Marc-Philipp Kern Of Implify: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder
If you do good to others, good things will happen to you!
As part of our interview series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marc-Philipp Kern.
Marc-Philipp Kern is the Founder and Managing Director of Implify, a digital platform for dental implants and accessories. Implify was founded in June 2020 by the three founders Steffen Weinlich, Marc-Philipp Kern and Florian Schnorr, with the idea to buy dental implants easily and digitally via a platform. The three founders met during their MBA studies at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell a little about yourself and your background, what brought you to this specific career path?
As the son of a family of entrepreneurs, it has always been my biggest dream to start my own business. After gaining experience at CLARK for almost 5 years on how to do things in a start-up and what to look out for, I was lucky enough to meet Steffen and Flo during my MBA studies. Both come from completely different backgrounds — so the founding team was perfect. In June 2020, we then decided to put the idea we developed during our MBA studies into action: Implify. As a central platform in the field of implantology, we digitize the purchasing process for dental practices and dental laboratories for dental implants. Today, we are a good year and a half smarter.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
Setting up a business is no walk in the park. After we had the first business angel on board, all three of us were full of drive and wanted to pull out all the stops. But we were quickly caught up by the speed of the dental industry. The world turns differently in a dusty, conservative industry compared to a young, dynamic start-up. This slowed us down, especially in the initial phase — the classic chicken-and-egg problem in the platform business: on the one hand, the manufacturers made us wait until we got the products, on the other hand, our platform was not yet attractive enough for dentists because the components were missing. On top of that, there are probably the “classic problems” when you are just starting up: Money is tight, every industry expert wants to explain to you how the business actually works, and there’s an “egg kick” lurking at every turn.
How are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?
The belief in the idea behind Implify and the confirmation of our first customers has made us extremely determined to never give up and to keep going. In addition, we always motivated each other to keep going — definitely a big advantage when you start up as a founder trio.
Today I can say that the resilience and the trust in my co-founders and the idea paid off. Because this year was a great success for our business. We were able to win one of the largest implant manufacturers in Europe as a partner, exceeded our growth targets and successfully completed our seed financing round in July 2021. With more than 15,000 product variants live on our platform, we are the largest online platform for dental implants and prosthetics in all of Europe after just one year. And our journey is far from over.
It has definitely been a struggle that has taken a lot of time on the part of family, relationship and friends. However, we as a team and I personally have taken a lot from this journey as a Learning. Never give up!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
In my first investor meeting the investor asked me at the end: How much money do you actually need? My answer: Yes, between 1–2 million euros. I was not prepared for that question at all! What was funny was that it was absolutely OK for the investor and not at all far-fetched. After the interview I was better prepared for the question ;)
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
In contrast to the old-established companies, we bring a young and fresh wind into the industry. We are often too fast for our customers because they are not used to our speed.
For example, we respond to mail inquiries within 5 minutes or call new customers immediately after registration. One customer was even startled once and wondered how we manage to call him so quickly.
Our customers are simply not used to this speed and high level of service, as the dental industry ticks more slowly otherwise. For me, this is the biggest factor that makes us stand out and is particularly well received by young dentists.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Many in the industry simply move along and don’t reinvent themselves. I think this is extremely important if you don’t want to “burn out” and always want to develop further. I can only advise everyone to accept new challenges and to rethink early on.
In January of next year, we are very happy to have won over a sales representative for our digital approach and our young company in January of next year, who had worked for larger manufacturers for over 25 years and was extremely “burnt out” there. It was not easy to convince him of our approach and our fresh wind. But in the end, it also takes a bit of persuasion on the part of the founding team!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Definitely the support of my parents in the initial phase of the foundation and the encouragement of my girlfriend, who never doubted my will and determination to start up. Quite the opposite: she even knowingly accepted that I would have less time and that the stress level in the relationship would increase as a result.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
If you do good to others, good things will happen to you! I take this literally and have become much more generous and helpful since my foundation and through the help I have received from others.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- Raising money takes longer than expected. At first, I thought that a financing round would be completed quickly and that it would only take a few weeks. But a financing round is a long and tough process. Starting the round early helps to have a buffer out the back. My tip: start approaching investors 6 months before the deadline.
- Money is not everything. Raising money is not easy, but it can be done. It is more difficult to spend the money correctly and sensibly.
- You can’t change an industry in a short time. It often takes longer than expected. No matter if contracts with cooperation partners or strategic decisions. This slows down especially in the beginning phase.
- The first 6 months are the hardest. At the beginning, I thought the first months would be the best, because you get a lot of attention. But nobody waits for your idea. In some situations we had the feeling that people want push us out of the market. The first 6 months are therefore the first sprint of a long marathon.
- Not everyone who wants to help you wants to help you. As a young founder, you are happy about any help you get and gladly accept it. But not every help is a help. We have often made the experience that especially at the beginning the initial situation exploit and act unfairly. Therefore, be careful when choosing a partner at the beginning of the foundation!
Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?
Support each other, have fun at work and distract yourself. We still do this today, more than a year after founding the company, with a lot of music in our office. We want to keep that up even as the team grows. I am convinced that with the right mood and attitude you can achieve anything.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Food for everyone!
I would work to ensure that every person on earth has something to eat. I personally find it shameful that we have such a high level of prosperity in industrialized countries and that people in other countries have to starve.
How can our readers further follow you and your company online?
Website: www.implify.de
Instagram: Implify_de
Facebook: @implify_en
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
