Munich Startup: What does Franky & Friends do? What problem are you solving?
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: Franky & Friends is a Happy Snack Community where you can mix your own. We’ve developed three favourite drinks in snack form (Pina Colada, Coffee Lovers and Golden Milk nut-fruit mix). Our snacking fun is packed with protein-rich nuts and sun-ripened nutrient-rich dried fruits. Our ingredients are always organic, free from added sugar and vegan, and mostly come from small farmer cooperatives. That’s pure and fair enjoyment.
Especially in the conventional sector, many nuts and dried fruits are treated with pesticides, sulphured and bleached. With Franky & Friends, we consciously take a new path. Franky is not just my name, but stands for: F – Fair & social, R – Respectful towards people, animals and the environment, A – Extraordinary snacks, N – Sustainable, K – No additives, no sugar, no artificial flavours, no genetic engineering & Y – You, because you can mix and match with us.
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: There are already various nut and dried fruit providers. But with our concept, we take it a step further. Our customers actively participate and can now create their own favourite mix from fair organic ingredients. Whether just nuts, just dried fruits or a mix with dark chocolate, pretzels and rose petals. The creative possibilities are endless. The community then votes on the ideas. The winners receive a share of sales and get to see their names on the packaging. The delicious nut-fruit mixes without added sugar are lovingly packed by a disability workshop in Bavaria. For this concept, we’ve already been awarded the Green Brands Germany Award 2024 and are nominated for the Innovationspreis Bayern 2024.
Revolution in the snack aisle
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: I’m Franky, 39 years old and the founder of Franky & Friends. I want to revolutionise the snack world together with my community! Most of us snack daily. But most snacks are full of industrial sugar and sugar substitutes. Plus cheap oils and artificial flavours. Furthermore, conventional products are usually bleached and sulphured. Where the original ingredients come from and how they’re grown – no information. Usually this comes at the expense of workers in the producing countries.
With Franky & Friends it’s completely different. We focus on natural, sun-ripened and wholesome fair organic ingredients without added sugar. Because nuts and dried fruits are real powerhouses, they’re full of energy. We need proteins for our muscles. Unsaturated fatty acids are good for the cardiovascular system. Antioxidants protect cells and keep skin looking young. And who doesn’t want to look young? And all this with completely natural food.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: The biggest challenge is awareness and thus also regular consistent sales. Despite trade fairs and markets as well as social media presence, the food sector is a hotly contested market with cheap and unhealthy food. Many organic retailers would like to offer our delicious and high-quality products, but say they can only stock them if we’re listed with wholesalers, since the administrative effort would otherwise be too great. The wholesalers, in turn, say they’ll only add us to their range once we’re listed in organic stores. So we’re chasing our own tails right now. As a fair and premium-priced food startup that deliberately does things differently, it’s not easy to become known. That’s why we applied to Dragon’s Den. Let’s see what happens.
Franky & Friends develops ideas in the community
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, and in five years?
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: In one year, I want to have built an even larger snack community in Germany with Franky & Friends, where we create delicious and healthy nut-dried fruit mixes together. I also hope that we’ll be listed in a number of organic and specialty food shops with Franky & Friends, so our popular snacks can also be purchased locally.
In five years, we’re a large friends community operating across Europe with employees who, in addition to nut-dried fruit mixes, create a wide variety of other delicious and healthy snack ideas. Because we already have lots of ideas.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: I think Munich is a very good startup location. There are many contact points like Munich Startup, Baystartup, Chamber of Commerce, Munich Startup Office, founders’ get-togethers and Social Startup Hub Bavaria to learn something and network. There are great events and fantastic trade fairs on various topics. I can only recommend to every founder: go to trade fairs, seek active contact with other founders. You can only win and possibly new cooperations will emerge. Munich could certainly put more focus on the topic of funding, especially in the food sector.
Munich Startup: Public transport or bike?
Frank Matthiesen, Franky & Friends: Definitely: bike. Cycling is pure freedom for me.
