Everyone knows this old pain: before making an online purchase, you spend hours reading and comparing reviews, only to end up not knowing which product to choose. The founders of weview want to make this decision a little easier for their customers with visual testimonials — and even make writing video reviews lucrative for the user.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
Weview combines video and shopping. On our platform, anyone can upload a video review of their product experiences and earn money from their recommendations, or learn about products through videos and purchase directly from them. We are a very young founding team and complement each other well with our skills and diverse personalities. Leopold (20, Business Informatics at TUM) and Jakob (21, Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen) have been best friends for many years, earned their first money on the stock market, and are practically opposites in character. Chris (20, Business Informatics at TUM) is our third partner and knows Leopold from his studies and our shared philosophy club.
More lucrative than YouTube
2. But that's been around for a long time!
There are already a few video shopping apps, but they have a slightly different model and focus more on spontaneous, impulsive purchases. Weview, on the other hand, is more of an information platform: our users know they need a specific product but haven't yet decided on a model or brand.
And then, of course, there's YouTube. But like Twitch, Persicope, or Instagram, we can offer a more targeted solution by focusing on a very specific customer group and a specific problem. In our case, that means the video creator can earn 25 times more per click than on YouTube and receive recognition for their knowledge and helpfulness from our community.
We offer video viewers a completely new shopping experience: videos only, with a single click on the product providing a brief summary with pros, cons, ratings, technical details, and price. And with another click, they can purchase the product immediately from one of over 60,000 partner shops. Furthermore, it's very important for products to be able to search by price, brand, color, size, top-rated products, and so on, and to be presented with good search results.
Don't be afraid to embarrass yourself
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
Three particularly important characteristics were certainly…
…approach people as early as possible And dare to embarrass yourself sometimes, to simply try things out, even if you usually get a hefty rejection. And still be really persistent. We sometimes write five emails before we get a response.
…good communication, because many mistakes arise from inadequate communication or misunderstandings. This way, you can always rely on each other and work at a completely different pace. Whether in sales or product development. Good communication is therefore also a crucial criterion for us in recruiting.
…and of course the teamThe three of us founders complement each other extremely well; it's always immediately clear who's doing what. We also spent a lot of time with our first employees and now have a lot of fun together.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We've only just launched into beta, but the initial numbers are good. Let me just say this: In terms of revenue per click, we're already far exceeding YouTube's metrics. And that's without any advertising.
TUM as a recruiting source
5. What does Munich mean to you?
For Chris and Jakob, it's their hometown, and Leopold has settled in very quickly. There are certainly worse cities for starting a business, and TUM, for example, is a huge advantage as a recruiting source. Nevertheless, there is a severe shortage of skilled developers here, and the wage level is unfortunately at the very top end.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
We want ordinary consumers to decide what we buy, not the company with the biggest advertising budget. weview With our videos we give the average user a voice back. And these videos can be found on weview.tv viewed and embedded everywhere on the web—be it on Facebook, your favorite blog, or an online shop. This allows us to become the "Certificate of Trust" before every purchase and earn a few percent each time. But there's still a long way to go, and we need many courageous early adopters to help us reach critical mass.
7. Fish on a stick or pork knuckle?
Grilled fish, preferably at Lake Feringa.
