The startup Motius is a research and development company. The Munich-based company specializes in the latest technologies and builds products and prototypes in the fields of computer science, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. The company is particularly unique in its organizational structure – Motius consists of a core team as a competence center and a very large community of freelancers, students, and young professionals working on projects.
With this innovative structure, the five Motius founders have discovered an exciting gap. Large corporations often lack the right structures or the right mindset to respond to today's challenges, such as digitalization or accelerating development. Medium-sized companies often lack the right brand, the right people, or the right focus for these new topics.
At the same time, global players in Germany such as BMW have long since understood that they have to do things differently in product development in order to keep pace with technological progress and to avoid being overrun by digital transformation.
Speedboat that implements projects agilely
How exactly does Motius address this? Sören Gunia, Co-Founder and Human Resources Director, says:
“Motius is a powerful speedboat for these companies, agile in transforming new technologies into prototypes and products, thus realizing the potential of these innovations.”
What might this look like in concrete terms? For example, a medium-sized hidden champion approached Motius because the company had realized that it needed to make more use of its production data. Keywords: machine learning and big data. A traditional consultant wouldn't have been able to help in this case.
The founder explains what makes his company different:
“We sat down with the customer and within a few months built an initial product that aggregates, processes, and makes the data usable.
Now, for the first time, the customer's employees have structured insights into the reasons for their production downtime. And management knows how such 'hype technologies' can specifically help them."
Gulf region: high innovation potential and budget
Another exciting aspect of Motius is how the company has positioned itself regionally. CEO Zièd Bahrouni was born and raised in Oman. Thus, the company, from its founding history, is well-established in both the Middle East and North Africa region The company is well connected both in Germany and abroad. 30 of its projects are being implemented in the Gulf region, and it has had an office in Dubai since 2017.
Sören explains:
“The Gulf region has high innovation potential and, of course, budget for ‘Product Development & Engineering made in Germany’.”
The company aims to simultaneously become more independent from oil and gas and tourism and to develop its own products. One of the first major projects there was the programming of a "intelligent prayer rugfor the Omani Research Council. Sören says:
“A big advantage for us here is that a city like Dubai has fewer legacy issues and more courage when it comes to realizing a smart city.”
At the same time, the projects in Germany are important. One of the young company's first milestones? Sören says:
"Right at the beginning, that was definitely the first project and then the supplier number at BMW. That certainly gave us credibility in the early stages and also strengthened our self-confidence."
Last year, Motius further strengthened its position in southern Germany. The company opened an office in Stuttgart to be close to its customers there as well.
Permanent employees and a large talent pool
But back to the other special feature, the employee structure: On the one hand, there are around 45 permanent employees. On the other hand, there's a large talent pool. In addition to students, the community also includes many experienced freelancers and young professionals with whom Motius works on larger and more complex topics.
From this network, Motius employees, known as 'Motees,' can develop into full-time members of the core team. There, they work as developers or project managers in clusters. The startup relies on a specially developed web platform for coordination and Scrum during projects. The quality of its employees is guaranteed through a multi-stage selection process and secured during projects through code reviews and pair programming.
“Our persistence has paid off”
The path to this point wasn't always easy. Sören is proud of what he and his co-founders have created:
“Our persistence paid off in the end because with Motius we truly created a new work organization with a great culture.”
Completely self-financed, the founders have been able to work with a strong vision. They haven't had to think about scaling or increasing profits in the short term. This is precisely what makes the company special. The founders believe that project success and customer satisfaction will only result if employees feel comfortable, can be productive, and can develop according to their interests, curiosity, and abilities.
Motius wants to take the next steps this year, says Sören:
"Expansion to additional locations, establishment of a technical venturing arm with which we can spin off technical ideas from Motius, and above all, the consistent pursuit of our goal: to build one of the best organizations for techies."
Despite big plans and ideas for the near future, employee satisfaction will continue to be an important factor for sustainable and successful corporate development at Motius.
Cyborgs and crazy shit
And where do you want to go in five or ten years? Sören says:
"In five years, Motius will specialize in the new technologies of the future. Machine learning, virtual reality, and blockchain may be state-of-the-art by then, and Motius will be working much more on biotech and cyborgs.
In ten years, there probably won't be a company in the world whose innovation department hasn't already worked with Motius. Or where the board meeting doesn't say, 'Phew, let's call Motius for this crazy shit.'"
