Build the company that fixes baggage tracking
Backed by the group that builds the world’s baggage systems.
36.1 million bags were mishandled worldwide in 2024. Almost half of those failures happen at transfer points, where one system hands a bag to another and nobody has real-time visibility into where it actually is.
Airlines have spent billions on biometric gates and passenger apps. Baggage tracking still runs on barcodes, manual reconciliation, and disconnected data. IATA now requires airlines to track every bag at each custody handover, and much of the industry still cannot do it well. The gap is wide open, and the technology to close it finally exists.
Beam has already validated this problem through deep research and 25+ expert interviews. We are now looking for the commercial founder who will build the company that closes it.
Your unfair advantage
You do not start from zero. BEUMER Group, one of the world’s leading builders of airport baggage handling systems, is backing this venture. Their installed base at airports around the world, their relationships with airlines and ground handlers, and their decades of domain expertise are your starting point, not something you spend years earning. Most founders would pay anything for that door. You get it on day one.
What this actually is
This is Beam’s Entrepreneur in Residence program, not a job. For 18 months you validate, build, and launch a company, with Beam as your company-building partner and BEUMER as your industry backer. We pay you a founder stipend of €4,000/month (gross) so you can go all in during validation without financial stress. The real reward is co-founder equity and, once you pass our board gate at month 9, a funded company with you on the path to Managing Director.
Be honest with yourself: if what you want is a senior salary today, this is not that. If what you want is to own and run a venture-backed company in a market with a clear regulatory and commercial tailwind, and to do it with a decades-old industrial group behind you, read on.
What the 18-month journey looks like
- Insights (Months 1-2). Deep-dive research, 25+ expert interviews, problem validation.
- Problem-Solution Hypothesis (Months 3-4). Shape the product vision, help recruit a technical co-founder, secure 2 pilot commitments.
- Company & Product Validation (Months 5-8). Launch an MVP with real customers, collect LOIs, write the business plan.
- Board Pitch (Month 9). Present your investment case to Beam and BEUMER Group leadership. This is the gate.
- Launch a Minimum Viable Company (Months 10-18). Incorporate, hire, convert pilots into paying contracts, scale.
At each gate we assess progress together. Not every validation becomes a startup, and that is by design.
You might be the one if
Your exact job title today matters less than what you can do. You could be in aviation or logistics commercial or operations, a BD lead at an industrial or aviation-tech scale-up, a strategy consultant with aviation clients, or someone who has already founded a company. What we care about:
- You understand how European industrial and aviation companies buy, build, and decide. Long cycles, many stakeholders, high trust bar. You have lived it.
- You turn access into outcomes. We bring BEUMER’s network; you know how to turn a warm introduction into a signed pilot.
- You can carry complex B2B sales through long procurement cycles without losing momentum.
- You turn research and customer signal into a sharp company vision and defend it with data, not opinion.
- You communicate complex things simply and think clearly under ambiguity, without needing to dominate the room.
- You are fluent in English. German is a plus.
A real plus, not a must: an existing network in European aviation, airport operations, logistics, or industrial technology. If you already know how to open these doors yourself, even better. If not, we open them with you.
What Beam offers
- Co-founder equity. We think in decades and want your motivation rock solid.
- Committed funding. If your startup reaches go-to-market, our funding committee secures your runway: a minimum of 18 months after every round.
- A €4,000/month (gross) founder stipend so you can focus fully on validation.
- Active help finding your technical co-founder and building your early team.
- Access to our network of experts, advisors, and mentors across logistics, aviation, and technology, plus BEUMER’s customer relationships.
- A home base at our Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg offices, alongside other Founding Leads and startup teams.
The reality, stated plainly
Our bar is high and this is selective. Fewer than one in five who start reach launch, and that is deliberate: every gate is a real decision we make together, so you never sink years into something that will not work. Whichever way it goes, you are paid throughout, you build a serious network in the industry, and if you launch you are funded and backed by a family-owned group that thinks in decades, not quarters.
Practicalities
- Based in Berlin. On-site 3 days per week, remote 2 days.
- This role is not suitable for active students.
