9 June 2021

Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences supports the startup fyrfeed in realising its innovative business idea of using artificial intelligence for social media posts

Kristina Hülsebusch, Christan Zoll (both from HIKE), Dr Thomas Lindemann and Dipl. Ing. Benjamin Zengler (founders of Fyrfeed) with Prof. Dr Lutz Göcke and Dr Kareen Schlangen on the foundation in summer 2020

In order to build a strong presence on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, XING or Facebook and acquire new customers, it is necessary for companies and their employees to regularly publish informative posts that position them as experts and opinion leaders. However, there is often not enough time to do this: it takes an average of 2 hours to create a single post.

This problem led Dr Thomas Lindemann, Benjamin Zengler and Lukas Karoff to found their start-up Fyrfeed last year, with which social media posts can be generated at the touch of a button. "The posts consist of an informative text, a matching image, which is adapted to the corporate design and target group of the respective company, as well as emojis and hashtags," explains founder Dr Thomas Lindemann. The subscription model is a so-called tech-enabled service, as the creation of the posts is supported by artificial intelligence developed by Fyrfeed. Man and machine work hand in hand. The start-up is therefore already one of the most innovative social media providers in Germany.

Prof Dr Lutz Göcke, professor at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, supported the start-up as an EXIST mentor, which enabled them to jointly apply for and ultimately win the EXIST start-up grant 2020. Alongside him, Dr Kareen Schlangen also advised and supported the young entrepreneurs throughout the entire process as part of the start-up support programme at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences.

The start-up was able to attract several investors from Germany and Silicon Valley as part of a pre-seed investment round. The capital raised will last for at least one year and is needed to further develop the technology. However, the current product is also generating sales. With a current annual turnover of just under EUR 300,000, Fyrfeed has managed to establish a solid business model in a very short space of time - important proof that the market for Fyrfeed's service is open. "We had the great privilege that many investors were very interested in us - and we ultimately had to turn many of them down because we deliberately wanted to keep the first round of financing small", says Lindemann.

With its innovative approach of using artificial intelligence to create high-quality social media posts, the startup from Berlin has won several awards in addition to funding from Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences: the "Top 3 business plans award 2021" from promotion nordhessen, the "Most innovative marketing startups 2021" award from Startupill.com, the "Best 3 of Central Germany Award" from HHL Spinlab 2020, the "New Startup of the Month" award from Startbase and German Startup Association 2020 and the "Awarded TRIP Final Ticket 2020".

Since its foundation in 2020, the company has grown to over 20 employees. These include communication experts with doctorates, journalists, authors, artificial intelligence experts and software developers. This enables them to think broadly and consistently achieve great results.

Prof Dr Lutz Göcke and Dr Kareen Schlangen are currently working on further potential start-up ideas in their role as project managers in the University Incubator for Entrepreneurship (HIKE). The HIKE offers all students and employees the opportunity to participate in the incubation programme for potential founders who want to develop their idea further. You can find more information at hike-startups.com/programme.

Further information about the StartUp Fyrfeed can be found on their website fyrfeed.com