Munich Startup: What motivated you to start a company?
Annabell Vacano: Art has always been my passion. But for as long as I can remember, I’ve also seen great untapped potential in it. In my view, the idea behind Atopia has the potential to strengthen art and culture for the future. At the same time, Atopia creates an important new source of income for institutions and artists and builds enthusiasm among younger target audiences. From day one, I was completely absorbed in making this ambitious project a reality – founding it was no longer a question!
Munich Startup: What would you have liked to know before your first startup?
Annabell Vacano: Media reports often portray starting a company as an effortless process. But the reality is more complex. It was only through conversations with other founders that I realized successful entrepreneurs constantly face challenges and setbacks.
This awareness would have helped me in the early phase to doubt myself less when I encountered obstacles or rejection. And that happened often! Otherwise, our idea wouldn’t be “innovative”. Building a company requires resilience, strength, courage, and perseverance. I would therefore recommend every aspiring founder to build friendships and relationships with other founders, to support each other and learn from one another. I can highly recommend the Sigma Squared Society, the TUM Venture Labs as well as this interview with Brian Chesky, the founder of AirBnB.
Munich Startup: How has your company been financed so far?
Annabell Vacano: We are venture-funded and completed a pre-seed funding round in August 2023 from two VC firms and several business angels.
Annabell Vacano: “Art is an incredible source of inspiration and reflection for me”
Munich Startup: When and where do you get your best ideas?
Annabell Vacano: At concerts or in museums. I’m actually someone who gets lost almost every time I’m around art – but that’s exactly what makes it for me. Art is an incredible source of inspiration and reflection for me. And my best ideas almost always come from there.
Munich Startup: What are your 3 favorite work tools?
Annabell Vacano: 1) Notion, because we can use it to design our entire game design and business processes transparently and collaboratively as a team. 2) ChatGPT, because it helps me incredibly with brainstorming or creating emails or grant applications. And 3) Midjourney, because it often creates a great foundation for design concepts – especially for visual design.
Inspire your audience!
Munich Startup: Your top tip on “pitching”?
Annabell Vacano: Keep it simple! Investors often talk to countless founders every single day. With so many complex innovations, it’s very difficult to stay focused. In your first pitch, I would therefore always make sure to keep your idea as simple and understandable as possible. It’s best to sum up your idea in one sentence so that everyone understands the basics. If someone is interested in it, you have all the time in the world to explain all your studies, data, and technical foundations. But for now, the most important thing is that you inspire your audience! And to do that, you should make it easy for them to understand you. I sometimes got that wrong myself at first.
Munich Startup: Does it seem like a good time to start a company right now? Why?
Annabell Vacano: Basically yes. Globally, there are countless early-stage funds, support programs, and initiatives that help founders. Additionally, digitalization now allows small, agile teams to operate much faster. And investments in, for example, digital infrastructure are becoming increasingly affordable. But regardless, every idea has its own “perfect time” to start. And in the end, that’s really what matters.
Munich Startup: What technology or industry would you focus on in your next startup?
Annabell Vacano: For now, I can only think about the connection between virtual reality and the cultural industry. But I’ll be happy to answer this question if I ever prepare for a second startup.
More support beyond deep tech
Munich Startup: What could be improved at the startup location Munich in your view?
Annabell Vacano: I would find it enriching to see more support in Munich outside of the deep tech industry. Munich has a strong focus on deep tech, which produces many incredibly great companies.
Sometimes, however, it feels a bit like as a non-deep-tech company you aren’t taken as seriously. Examples like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Netflix show that companies can also achieve incredible success by applying existing technologies. Because ultimately, it always comes down to creating something customers love. I would therefore find a diversification of this focus in some places fantastic!
Munich Startup: Which founder would you like to meet in person someday? And what would you ask them?
Annabell Vacano: Mark Zuckerberg. I would like to learn everything about his vision in the VR space from him, because I think Meta has the potential to write a significant new success story in the coming years.
