Scavenger AI: Growing the team and launching the product

Scavenger is an innovative AI-powered tool that transforms how businesses access and use their data.

Founded by Maximilian Hahnenkamp and Felix Beissel in late 2023, Scavenger empowers users to query complex databases in natural language, delivering instant answers, visualisations, and actionable insights—all without requiring technical skills or coding expertise. This approach democratises data access across all company levels, enabling faster, more informed decision-making. 

In a candid conversation with Sasha Komarevych, Editor of Startupreporter.eu, Maximilian Hahnenkamp and Felix Beissel, co-founders of Scavenger, discuss their startup’s innovative journey, the impact of natural language processing on data access, the challenges of scaling a team, and how Scavenger is transforming decision-making in businesses through AI.

Sasha: – Hello, guys and welcome back! A lot has happened since we last talked when you raised your €1.1M pre-seed round in Q2 this year!

Max & Felix: – Thank you for having us! Yes, a lot has happened. We launched our software, gained happy customers, and significantly grew our team.

Sasha: – Let’s start from the beginning. Tell me about the launch and the product. What’s new?

Max & Felix: – When we last spoke, we had an initial product summarised as “Chat with your Data,” where users could upload documents and ask questions about them. We noticed that most users were downloading Excel files from their database and uploading them to our tool. We quickly realised this wasn’t the most efficient approach and pivoted to what we now call “Interact with your Database.”

Companies can now directly connect their ERP systems, SQL databases, and CRMs and ask questions like: “What was my revenue in France in 2023 compared to Spain?” or “Give me a list of customers who haven’t purchased anything in the last 120 days but typically buy every 90 days.” Our AI searches through hundreds of tables in a database, calculates results, and delivers an answer in seconds.

Sasha: – I can imagine that’s a massive benefit for BI and analytics teams or employees who rely on them for data.

Max & Felix: – Absolutely! Traditional BI tools require coding skills or dashboard building, which only a few technically skilled employees can manage. These key individuals are often overwhelmed by hundreds of data requests daily. Scavenger empowers everyone to ask business questions in plain language and get instant answers and visualisations, making data-driven decision-making accessible.

Sasha: – What’s been the initial reaction from your customers?

Max & Felix: – The feedback has been great so far, as we truly understand the challenges faced by medium-sized businesses. Additionally, our tool helps customers standardise their internal data, leading to better analyses. We strive to stay close to our customers and love seeing their surprise when they realise how valuable insight can be extracted from their data, especially regarding its impact on revenue and costs.

Sasha: – That sounds exciting! I assume growing your team helped bring your vision to life so quickly?

Max & Felix: – Yes, it did. Thanks to the team, we’re thrilled with how fast we executed development. We currently have 12 employees, though not all are full-time. Nine are in the tech department, and three are in the business department. Quite a change from when it was just the two of us a year ago! We hired 3 Founding Engineers with complementary skills: One entirely focused on the back-end, one fully focused on the front-end, and one full-stack engineer can do both. Additionally, we set-up a super strong data science team that works closely with the customers. To support the business side, we hired a great founder associate who takes a lot of weight off our shoulders.

Sasha: – Do you feel a big difference compared to when you were a smaller team?

Max & Felix: – Absolutely! It’s been great to see how things have evolved, though it comes with challenges. Shifting from being fully hands-on, where everything was our responsibility, to stepping into more of a management role was an adjustment. Now, with a skilled team that even surpasses our expertise in certain areas, it’s a new and rewarding dynamic. 

Sasha: – This is an interesting period for you. What’s the status now, and what’s next?

Max & Felix: – The launch went well, and we’re set to hit €10,000 MRR this month, just a month after release, which is fantastic. We also have a waiting list of over 200 companies, so our main focus is rolling out to more clients and ensuring they’re satisfied. Ultimately, we expect to boost our KPIs significantly, maintain growth, and prepare for our next funding round in Q3 2024.

Sasha: – To sum things up, where do you see the market going, and what companies would you recommend?

Max & Felix: – The AI hype and the technology behind it marked the past year. We see that companies are taking a step back and thinking about the use case or problem first, then evaluating the best possible technology to solve it. This approach is correct. We are not doing AI for the sake of doing AI; we do it because there is a significant problem that AI solves most efficiently.

We also see that the barriers and costs for trying out AI applications are decreasing. Therefore, we advise companies to try it out and see the benefits for themselves!