Startup Snapshot: Dr. Sven Körner — thingsTHINKING
Meet Dr. Sven Körner, 38, is CEO of thingsTHINKING GmbH, which was launched Feb. 23, 2017. He is based in Karlsruhe, Germany (a spin-off of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). Citizenship: German.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Website: www.thingsTHINKING.net
Twitter: @svenjkoerner @ttgmbh
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/svenjkoerner/ or https://www.linkedin.com/company/17993494/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thingsTHINKING/
EDUCATION & DEGREES: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, PhD in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence, Feb. 2014.
Past significant jobs: Researcher (Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Technology Evangelist, OpenText. Cloud Evangelist. And legodo which was acquired by OpenText.
Is this your first startup? My first, that I co-founded. (I worked in other startups as #1 employee before.)
What problem does thingsTHINKING solve? Humans are way better than computers when it comes to common sense and understanding natural language. ThingsTHINKING brings common sense to computers. It understands relevant and useful information from unstructured data, like a human. It ignores the actual wording and focuses on the meaning of a sentence, a.k.a. its semantics. It’s like a sidekick or a forklift for your brain.
How does it help users? ThingsTHINKING supports users in complex processes where unstructured information in form of natural language is the prevailing data that needs to be processed. The customers reach large accounting companies (tax and auditing); legal firms (contracts); and automotive and manufacturing industry (requirements engineering, requests for proposal, requests for information).
Is the product on the market? It is on the market, in a variety of offers for industries like legal, insurance, automotive, and for the big accounting companies.
How did you come up with the name? We were listenting to a series of talks about artificial intelligence. Ginni Rometty, chair, president, and CEO of IBM, (mentioned that we need more and more things that can think. A few beers later, we just combined the two words to “thingsTHINKING.” It just seemed to be descriptive and trivial yet captivative. It’s also easy to remember though many Europeans (U.K. aside) have a hard time pronouncing the name. But hey — at least they always remember after.
Do you have any patents? No. The patent lawyers told us that software only (and this is pretty much what A.I. is), is very hard to get patented. We are patenting the code in the United States (where it is easier), but the European Union patents are impossible.
What inspired you to pursue this startup? We had more than 12 years of research in the A.I./Natural Language Processing (NLP) space before we founded thingsTHINKING. We decided to pursue our ideas “for real” when our previous startup was acquired (twice!) and we ended up in a corporation. We realized quickly that corporations are (not yet) for us and that we are not old enough to stay in the golden cage. So we formed a team of professionals and combined it with a team of AI researchers to create a product. The perfect hype for A.I. as a product itself helped quite a lot, too.
Do you have funding yet? Yes, we are funded by business angels. So far we have not spent any of their money, we just wanted it as a backup plan so that our idea has some runway. We know runway is important from the last venture. We are planning a series A in March 2019.
What is your biggest challenge re: the start-up? To pick the right customers because everybody wants to play with you when you are a techy company in the A.I. space. So far, we figure this out by charging from the first moment on. That usually pulls out the weeds.
What do you need right now? In six months? In a year?
Now: Cooperation partners that help us give the machine better domain understanding.
In six months: Integration partners that help us scale with the projects so we only provide our platform and the partners do the actual integration (we are too little and this will be a hindering fact).
In a year: Series A after proven product market fit.
What have you learned that you wish you knew five years ago? Being free and doing your thing is great. Don’t give that up for money. Never.
Your two most important mentors? My former boss, Marc Koch, who gave me the freedom to pursue my academic career while teaching me the tools of the professional world. My professor at university Walter Tichy who always gave direct advice which sometimes seemed harsh, but ended up being beneficial for me and my career.
The book changed your life? The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz. Made to stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath. (Note from Monica: See also, “CodeX Book Club, Chapter 3: The Hard Thing…”)
Advice for other entrepreneurs? Believe in yourself. People will tell you so many things — most partially contradict each other. So pick the right people you can trust. Pick them quickly and then trust. Yes, this might be a risk, but most people are willing to help you — so just ask. We had the greatest support from people we could not provide anything but a good conversation since they are filthy rich, achieved everything, but are very happy “to give back.” Use this for your advantage. Or as my grandma always said: “If you don’t get what you want, ask for it!
What are you afraid of? Drowning in ideas and losing focus. It’s the hardest part, so cross-pollination and discussions with experts are very important to get your bearings right.
What are you most proud of? That I was able to gather the right people for the right projects (different projects reach from musical productions to this very startup) who trust me.
What would be your dream career if you were not a lawyer and entrepreneur? Professional guitarist. I tried — went on tours around Europe, but hey … that would not pay the bills for my family. Need proof? Here: Show2015.rockanddance.de.
What does your workspace look like? (Borrowed from Sam Gosling.) A desk, a quiet room, a fast internet connection, and a Bluetooth speaker.
Your favorite vacation destination? The U.S.A. Visiting family and old friends gives me what I need to recoup. And they happen to be in the U.S. Also, Californian weather never hurts. 😉
Favorite musician or group: Snarky Puppy, Bryan Adams, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Prince … because they are great artists, have important stories to tell and did things new.
Favorite food: Indian Curry Tikka Masala.
Favorite quote: “Doubt kills more dreams than failure”
What’s your mantra? “Life’s a rockshow, better be on stage” (made this up myself a long time ago; and yes, rum was involved).
Who would you want sitting next to you if you got stuck for three hours on the tarmac in a 737? Prince!
Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance journalist (Alchemizing Law LLC). She is a member of the California bar. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay.
Photo & image credits:
• Dr. Sven Körner: Photographer: http://emefka.com/
• Guitar, curry and cover: Clipart.com