STRIATA TECHNOLOGIES make movies for mice. Their blockbuster is called OptoDrum and sells very well across the globe. In the interview Thomas Münch tells us where his startup will be in one year from now.
Starting to gain Momentum
Boris Benkner, Thomas Münch and Marion Mutter want to help researchers heal blindness. As types of human blindness can also be found in mice STRIATA TECHNOLOGIES developed OptoDrum. This virtual reality cinema for mice makes it simple and effective to carry out vision tests with these little animals. Researchers around the world have showed interest in this product.
When we have seen you the last time you were glad about selling your second prototype. How is business today?
There is another customer that we sold our product to. And we have two more customers who are very much interested. Striata Technologies now really starts to gain momentum. Everybody using the product so far is very enthusiastic about it. Because we are selling the product we are sort of self-financed. Last year we also got the Innovation Grant of the university. That helps us along the way as well.
To whom did you sell your product and how do you find your customers?
Our customers are very international. We sold one product in Germany, one in the United States, one in Switzerland and there is somebody interested in Iran. Actually it’s word of mouth from the existing customers who are so excited about the product that they tell their friends and colleagues about it.
So you didn’t even have to pitch your project so far in order to sell it?
No, we haven’t done this yet. During the last months we primarily concentrated on working on the software.
If your product is ready to be sold – what more is there to change on the software?
Since this is a product that emerged from our own research, the software sort of grew organically over the years. In terms of maintenance, that is certainly not ideal! So we are rewriting it from the ground up – very stable, very modular and very expandable. Also, we expanded our team. We now have two programmers to streamline our software interface and the backbone for our product. So it will become much easier to maintain and also much easier to introduce new functions.
Marion Mutter pitching on Demo Day
Where do you see Striata Technologies in one year from now?
There are two things that we want to do. First, of course, we want to go to meetings and conferences and to introduce Striata Technologies to more people in order to make us more known. And the other thing is that we are thinking about expanding our portfolio with accessories and little products that help doing the experiments based on our product. Just to give an example relating to experiments with mice: We think about offering a little bot with which people can do dark adaptation. It helps the animal to adapt to the dark, so it has good night vision before the experiment starts.
Striata at the MedTech Startup School 2015
Looking back at your start with the MedTech Startup School. What was the most important information you took from it?
I think the most influential experience in the Startup School was what we learned about customer development – working towards the customer’s needs and doing customer interviews. That was extremely helpful.
My personal highlight was the fact that the Summer School started with a group of people that didn’t know each other before. In the end we all grew together to a little community helping each other out. That was extremely helpful for going through the summer and it is still helpful to know the people and have these contacts.
Thank you for the interview.
Thomas Münch from Striata Technologies
© Juliane Pohl / Eva Oswald / Thomas Münch