Munich Startup: What problem do you solve?
Klaudia Saferna, CEO of Blitzbee: Blitzbee is a drink with a purpose. Every can contains five real ingredients that you know and can pronounce – no artificial sweeteners, no artificial flavors. It tastes so good that drinking it is a pleasure, not a health chore. And that same sip delivers something real: caffeine, collagen, protein, dietary fiber, depending on the moment of your day. Taste and function in one can with nothing to hide.
What we’re really selling is relief. You no longer read the back of the can with suspicion. You no longer choose between “enjoyable” and “healthy”. You don’t mix, you don’t measure, you don’t have to remember anything. For a woman running at full speed, that’s a burden. You toss the Blitzbee can into your handbag – done.
Walk down the beverage aisles and count how many of them are actually made for a woman. Zero. Energy, performance, “fuel” – all designed for men. I built Blitzbee because I work at full speed and wanted a solution that makes my day easier, not another product that creates work for me. By a woman, for women who live the same way.
Blitzbee combines dietary fiber with collagen and clean caffeine
Munich Startup: What can only you do today?
Klaudia Saferna: The proof is in the can, not just in my story. Let’s start with the product, because it really is the first of its kind. There is no functional lemonade on the market that delivers 20 grams of plant-based protein in a single 250ml can. There is no drink that combines a high dose of fiber with collagen and clean caffeine; nobody combines it like we do.
Our collagen is 2,500 mg hydrolyzed—the form that the body can actually absorb—with a full B-vitamin complex. Our caffeine is real, from coffee beans, not synthetic—energy without a crash. Three drinks for three moments in a woman’s day—11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm—each loaded with fiber. This combination doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Men can drink it, the ingredients work just as well for them. But it was designed for us: for the woman who loves sweetness and real, natural things and is tired of feeling guilty because she wants flavor and function in the same can. No powder, no mixing, no compromise. A can in her handbag and the job is done.
And it comes from the woman it is for. Fifteen years as the only woman in the room, psychologist, mother, living life at full speed—I didn’t research this gap, I lived in it. A competitor can copy a recipe, a can, a color. But they cannot copy a drink that grew out of real life and not out of a focus group. That is what makes Blitzbee a drink with a purpose, and that is the reason why “for women, by a woman” is a fact on the can, not a slogan.
So today, only Blitzbee can occupy a category that should never have been empty: functional sodas, made for women – with a product that nobody has made before. Because I don’t guess what they need. I am them.
Munich Startup: What was the trigger for founding the company?
Klaudia Saferna: For years, I led software teams in the Californian automotive industry. My day never really ended: when Munich went to sleep, the West Coast was just waking up. And I kept going on the only fuel that made it possible: energy drinks, lots of them, cans with 27 ingredients I couldn’t pronounce, caffeine that spiked and crashed. My body started sending warning signs. No sleep. Stomach ruined. Heart racing at the wrong moments. I was running a company and quietly falling apart.
So I started looking for an alternative. Something functional, healthy, honest. Something whose label I could actually read. I searched for a long time. It didn’t exist. So I created it.
“Made for women, by a woman”
Munich Startup: Was there ever a moment when you thought about giving up?
Klaudia Saferna: More than one, to be honest. Anyone who tells you they’ve never thought about quitting is either lying or hasn’t built anything yet. There was one moment that had nothing to do with strategy: I was the victim of a crime that cost the company around 100,000 euros. When you already have very few financial resources at your disposal, a blow like that isn’t a setback – it’s an earthquake, and I was left facing the very real question of whether I should call it quits.
But the moment that mattered most was quieter. When we first launched Blitzbee, we told the story in a very masculine way – energy, performance, pushing harder. Not intentionally, but because that was my daily life: managing software teams, living off energy drinks, being the only woman in the room. So that was our initial direction. We brought major German ambassadors on board, got sell-in, the product hit the shelves. And then we observed the sell-out: it wasn’t there. People weren’t buying the product.
That’s the point where giving up would have looked reasonable, and part of the team wanted to do just that. But something inside me refused, not out of stubbornness, but out of clarity. I looked at the results and thought: this isn’t a product problem, this is a positioning problem. I can’t lead a company that speaks with a voice that isn’t mine. I didn’t build this to sound like every men’s energy brand. I built it because I wanted something for us, for women. The day I allowed myself to say that out loud was the day I stopped thinking about quitting and started building the real Blitzbee: made for women, by a woman.
Munich Startup: In one year, how would you know that you are on the right track?
Klaudia Saferna: I learned the hard way what you shouldn’t measure. A year ago I would have said: “More stores, more shelves.” Now I know sell-in means nothing – getting onto the shelf is easy. So the honest answer is smaller and much harder: Are women buying the second can? The third? Are they reaching for Blitzbee again without me spending a single euro to remind them?
Repeat purchases are the only truth. If in a year the same women come back – reordering, restocking their fridge, asking where they can find it – we’re on the right track, no matter how big or small the numbers are. If they try it once and don’t come back, all the ambassadors and listings in the world won’t save us. I’ve already experienced that.
The second signal is human, not a spreadsheet. In a year I want to hear women say: “This is finally made for me.” When she says it to her friend, when it becomes a small part of her 11 a.m. or 5 p.m. moment, then the brand really lands.
And the quiet third: When the company stands on its own two feet – real sell-out finances real growth, not my savings keeping it alive. If women come back in a year and the business breathes without me having to carry it on my back, I know it was worth not giving up.
“Munich gave us credibility, a network & consumers”
Munich Startup: Would you start a company in Munich again, and why?
Klaudia Saferna: Without a second thought. Munich is my home. I’ve been living here for years – my family is here, my life is here. When I decided to build something, the location was never really up for debate. That was clear.
But looking back now, it was also one of the best decisions I could have made for the business. Munich gave us credibility, a network that opens doors, and consumers who expect quality and accept no shortcuts. That is exactly what we created Blitzbee for.
Munich Startup: Bootstrapping or venture capital?
Klaudia Saferna: Bootstrapping.
