Munich Startup: What does Stryber do?
Julia Kupke: Stryber is a strategic venture builder. We build portfolios with our partner companies and are an international team of experienced startup founders, product and tech experts, strategists and former corporate managers. We develop a funnel with relevant topics, quickly validate them and then build, test and scale these ventures with our teams using our partner companies’ available resources. Our approach makes it possible for the companies we work with to intelligently diversify their current fields of business to build substantial future fields of business.
Munich Startup: Who are the minds behind the company and where are you from?
Julia Kupke: Jan Sedlacek and Alexander Mahr are the founders of the company. Both combine their comprehensive experience as startup founders in different industries with years of expertise from strategic consulting and as managers in large corporations. Together, with Stefan Richter as CPO & Venture Director, Johannes Hübner as CTO and me as CMO, we run the company.
“Munich is a powerful location for business”
Munich Startup: What makes you different from conventional management consultants? Why do you build startups for your customers?
Julia Kupke: We deliberately differentiate ourselves from conventional management consultants. Their lengthy transformation processes mean that companies are overtaken by digital challenges. With Stryber, our teams in Zurich, Munich and Kiev build a portfolio of powerful ventures in a very short time. This allows Stryber to minimize the risk involved in venture building.
Munich Startup: Why did you decide to locate your German office in Munich?
Julia Kupke: Munich is a powerful location for business with its range of industry, IT and corporates that makes it an excellent choice for us strategically. The city is also attractive for our growing team and is excellently situated in geographic terms for promoting our business in the German speaking region.
Munich Startup: What projects have you already implemented? What startups have been created?
Julia Kupke: With one of our biggest partners, Migros, we collaborated to build Sparrow Ventures and have already had our first venture spin-offs. That includes Miacar, a mobile supermarket, and Snäx, the smart refrigerator for the office. Both are successful on the market in Switzerland. In addition to our corporate venture building projects, we also put our own ventures on the market. For instance Nux, a direct-to-consumer online store that offers premium quality luxury products without labels at affordable prices, or Butiqe, a marketplace that connects boutique retailers with select manufacturers.
Munich Startup: Where do you find the right employees for your startups?
Julia Kupke: With more than 80 excellently networked employees, we have a large network that we activate for just that, which is why we also do a lot of our own hiring that way. We also rely on active scouting by our talent team — because good people are often not actively looking for a job — but as soon as they hear about what we do, they quickly become interested. We’ve also filled positions here that way.