Starting a company: “You can find many role models in Germany”

VDE dialog: Germany often has a rather negative reputation as a place to start a company. Is that justified?

Lukas Liedtke: I don’t want to join that chorus. When we founded the company, we encountered a scene that was very innovative and supportive. We are based in Karlsruhe. It’s small enough that you can quickly get in touch with people, but large enough that you can also find many role models around you. I would even extend that assessment to Baden-Württemberg and Germany as a whole. One important instrument is certainly the EXIST start-up grant.

Which you also received yourselves.

Exactly. It’s a great example of how well things are connected in Germany. We entered our idea – the insect bite healer heat it – into the VDE student competition COSIMA. When we presented our project in Munich, we not only saw that there was strong interest in our product. Professors and doctoral researchers approached us there and advised us to apply for an EXIST grant.

With EXIST, founding teams receive financial support for twelve months to develop a business plan and prepare for founding their company. How did that support help you?

It was extremely valuable. Through our collaboration with the Institute of Microstructure Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, we were able to move into our own office, use laboratories, receive a wide range of support, and prepare ourselves for “real entrepreneurship”. Initial conversations with investors and competitors about possible collaboration followed. We quickly realized that heat it had to be a certified medical device – which requires money, time, and above all a lot of hard work. After founding the company in 2018, we launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2019 and completed certification with TÜV Süd. This allowed us to bring the first generation of our insect bite healer to market in 2020.

Based on your experience with heat it: What advice would you give to other founders?

You don’t necessarily need a huge innovation if you build a good product that offers clearly visible added value in key areas – whether in quality, price, or functionality. We benefit from the fact that the principle of action is already widely known – but we are now also doing pioneering work in markets such as the United States.

What are the next steps for the company?

Our core product heat it still has great potential, especially internationally. We are also exploring other applications of heat, for example for cold sores. Over time, we want to broaden our portfolio, as we now have the team, the distribution channels, and the experience. Step by step, we aim to expand the product range – but we must not lose focus and should continue strengthening the things that already work well.

This success story began with the COSIMA competition. Would the company and heat it even exist without the competition?

Without COSIMA we probably wouldn’t have followed through. The competition gives you a clear goal to work toward. When preparing your contribution, you also have to deal with topics you might never have encountered before – in our case, marketing.

What motivated you during the process?

For me, it was clear from the beginning that this was not a theoretical problem with some abstract solution. We were working on something real. COSIMA gave us a framework and showed us how important deadlines are – along the lines of: “We need to meet again because it simply has to work at the trade fair next week.” Winning COSIMA was truly the starting signal for the company.

About the person: Lukas Liedtke (33) is co-founder and CEO of Kamedi GmbH, based in Karlsruhe. The company develops and markets the smart insect bite healer heat it. He studied mechanical engineering with a focus on microsystems engineering and medical technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. As part of the heat-it team, he won the VDE competition COSIMA in 2018. Kamedi GmbH was founded in the same year.