Loopline Systems is one of the newest ventures in our portfolio. We would like to present you the founders Christian Kaller and Nora Nora Heer, who answered some questions on Loopline and the founder’s life.
How did you get the idea of founding Loopline Systems?
The idea of Loopline was based on an internal use case. We identified the need for an easy-to-use software solution for executives to help them managing their employees. We were looking for a software that would provide actual insights into employee management and organizational performance in order to help the management team to better run their organization. On one hand, we tried to meet the needs of our teams of being continuously developed and receiving feedback for their work. On the other hand, we aimed to reduce the high administrative effort of objective management and people development for the HR department. As there was no solution in the market that really fulfilled our needs — especially since most of the solutions out there are neither developed by HR experts nor by previous managers — we decided to build an internal solution. When other companies heard about our software we were overwhelmed by the amount of interest and positive feedback. So we decided to make a business out of it.
What did you do before?
Right before starting Loopline we have both been working for Project A Ventures, Nora as Head of the HR department and Christian as Entrepreneur in Residence. Nora is a certified business coach and has a more than ten years of experience in the field of Human Resources, including organizational building of small as well as large companies, employee management, and coaching. She started her career in the corporate world, working for Holtzbrinck publishers. She has been involved in building a Software-as-a-Service startup from scratch and helped start an incubator for African startups in Ghana with the Meltwater Group. As Head of HR at Project A Ventures she also assisted in building organizations from scratch. Christian studied Business Administration at the Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU) in Germany, in the US and in Singapore. After some pit stops at Rocket Internet in Berlin and in Tokyo, as well as in the fields of strategy consulting and fast moving consumer goods, he joined Project A as an Entrepreneur in Residence. We believe that for Loopline we combine a good set of experiences from business and HR side in both, tech startups and leading corporations.
How do you collaborate with Project A?
Loopline Systems was developed with the support of the Project A IT team — our CTO is also a former Project A member — and a number of coachings by different Project A experts. We have been receiving a high range of technical and mental support from Project A from day one, especially from the management team. They always believed in the idea as well as in us as a founding team and we are thankful for the level of experience as well as the network we have already benefited from. We have experienced the mix of high level mentoring together with Project A’s support and willingness to really build independent and self-sustainable companies as a great partnership so far.
What do you like most about your daily business?
Nora: I really enjoy that we develop an innovative product that tackles relevant customer needs and the positive feedback we get from people who learn about our product. We are continuously trying to figure out our customer’s needs to integrate them in our ongoing product enhancement. The second thing I like is our amazing team, we are extremely happy with. It’s great to see the ownership and commitment in the team on a daily basis and it’s a privilege to be surrounded by people you believe in and you really want to work with.
Christian: For me one of the best things is the feeling of working on something sustainable and thereby creating a new, innovative solution with real value add for customers. Being faced with new challenges and opportunities and to grow and learn every day. Another great thing is — as Nora already mentioned — our outstanding team with a fast paced mix of moments of shared laughter and intense concentration.
What are the biggest challenges in the initial stage of founding a business?
Nora: The biggest challenges as a founder are the difficulty to transfer your business strategy into daily best practice routines and processes, to educate everyone about your overall vision and mission at all times and the immense workload.
Christian: The ever changing cascade of responsibilities and at the same time keeping our great culture in a growing team
Do you have tips for entrepreneurs and people interested in entrepreneurship?
First of all, never stop believing in your idea and your team! Keep looking for opportunities and take them when they arise. It’s great to build something on your own, don´t hesitate to ask others for input — only with input from the outside you will exceed your own abilities. At last share what you know — it will always come back to you in greater sense.