people who see a campaign like when you walk outside on a billboard that you can be a part of this,social campaign and through our filters you can scan the QR code on the billboard and be a part of this campaign and support this cause they are promoting.
[15:38] It would also mean you can likely actually see which specific billboard got the most interactions.
[15:48] Yes we have a reporting behind so we can track every billboard then we see.That one on the corner generated 500 images the one in Berlin 1001 in Munich 10,000 so we can also track the the placement of the Billboards and give sponsors ngos whoever and Reportinghow efficient displacement boss.
[16:08] That sounds pretty cool I’m talking about your current reach is there any limitation on terms of where you can really now.Offer your services I was thinking basically from all we’ve been talking you’re pretty present in Europe.Are you available easy to no avail Bowl anywhere else in the world would it be theoretically available if somebody from Brazil or the United States would listen to our podcast.Yes sure it’s available all over the world right now our target market is Germany Austria and Switzerland we have some customers in UK we are we have we are also projects in Australia or in LA.Sure that’s not a problem our solution is available all over the world but at the moment,our Target this 0 and German the German speaking countries what are you guys currently looking for are you looking for.The additions to your Tech Team are you looking for external investors and what do you next steps.I think when this this interview is going online we will already have released our new software.
[17:23] Which which helps or which enables people and our customers to create their own video campaigns sowe can also work with partner agencies together and we right now searching for partners all over the world wedding planners advertisement agencies and yeah.Different different resellers who would like to offer our hour.Our product to their customers and also an addition we are searching for funding.
[17:57] And for for talents of our Tech Team in terms of funding I assumed it would be serious eight.
[18:05] Yes seriously excited open to International investors all you just looking around in Europe all over the world there’s no limitation that.I like that approach so actually there was one of the very fastest.
[18:21] Interviews I’ve had at startupradio Zol straight-to-the-point Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam so we not even recording for 20 minutes now nonetheless I would like to thank you very much I think a lot of people,we require some additional information wherever you’re listening to this or watching this go down here in the show notes there is a link to our blog post at startupradio darou /blog there you can have look at life tap andthey’re the guys will find your personal LinkedIn profile as well as the company website where they can learn more right.Like to thank very much we would also place a QR code which you can use to test our solution yes there will be startupradio there will be startupradio filter awesome.
[19:09] Great honestthank you very much thank you for Hamburg startups for arranging this interview and it was pleasure having you here and hopefully you come back towards the end of the year with a with a fixed series a round and we could talk about it againthey grew up so hopefully see you someday in Hamburg or on Frankfort have a nice day.
[19:33] You too bye-bye if you are a professional looking at the European startup scene Germany is a place you cannot miss.
[19:42] Music.
[19:52] Most likely you have never heard or read anything only startups before in English but you will in the future be ahead of the curve And subscribe to stay.
[20:02] Music.
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