World shaper of tomorrow: Beekeeper develops a productivity platform for frontline workers

What started with a flirting platform for students turned into a mobile platform that helps more than 2 billion non-desktop workers around the world collaborate and find resources. Beekeeper CEO and co-founder Dr. Cristian Grossmann explains how observing customers’ behavior helped him develop the first digital workplace designed specifically for frontline workers that is used by renowned companies such as ABB, Migros, or Marriott.

You could say that it started with the birds and the bees: Cristian Grossmann, Flavio Pfaffhauser, Andreas Slotosch, and Daniel Sztutwojner created a flirting platform for students at Zurich’s universities. Over time, the entrepreneurs realized that the users preferred chatting over flirting, and they adapted the platform accordingly and successfully: At its peak, around 10,000 students—a third of all students in Zurich—were on Spocal (a combination of the words speaker and local). 
Once it was time to monetize the success with advertising, the team learned that many of the companies they asked for advertising money wanted to use the intuitive and sleek app for their internal communication. It was time to adapt again. “That’s how we realized that such a simple app could be enriched with many more features that go beyond communication and include documents, forms, and checklists. The app eventually evolved into a whole workplace for frontline workers,” explained Cristian the rebranding from Spocal to Beekeeper.

“Once people started renewing their subscriptions, we knew we were onto something.” – Dr. Cristian Grossmann

Beekeeper gets ready to scale 
The company was founded in 2012. What remained of the initial idea was the focus on communication and collaboration. “The name Beekeeper reflects what we are trying to provide: a very simple way of bringing people together to work efficiently and effectively. This is very much what bees do—they have refined yet simple ways of communicating and coordinating with each other,” said Cristian. Since 2012, Beekeeper has won multiple global customers, raised USD 86 million, and has 180 employees in offices in Switzerland, Poland, Germany, and the US. “Our expansion to the US has been a big milestone. Close to 50% of our revenue comes from the US,” said Cristian. “Despite having major clients in the US—including food-service giants Tyson Foods, Cargill, and Seaboard Foods—Switzerland will remain the headquarters and a great place to attract talent and build a solid company and product with great quality.”

“We want to become like a Microsoft for frontline workers.” – Dr. Cristian Grossmann

Supporting frontline workers around the world
COVID-19, the resulting surge in remote work, and the increasing importance of connecting frontline workers have put a new spotlight on Beekeeper’s solution. In an extended Series B round in summer 2020, the company raised CHF 10 million to help support more frontline workers around the world: “One percent of all the funding overall goes to the frontline that actually employs 80% of all the workforce in the world. So, it’s still a massively disregarded segment of the workforce where the opportunity is very big,” explained Cristian. “Because of COVID-19, we have seen an uptick from industries that need this type of solution now more than ever.” Even though Beekeeper’s entrepreneurial journey was not linear, their vision is clear and focused: “We want to become like a Microsoft for frontline workers,” explained Cristian. “We want to help them achieve their potential and increase their productivity with simple tools.”



About World shapers of tomorrow: Startups building our future

The TOP 100 book World shapers of tomorrow: Startups building our future shows the impact of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups over the last 10 years. On 100 pages, the publication features the facts and figures about the startup ecosystem in Switzerland, shows the sectors and geographic distribution, and lists the investors behind Swiss deeptech startups. The book also highlights disruptive companies that changed their industry: Beekeeper, Bestmile, Climeworks, Covagen, DeinDeal, Doodle, GetYourGuide, MindMaze, Scandit, and Piavita. The founders of these startups share anecdotes and discuss their successes, lessons learned, and visions for the future. A selection of 10 verticals illustrates how Swiss deeptech startups transform our lives and help us build a better and more sustainable future in relation to health, longevity, digitalization, and decentralization.
Learn more and download your copy at www.top100startups.swiss/10years.

Get your copy: PAPERBACK VERSION HARDCOVER VERSION EBOOK VERSION AMAZON KINDLE