Julian Wiedenhaus founded his first startup out of the lecture hall. With Plancraft he wants to digitize the craft.
Founder Julian Wiedenhaus had the idea for his startup while studying. Plancraft
The craft industry is facing major changes. This is not only due to the shortage of skilled workers, but also to the generational change. Craft businesses are moving with the times and switching from analog to digital. An exciting time for founder Julian Wiedenhaus, as he says. He and his team were among the first to provide cloud-based software for tradesmen, said Wiedenhaus in an interview with Gründerszene. Your startup Plancraft takes on administrative tasks such as creating measurements, i.e. which services need to be provided for construction projects, as well as writing invoices and offers. The founder has already been working on the product from the lecture hall.
Wiedenhaus founded Plancraft in 2020 with his co-founders Alexander Noll (CPO) and Richard Keil (CTO). He was still studying at the time and was about to complete his master’s degree in international management and engineering at the TU Hamburg. After a short full-time job, he focused entirely on his craft startup. Actually he would do everything again the way he tells us. Except for the position in the early days of Plancraft. “Even if I didn’t know how I was going to pay the rent for the next few months,” he says.
During his studies, he and co-founder Noll helped out in Noll’s father’s carpentry shop and were tasked with improving operational processes. The fact that digitalization is often making slow progress in Germany is not a new finding. But especially in the craft industry, outdated and analogue methods are used when creating orders etc., as Noll and Wiedenhaus noted. “For many, email is the ultimate feeling,” says the founder. The two recognized an opportunity – also because there were hardly any comparable offers, Wiedenhaus tells us.
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Plancraft is intended to relieve tradesmen
Your Plancraft software is intended to make tasks such as creating offers and calculations easier for tradesmen. “Many companies we spoke to were at their stress limit,” he tells us. Especially in smaller craft businesses with few employees, it is difficult to distribute the workload: “There is not a separate department for marketing and sales like in large companies.”
According to Wiedenhaus, the offer they provide with Plancraft is not rocket science. “It’s about digitizing the basic processes.” So far, the startup says it has supported around 5,000 tradesmen and the software has processed a billion euros in construction volume. If you want to work with the program, you can use it on the desktop or as an app. The offers start with a beginner’s package of 29.90 euros per month and go up to the premium subscription at 199.90 euros per month – including a personal contact at Plancraft.
The market potential for the software is great. According to the, in Germany there is Industry association ZDH almost six million craftsmen. According to the founder, so far it has been primarily tradesmen in metropolitan areas who have used the offer. There is less coverage in the more rural regions. This also has to do with the stalling internet expansion there, says the founder. “Interested people have already told us that they would like to switch to a cloud-based application, but do not have stable internet access.” And he adds: “It cannot be the case that companies are founded in Germany in 2024 and do not have reasonable internet access.”
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2.5 million euros for the startup
Basically, their program is there for all areas of crafts. Painters, carpenters, roofers and floor layers most often use Plancraft. The founder defines the target group as companies with a size of up to 50 employees – with a focus on smaller companies.
Plancraft itself employs 40 people almost four years after it was founded. The startup is VC-financed and has raised around 2.5 million euros after a pre-seed and a seed financing round. The startup is not yet profitable. Wiedenhaus justifies this with his own growth efforts and emphasizes the conscious decision to work with investors. Wiedenhaus does not want to provide any information on sales.
In order to continue to grow, Plancraft also relies on collaborations. There has been a collaboration with the well-known mechanical engineering company Stihl since last year. “Stihl approached us,” says Wiedenhaus. The hope is to offer added value for Stihl users – and thus also expand their own customer base.
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