Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
Eric Insel, Famzy: We are Famzy, a team of motivated moms and dads. As an independent consultant in the startup sector, I, Eric (29 years old), not only enjoyed the joys of parenthood during my parental leave, but also discovered the idea for founding Famzy. The idea matured during numerous conversations with other parents at Munich's beautiful playgrounds. Our co-founder Julia (34 years old), herself a mother of two, coordinates product development and public relations, while my mom Anna (31 years old) handles all marketing and oversees our development with a sharp eye for SEO.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Eric Insel, Famzy: With this new phase of life, parenthood, I'm experiencing, based on my own experiences and those of my wife, some unexpected hurdles of everyday parenting, which often involve time-consuming internet research. Finding the right antenatal class in Munich, for example, isn't as easy as it might sound. A lack of transparency, too many different contact points, and no overview of available capacity make finding one more difficult than expected. We've also lived in Munich for almost 10 years, but with a baby, you suddenly rediscover your neighborhood. Where was the nearest playground again? Where are there diaper-changing facilities in the city center, and which café is the perfect place to go with your child for a quick afternoon break? And last but not least, as the first parents in our circle of friends with a child, it's a real shame not to know any other parents with similar interests and at the same stage of life.
“With a baby, you suddenly rediscover your neighborhood”
We enrich parenting by developing time-saving and useful solutions for moms and dads or by combining existing offerings on a single platform. For example, we've developed an application consisting of an app and a website that makes it incredibly easy to find other moms and dads with similar interests, including mom-child classes and leisure activities in the immediate neighborhood. It's incredibly cool to see how many partners and parents are already participating during our beta phase, demonstrating how we can offer sustainable added value.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Eric Insel, Famzy: There are also modern solutions for many challenges, be it highly successful mom apps, Facebook groups, or parenting blogs. Famzy differs in two ways:
1. We are a platform for parents, meaning our app can be used by both moms and dads. It may sound trivial, but it's actually very difficult to find suitable solutions for me as a dad. They simply don't exist.
2. We enrich parenting by offering time-saving and useful solutions. Every process is designed to provide the right answer with just a few clicks or swipes. After all, our target audience consists of moms and dads, and we don't want to keep them glued to their smartphones for hours or be an alternative to existing social media channels.
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Eric Insel, Famzy: Our biggest challenge so far has been developing the application itself. Planning all the necessary steps of the application in a small team, structuring it technically, and testing it on all devices, be it laptops, iOS smartphones, or Android smartphones, was not easy, but it was worth every effort.
Famzy is looking for investors
As a bootstrapped company, we have naturally found it difficult to push our marketing forward. However, with the release of our app, we will now try to attract interested Investors to find people who believe in our idea and support our creativity and our hands-on mentality with liquid resources.
And the constant balancing act between family life, day job, and the Famzy project. We have several Skype calls from our children's rooms in Munich to keep the project moving forward. Surely everyone knows the compromise of too many plans and projects for too little time. Having children also brings with it limited time flexibility. This requires a great deal of skill in project coordination, a great deal of trust in the team, and structured approaches.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Eric Insel, Famzy: In a year, we hope to have reached a point with Famzy where we've found our first investors and Famzy will become the sole professional focus for the four founders. Of course, we want to continue growing our app at a rapid pace and increase our user base from just under 400 beta app testers to 2,500 Famzy members. We also want to convince more and more vendors and service providers to use us as an advertising platform to promote their own products in a targeted manner. Our focus is primarily on Munich and other major cities in southern Germany.
In five years, we have established Famzy as a parenting platform on the market. An experienced and motivated team continually develops and reviews it to avoid stagnation and offer significant added value for parents and providers. We have always remained true to our philosophy of providing basic features free of charge and, through an open infrastructure, enabling quick integration for partners, collaborations, and even competitors.
“A very high-quality network of doers and free spirits”
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
Eric Insel, Famzy: Munich is the ideal location for startups. Our Bavarian capital, with its creative and incredibly bright minds, offers a high-quality network of entrepreneurs and free spirits. Numerous first-class universities ensure a constant supply of motivated top talent. Munich offers ideal conditions, especially for tech startups like Famzy. For us, Munich combines our personal and professional dreams. We simply feel at home here – whether at work or by the Isar River while enjoying quality family time.
Munich Startup: Coworking or your own office?
Eric Insel, Famzy: We're all currently working from home. However, if we didn't have fully equipped offices of our own, I would very much welcome the option of coworking. In my opinion, a shared office—whether coworking or dedicated office space—is no longer necessary in today's working world. What matters is the intrinsic motivation to lead your own business to success, and that works anywhere there's an internet connection and a laptop.
