Munich Startup: What motivated you to start a company?
Teresa Born: I felt the need to fully leverage my potential professionally – and I wanted to develop products that are well-thought-out and offer real added value.
Munich Startup: What would you have liked to know before your first founding?
Teresa Born: How complex the development of an injection-molded product actually is. Initially, I would never have classified the travel pods as a tech project – today I see it differently: from material selection to tool development through to manufacturing and quality control, it’s a technically very complex process. In the meantime, we even work with large chemical companies to develop our own materials. But it was certainly good to approach the topic naively – otherwise I probably would never have started.
Munich Startup: How has your company been financed so far?
Teresa Born: We are bootstrapped – with support from our Kickstarter campaign.
Munich Startup: When and where do you get your best ideas?
Teresa Born: In the morning in bed – when I wake up before my alarm again.
Munich Startup: What are your 3 favorite work tools?
Teresa Born: Notion for organization and documentation, Figma as a design tool, and a combination of ChatGPT and DeepL for text drafts and translations.
Munich Startup: Your top tip on “pitching”?
Teresa Born: Well, I pitch very rarely myself – and wouldn’t describe it as my greatest strength either. Maybe that’s my tip: there are many ways to start a company. Find a model that works for you and your strengths. And allow yourself to need one or two attempts – that’s completely normal.
Munich Startup: Does it seem like a good time to start a company right now? Why?
Teresa Born: I’m currently sensing a lot of uncertainty on economic and geopolitical levels. But that can actually lead to you being forced to plan particularly efficiently and make decisions very carefully. This often results in realistic, focused, and very lean startups. Of course, much also depends on industry and project – some ideas depend on capital. And there I wish for Germany that large visions continue to be promoted and taken seriously.
Munich Startup: What technology or industry would you focus on with your next startup?
Teresa Born: I’d probably do something in injection molding again – simply because I’ve learned so much over the past months that I’d want to use that knowledge. But I also have a list of other (admittedly unvalidated) ideas in the back of my mind – ironically, I’ve had even more ideas since starting the company than before.
Munich Startup: What could be improved at the Munich startup ecosystem from your perspective?
Teresa Born: The Munich ecosystem is heavily focused on deep tech and VC-driven startups – which is fantastic. At the same time, I would like to see smaller, product-oriented ideas get more space and support. More low-barrier events and exchange formats would be a great help.
Munich Startup: Which founder would you like to meet in person? And what would you ask them?
Teresa Born: Spontaneously, Tiffany Masterson comes to mind, the founder of Drunk Elephant. If I remember correctly, she started in her early 40s as a housewife with four children – I find that alone extremely inspiring. The fact that she later sold her company for 845 million dollars makes her achievement all the more impressive. I’m drawn to unconventional founding paths because they show that you don’t need a perfect profile to build a successful business. I would ask her how she dealt with self-doubt and the opinions of those around her.
