About failure as a path to success: Interview: Moritz Mann

Moritz Mann founded the companies Protofy and Stadtsalat. However, he failed with his first start-up Feelgood. In an interview, he reveals what dangers Amazon poses and what role failure plays as a path to success.

BASIC thinking: Hello Moritz, with Protofy you founded a start-up that develops online shops, apps and sales strategies for small and medium-sized companies. With Stadtsalat you have launched your own delivery service. How do these two concepts fit and interact?

prototype and city ​​salad are connected in the field of digital products and technology. When we started, Stadtsalat was supposed to be our proof-of-concept. In other words, we have tried out the way we bring new products onto the market and found traction.

My co-founders Marcus and Tom built a very successful company in the Stadtsalat spin-off that followed. At first glance, Stadtsalat as an analog product and Protofy’s digital services may seem contradictory.

However, Stadtsalat’s model for success is one that is very much in the technical area: a completely data-driven business model. From the externally visible online shop to digitally supported processes such as demand, product and quantity forecasts, automated route planning: Stadtsalat has successfully and efficiently supported the possibilities that we have at Protofy.

Moritz Mann: Companies shouldn’t make themselves dependent on Amazon

As CEO, your focus in operational business is on Protofy. How can you keep up with top dogs like Amazon in the e-commerce sector?

First of all, Amazon is a blatant point of reference and a role model for how to focus on the customer experience in the range, product availability, shop experience, delivery and service up to the return.

At the same time, I also see a great danger in this, because Amazon dominates a large part of the e-commerce market. I think other companies should protect themselves from becoming too dependent.

It is the obvious pursuit of simple solutions. Amazon has access to the customers and also offers the complete service for warehousing and logistics. But don’t forget your own channels and independence.

You can definitely have Amazon as a marketplace in your own strategy. However, your own channels – your own infrastructure, online shops or mobile apps – should not be neglected.

That means you don’t necessarily see yourself as a competitor to Amazon, but as a supplement?

It is part of the company’s strategy to evaluate whether you want to offer products on Amazon. We support companies in decision-making. What we always recommend is not to forget your own channels and to see Amazon as just another channel.

Protofy: A user experience that goes beyond the basics

The competition in the e-commerce space is fierce. What sets Protofy apart from other companies?

I believe that in e-commerce there are the basics. The standard flows like categories, navigation, search, shopping cart and a check-out. This is what we see and expect in all stores.

It gets exciting at the moment when the focus is on the user experience beyond the basics. Strong customer orientation leads us to the fact that the guidance through the range and the interlinking of content can be different for each brand, for each product category and for each target group.

A good example is always the music store Thomann in the field of instruments, audio equipment and Co. The content that Thoman offers goes far beyond what I could present on an Amazon product page. There is much better advice and more specific information out there.

With instruments or microphones, for example, there are soundtracks that customers can listen to. This is incredible added value and gives security when making decisions. And I think that’s the key: looking at customer needs and developing individual solutions. And that’s something we offer with Protofy.

About failure as a path to success

In 2014 you failed with your first start-up “Feelgood”. What’s different now?

The reason for the failure was that we didn’t have the issue of customer focus in mind. We believed it, but we didn’t have it. We already had a vision that might still lead to an interesting and relevant business model today.

It was about individualized nutrition and fitness plans that we wanted to offer in a subscription app. But then we fell into the trap of wanting to make it too perfect. We took over a year to develop the content and app and supposedly perfect the product.

The problem was that we worked too late to get validation for our product – is the product really needed and can customers work with it in their everyday life?

What is different today is that we set this moment as early as possible in order to collect data and successfully bring our products to market.

Success, failure and error culture

What role does failure play for you as a path to success?

I see failure as a way of learning to gain experience. It doesn’t matter whether a business model fails or whether adjustments are needed. We are always learning and collecting feedback.

From my experience with Feelgood, I have learned that developing products in secret for too long is the wrong way to go. Failure is therefore an essential part of how I am personally today, how I work and also how Protofy proceeds. And I don’t want to miss that.

What role does the error culture play in your company?

Mistakes are part of it. That’s exactly what I was able to learn about Feelgood and I can say that it’s nothing bad. On the contrary: I am grateful for what I was able to learn.

It is important to abstract how I can adapt my approach. And only if you can deal with mistakes in both big and small questions, you make progress.

We also see this in the team and in our corporate culture. We are not afraid of mistakes and failure and therefore a better togetherness.

The start-up culture in Germany: “Balanced with potential for improvement”

You founded Stadtsalat in no time. How do you see the start-up culture in Germany in general? One hears and reads again and again that the setting is too bureaucratic.

I believe that in Germany we have a good, but not the ideal, location for founding a company. The non-digital, bureaucratic processes should be mentioned. In other countries, I can set up a company online overnight and get started right away. For us, this is a process that takes longer.

We also have a disadvantage when it comes to employee participation. At the same time, Germany is a location where we can also be thankful for a lot – above all when it comes to our education, our social system and our infrastructure, which is so often questioned. Businesses also thrive on all of these factors. So I see the topic as balanced with room for improvement.

What role do the current inflation and economic crisis play at start-up level?

We are watching the developments with suspense, even tense. Many start-ups that have prioritized growth alone are changing over these months. The financial runway plays a bigger role, profitability is prioritized. We in the agency segment are also seeing changes in our immediate environment.

As far as digitization is concerned, we had two boom years, and many companies made major investments. There is currently greater caution, decisions are weighed very consciously. Overall, we have a very good balance of long-standing existing customers and a few new customers that we were able to win despite the crisis.

Will the wave of layoffs lead to a recovery in the market?

A wave of layoffs is currently rolling, especially in the tech industry. Many companies handle this differently. How do you deal with the topic?

From the outside, it’s interesting to see how different companies are dealing with changes in the market – and tragically, with layoffs as well.

I perceive that transparency and clarity are extremely important. Appreciation for the employees who have accompanied the company – for example in the form of help with the job search. I also find the development exciting in that it also leads to a recovery in the market, so to speak.

Because when it comes to the sometimes crazy company valuations, which were often hardly designed for profitability, a rethink is apparently taking place. And I see that as positive, because it can ultimately lead to more sustainability in companies.

Thank you for the interview, Moritz.

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