Webmag is developing a platform for digital corporate publishing and is currently funded by Media Lab Bayern. With Webmag, companies can create customer magazines and product brochures cheaply and easily. The two founders explain their startup.
Who are you and what are you doing? Please introduce yourself and your product shortly!
We are David Maus (34) and Christian Wust (34) of Webmag. We got to know each other more than ten years ago in a bachelor’s degree, lived together in a flat share and handled a lot of projects. We then moved professionally in different directions: David has dedicated himself to the design and development of software, Christian communicating, PR and marketing to technology companies. We reunited with Webmag to bring a digital corporate publishing solution to market. Why? Because we observe that the publication of own publications is becoming more and more important for companies, but most of them still lag behind in digitization. Customer magazines or product brochures end up as a static PDF on the company website and are anything but user-friendly. Digital First – Nil! That’s why we’ve developed a platform that allows businesses to create digital magazines cost-effectively and, most importantly, easily – and quickly leverage new potential through data analytics or call-to-action buttons.
But that’s already there!
Yes, there are many ways to create digital magazines – but that’s almost always costly and time-consuming because agencies are hired and people with specialized knowledge are needed. Small and medium-sized enterprises often lack the necessary capacities and IT resources – or the corresponding budgets. Nevertheless, they know they have to tackle digitization if they do not want to be left behind. Even in larger companies, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to integrate digital projects into existing processes as easily as possible, otherwise the implementation often takes years or is not even tackled. Ease of Business is the keyword here. Our editor is designed so that it can be easily integrated into existing processes. Thanks to preconfigured designs, anyone in the company can create digital magazines, brochures, whitepapers or other publications that automatically look good in just a few clicks. As a SaaS cloud-based model, businesses can easily customize their usage.
What was your biggest challenge so far?
The biggest challenge for us was finding out what really works for companies. The technology itself is not the big problem, but the exact alignment of system and user interface to the needs of companies. In the end, there are nuances that ensure that a tool like Webmag is accepted or not. In this process, for example, it became clear to us that we needed our own CMS in order to make the integration process smooth. Likewise, we had to tailor the pre-configurations for the design to the exact right size so that people without design skills would not get into trouble and their results would still look great. Decisive was also the realization that companies want one thing above all else: Digitalisation: yes absolutely, but just no additional effort and no commitment of resources to new projects.
“Munich is naturally particularly attractive for us as a media location”
Butter with the fish: How’s the business going?
As of today, we have gained a large commercial vehicle manufacturer as a customer and partner, whose marketing staff create their own publications directly via our platform – without graphic artists, without an agency and without large voting cycles. As a result, the department has not just an unread PDF on the website, but a marketing tool that promotes lead generation, works in concert with social media channels, and can be optimized through real-time tracking. We are currently expanding the business together on the small-scale dealer network. With Webmag as a whitelabel solution, the manufacturer acts as a service provider to its dealers and supports them in digitization. Retailers can easily adapt the pre-made online magazines to complement and distribute regionally relevant content to their customers. At the lowest cost. For the manufacturer, this is doubly interesting, because in addition to the development of relationships with its dealers, he ensures that his own brand is optimally presented to the end customer. In the future, this concept will be decisive for many large companies with dealer networks when positioning themselves in the respective markets.
What does Munich mean for you?
Of course, Munich is particularly attractive for us as a media location. The proximity to publishers, agencies and publishing houses helps us immensely in the development of product and business model. As a member of the Media Lab Bavaria Fellowship program, we also received our first grant here. In addition, Munich is David’s center of life and the top connection for the Christian citizen of Berlin a popular reason for more frequent business trips.
“Like to take the Unicorn stamp”
How does your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at the Epic Fail Night?
First and foremost, we want to grow healthy and continuously and present our partners with a stable, reliable business. In other words, we believe that the market for digital content marketing is growing as predicted, and we can quickly scale up the partner business when needed with a solid foundation. If the strategy works out, we like to take the unicorn stamp – and still share our experiences on the Epic Fail Night.
Isar or English Garden?
Very clear: Isar! Namely the northern part behind the weir. Even in midsummer there is not much going on and there are beautiful bays for swimming, barbecues and relaxing. By bike you are there in 20 minutes and with a cold beer, the closing time for a mini-vacation.
Also published on Medium.