Compiled by Monica Bay

Meet Philip Franta, 25, Chief Operating Office at Slideflight. Franta, based in Munich, Germany, is also the co-founder of Beamium, which was created with the other co-founder,  Georg Kremer, 61, Managing Director/Chief Security Officer. The two men created the first prototype of Beamium in November 2015. Then, the first beta version was launched in March 2016.

Social Studies
Website: https://www.beamium.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beamium
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beam-presentations
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beamium/
Vimeo:  https://vimeo.com/17193364

 

Education: Vienna University of Economics and Business, Master of Science, 2015. Vienna University of Economics and Business, Master of Laws, 2015. (To become a lawyer, I would need to do some practical experience first. Currently I am happy as an entrepreneur and do not plan to become a  lawyer.) CEMS—The Global Alliance in Management Education, Master in International Management, 2015.

Citizenships: Austria

Student jobs/internships: HomeToGo, Business Development; Deutsche Telekom; Financial Controlling.

How did you name Beamium?  Beamium is a mixture of the terms “beam” (because we beam documents) and “premium” (because we want to make our customers happy with a premium service for everybody).

Is this your first start-up? I worked in and with start-ups during my studies, but Beamium is  the first start-up I have co-founded.

What problem does your startup solve?  Beamium makes it easy to present, share and discuss documents online from browser to browser. Lawyers know how difficult it is to discuss legal documents and contracts over distance. Existing screen-sharing products are difficult to handle and rarely can show the entire screen.

Beamium transmits documents directly from your device (notebook, computer, smartphone and tablet) to your listeners, who just need  a browser. No software, add-ons or installation are required. We provide an 8-digit ID code that makes access to the document simple, but secure. Our users save time, costs and worry! Beamium can be integrated in existing customer relationship management, document management and data management systems.

Is currently on the market? Cost? Beamium.com been growing by 1,000+ users per month. The basic version is free. We will be offering business rates for lawyers and large corporations  in September.

Do you have any patents? No, and we are not planning to get one at the moment.

What inspired you to pursue this startup? After experiencing the hassle of discussing documents over distance (or at the university in big classes where you cannot see the details of the slides), I saw this as problem worth being solved.

 

Do you have funding yet? We received a seed funding from Senovo early this year.

What is your biggest challenge re: the start-up? Currently, to reach every relevant user around the world—with quite limited resources.

What have you learned that you wish you knew five years ago?  It would have been great to know more about product-market-fit, focus and recruiting talents earlier—but these are experiences you usually don’t get while sitting at the university library.

Who most influenced you?  At a start-up event in Switzerland last year, José Luis Cordeiro of Singularity University talked about how future may look like. Very interesting but also scary. Cordeiro influenced me with his vision about the next decades and shared his complex research in a very simple and funny way with the audience. His speech showed the relativity of knowledge and our day-to-day activities which could be very different in just a couple of years.

Who were your most important mentors? Patrick Andrä, CEO of HomeToGo, showed me how to reach the maximum with a small team and which tasks to prioritize in the beginning of a new venture. Florian Kappert  and Jakob Beyer are both are Managing Directors of Videri Concept, a web design company that helps me express the vision of Beamium, who help me keep the device as simple as possible.

 

What book changed your life?  The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo.
It inspired me to think about my personal core values. It depicts how in life we will constantly be faced with obstacles—and at times of adversity, might think of lowering our arms and choosing the easy path. Nonetheless, the hard one will always bring us the biggest rewards.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs? Try to get as much feedback as possible from your users.

What are you afraid of? Not being able to pursue my dreams.

What are you most proud of? The time I spent in the charitable organization Caritas during my studies. I assisted young, deprived children, such as tutoring and organizing activities.

What does your workspace look like? (Borrowed from Sam Gosling.) Creative, tidy and chaotic at the same time. Located in the hearth of Munich, we share various offices with other interesting startups.

Favorite vacation destination: There are too many places I have not yet visited to choose. But so far, it is not about the place, it is about the people you share the moment with.

Favorite musician: Pink, but I have also seen many great buskers around the world. It’s always great to walk downtown accompanied by the notes of a talented street musician.

 

Favorite food: Kaiserschmarrn, a famous Austrian food desert: cut-up and sugared pancake with raisins—best if made by my grandmothers.

Favorite quote: “Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.” —Steve Jobs.

What’s your mantra? “Live your best life.”

Who would you want sitting next to you if you got stuck for three hours on the tarmac in a 737?  Elon Musk, would be interesting to know what he plans to do next.

Compiled by Monica Bay, CodeX Fellow

The Alchemist image and Kaiserschmarrn image courtesy of Wikipedia
Cover image: Clipart.com