Company: Vicosmo GmbH
Founders: Jasmin and Volker Kettenbach (married couple)
Date of establishment: January 15, 2017
Industry and company: Software development and data services

What drives you? What is your motto?
"Those who get things done have a head start in life over those who just talk about them." –J.F. Kennedy
"Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right" – Peter Drucker We tackle difficult
tasks for our customers: we research and develop software that enables them to stay well informed and make the right decisions in the future.

What is your start-up about and what makes it special?
Verivinum is the world's first and only database service for wine and sparkling wine in supermarkets and discount stores. The service was developed specifically for the needs of businesses in the wine and sparkling wine industry and uses state-of-the-art AI and big data algorithms to provide customers' sales, marketing, and business development teams with data-driven industry insights for faster and more targeted growth.

What are your first successes?
The successful completion of our service after years of research and development. The positive feedback from the customer industry and, of course, our first customer. Building a young, friendly, and motivated team that has been developing software and filling the database with data for several years now.

What is your professional background?
Jasmin Kettenbach: I studied beverage technology in Geisenheim and have spent the last twenty-five years working in purchasing and sales in the wine industry.
Volker Kettenbach: I have a degree in business informatics and have actually been self-employed my whole life—first as a freelancer, now as an entrepreneur.

What prompted you to start your own business?
Vicosmo is already our second company. In 2015, we founded Casa Kettenbach, a boarding house in a completely renovated, listed villa, which was featured in a founder portrait published by the city of Wiesbaden in 2018. Following the continued success of Casa Kettenbach, we decided to continue and start a company that combines our two areas of expertise – wine and software.

Who advised you, who are your helpers and mentors?
With the experience of our first start-up, it was naturally easier. In addition, we enlisted the expertise of scientists, lawyers, and industry professionals in the form of an advisory board.

How did you experience your first days as founders?
It's a great feeling when you see the product grow and flourish and you realize at some point that the risk and work are paying off. 

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
Corona was a big problem: on the one hand, awareness of the importance of digital solutions for sales work has grown during this time, but on the other hand, willingness to invest has declined sharply due to uncertainty and has not yet returned to its previous level. 

How do you draw attention to your company? What is your best marketing idea?
Thanks to the founder's many years of industry experience, it is relatively easy for us to gain access to potential customers. In addition, we rely on a multi-channel strategy, which includes a YouTube channel where we plan to provide interesting industry insights in the future. 

How did you finance your start-up?
To date, we are 100% self-financed. On the one hand, through an initial capital injection from our own savings. On the other hand, through a strategy of bootstrapping and cross-financing from the founder's other development projects. We have also taken advantage of smaller funding projects.

What dream would you still like to realize?
We would like to open our own branch in California to be closer to our major customers in America—and, of course, to the great wine-growing regions there.

Please complete the following sentence: If we had more time, we would... read more and
listen to more music!

What is your special tip: What would you recommend to founders?
Especially when you come from a salaried position, you are initially confronted with many issues that you have never had to deal with before, such as finance and accounting. It is important to ask for help and to accept it. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry offers a lot, and the RKW also offers support. We recommend taking advantage of everything that is available!