Interview with Mario Mirbach, Managing Director PURE APPLIKATIONEN GmbH & Co.KG
HOW DID IT ALL START?
Markus Semmelmann and myself, Mario Mirbach, are the founders, and for the past 10 years we have been running an architectural office with 25 team members. We are an established firm with expertise in home construction. We have planned over 800 residential units of single-family and multi-story apartments.
The single-family house was uneconomical for us in terms of planning so that we had to decline orders like many other architectural firms. Only 5-6% of single-family homes in Germany are therefore managed by architects.
However, it is an important construction task which we wanted to rethink completely. This is how the idea of Mr + Mrs Homes was born in 2009.
Initially we wanted to offer planning services via the configurator, but we realised that this would not add much value for the clients – their only goal is to move into their dream house.
It was therefore soon clear that we would direct our primary B2B offer to the general contractor in turnkey construction and digitise their planning and offer process in such a smart way that there would be great added value for everyone involved.
With the spin-off and admission of BayWa AG as a shareholder in 2016, we have started the development in concrete terms. As an innovative building materials trader, BayWa provides the operative interface to manufacturers and general contractors, thereby strategically expanding their range of services for their clientele.
WHAT ARE THE KEY MILESTONES YOU HAVE REACHED SO FAR?
After a good 3 years of development, we started our pilot project with the “Wohnen am Lerchenberg” quarter for the construction of 130 single-family houses with a total turnover of over 1M (billion?) EUR.
In addition, we have acquired well-known product partners such as Velux, Viessmann, Gira, Creaton, Villeroy&Boch and many others for building products and materials.
We are currently rolling out our business concept in Southern Germany and have started in the regions of Nuremberg and Rosenheim.
WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU HAVE FACED?
Overall, the patent-pending development of this new invention was more than challenging.
Two prototypes were necessary as a basis to get the current application off the ground.
If we were to restart now, we would bring smaller steps to the market. But in principle the dead ends in the development were also necessary to work out this solution which is now ready for the market.
Since we, as experienced architects, worked very closely with general contractors on the solution, the acquisition of partner contractors is now easier than was initially imagined.
Our IT development team has implemented our requirements in an outstanding manner.
WHAT IS COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
We are currently in a Series A financing round in order to use the technological advantage to achieve rapid market entry.
At the same time, we are rolling out our business concept in southern Germany and will be available throughout Germany and Austria from 2022 on.
With our solution, we have reduced the planning and offer process to 95% by the start of construction. We will work on further process advantages during the construction site handling.
The medium-term goal is a paperless and dust-free construction site.
DESCRIBE YOUR JOURNEY IN THE SMART BUILDING / SMART CONSTRUCTION INNOVATION WORLD CUP® AND BEING THE TOP10 (WINNER)?
The enormous feat of handling the BIM World within a virtual format was impressively successful, as was the perfect organisation and handling of the 3rd Smart Building / Smart Construction Innovation World Cup®.
For us it was already a big surprise to be selected as one of the Top 10 Innovators 2020. In addition to all the outstanding solutions on display, it was a great surprise for us to emerge as the winner.
We will take this great motivation with us on the next steps.
Valuable contacts and networks have already resulted from our participation.
YOUR THREE TIPS FOR UP-COMING STARTUPS
The maxim for every start-up in the Proptech sector is: maximum integration of technical expertise from planning to construction.Nevertheless, it is important to question existing processes and to think completely new.