Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves!
Uptea: Hi! We’re Max and Ingo – the founders of uptea. We developed a process to transform tasty teas into a serious pick-me-up.
Max isn’t originally from the food industry, instead, he has a background in healthcare informatics and multiple years of professional experience as a project manager at a Munich university hospital and an international software company. While working, he completed his MBA at the Munich Business School, which is also when he came up with the idea for uptea. With the idea, he took part in the LMU EC Accelerator, where he began laying the foundations for uptea. Max is the Managing Director of uptea GmbH.
While looking for a partner to work with on product development, Max met Ingo by happy coincidence, and he was instantly excited about the idea. Ingo is a trained chemical engineer and has more than 20 years of experience as a formulation scientist and developer. In his own lab, he has already developed an array of processes and formulas for the food industry. At uptea, he’s responsible for process and product development and for the production of our teas.
“At uptea, we combine the advantages of both beverages”
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Uptea: Many of us are certainly familiar with the problem of not really getting into gear in the morning, suffering from a food coma after lunch or getting tired very early in the evening. To counteract that, we often turn to coffee or energy drinks. But both beverages have their drawbacks. With uptea, we offer a healthy and sustainable alternative that simply makes you a better kind of awake.
Coffee contains quite a high amount of caffeine and wakes you up quickly, but only for a short time. Absorbing caffeine that quickly leads to unpleasant side effects for many people, like a heart palpitations or feeling slightly ill. On top of that, the effect ends abruptly, which is often known as a ‘coffee crash.’ Coffee is very acidic, which can cause stomach problems. Bad breath and yellow teeth are additional unattractive side effects of drinking coffee. For anyone who pays a bit of attention to their health, energy drinks simply aren’t an option due to their many artificial ingredients and huge amount of sugar. Conventional teas unfortunately only contain a very small amount of caffeine, but the effect lasts much longer. Tea is also very healthy in general and well tolerated by most people. With uptea, we combine the advantages of both beverages. In tea leaves, caffeine is bound to the rare amino acid L-theanine. This bond allows for easier absorption and a long-lasting effect of the caffeine. It also doesn’t make you jittery or hyper, but focused and concentrated instead – like we said, a better kind of awake.
“Our process can be applied to almost any tea blend”
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Uptea: We thought that too when we came up with the idea for uptea, but then in the end, we couldn’t find a beverage that is truly comparable to ours. Of course you have tea manufacturers that offer “pick-me-up” products. But they’re usually just types of tea with a slightly higher amount of natural caffeine or blends with additives like guarana, mate, matcha, kola nut or some other plants that contain caffeine. A lot of these blends still have a relatively low caffeine content or a very bitter taste. Guayusa is also often sold as a natural stimulant, but it’s very limited in terms of taste and can’t be compared with the variety of flavors found in the world of tea.
We enrich our teas with natural caffeine. Every bag contains approximately 150 mg of caffeine. That is about the same as a cup of strong black coffee but, as described above, has a much more pleasant and long-lasting effect without any unpleasant side effects. Our process can be applied to almost any tea blend, which provides an amazing range in terms of flavor. And despite the addition of natural caffeine, our teas are not bitter to the taste. With uptea, you’re just a better kind of awake.
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Uptea: Challenges come up almost on a daily basis. I’ll name three as examples, which were extremely time consuming and required a lot of effort.
First, product development was extremely complex. Back then, I worked for a long time with different partners on the process of enriching tea. Even well-known companies haven’t managed to create a satisfying result: Either the effect wasn’t what was wanted, the look and structure of the tea leaves didn’t live up to our expectations or the tea was simply too bitter to the taste. Luckily, Ingo came up with a brilliant idea to solve the problem, which is also why he’s become an integral part of uptea.
The necessary minimum order quantities in the tea business are another factor. Many wholesale dealers are set up to sell their tea by the ton, which goes far beyond the financial means of a startup. The production and printing of boxes also only makes economic sense starting at a certain scale. Finding companies that also offer startup-friendly quantities and conditions was far from easy in the beginning. But now we’re happy to have found a strong partner who recognized the potential of the idea and wants to grow along with us.
A third issue that permeates every aspect of founding is time. It’s certainly a problem that every founder is familiar with, because especially in the beginning and in a small team, you’re responsible for everything and needed everywhere. In that regard, it’s an advantage that we come from different areas of expertise and complement each other well, but sooner or later, we’re obviously going to be in urgent need of support in areas where we aren’t proven experts. With one or two additional people on board, we would make much quicker and more efficient progress and could work on several topics simultaneously and bring them to successful conclusion.
Crowdfunding campaign runs until the end of January
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Uptea: We haven’t started with sales in the usual sense of the word. But our crowdfunding campaign is currently running, which has already led to very successful results. At www.startnext.com/uptea, those who are interested can secure a load of our heathy pick-me-up early on and to support uptea from the very beginning. We also have lots of cool goodies to offer as a reward, and every supporter gets the opportunity to place their vote for the next flavor to add to our portfolio. We have one week until the campaign ends and have already reached our first funding target. 162 people are excited about the idea and have made it possible for us to produce the first two flavors with 8.500 euros. The campaign runs until the end of the month, and we obviously would be delighted to receive any additional support, which would be used to officially certify the sustainability of our product. Sustainability is extremely important to us, from the cultivation of the tea to its enrichment in Germany and its packaging and logistics. We just need about 4,000 euros to reach our second funding target, but I feel confident that we’ll make it with support from our community.
Munich Startup: What do you think about Munich as a startup location?
Uptea: Munich is a super location for startups. There’s a whole line-up of really good accelerator programs here, and I would wholeheartedly recommend LMU EC based on my own experience. You also have top universities here and so many young people who are well educated and highly motivated. The Munich startups that are already a success show what you can achieve here. We would also certainly like to benefit from that in the future and have our team continue to grow. In addition to accelerator programs, there’s also lots of funding and support in Munich. To give an example, the city of Munich provided financial support for the creative work for our crowdfunding campaign – which we’d very much like to thank them for here! Even with corona, there are lots of events for founders and startups in Munich that are held digitally. Networking is obviously more fun face-to-face, but in light of the current situation, it’s the better option. What isn’t relevant for us yet, but will certainly be interesting in the future, is the large number of business angels and investors here in Munich. If startups ever get to the point that they need capital to continue to grow, there are plenty of top addresses here. Even though I’ve never lived in Berlin or founded a startup there, I don’t think Munich needs to feel it’s not up to par with Berlin.
Munich Startup: Green or black tea?
Uptea: That is a very good question that I can’t give a definite answer to. I personally tend to drink black tea in the morning and green tea more in the afternoon. The two are also the most well-known types of tea, but the world of tea has so many other flavors to offer. We’re starting our production with those two, but then you also have countless types and variations here too. Our ‘fresh green’ is a fruity sencha complemented by lemon and ginger, and our ‘gentle earl’ is an Earl Grey (black tea with bergamot), refined with a fine vanilla note. In the future, we’d like to expand our portfolio to include a whole assortment of further teas. If you’d like to create your own tea, you can do just that through our Startnext campaign. We’re excited to see where the journey takes us and would like to sincerely thank you for the interview.