Carolin Langer – In conversation with the queen of the dead bees
At just 24 years old, Carolin Langer from Öhringen in Baden-Württemberg founded LaCaTho GmbH in spring 2020. Since then, she has successfully sold insect-friendly seeds and is also giving million-euro competitors a run for their money — all as a side business. Carolin’s main job is as a development engineer, and because self-employment and a full-time job aren’t enough, she’s also studying Integrated Engineering for her master’s. Last summer, this entrepreneurial spirit was rewarded with the eBay Award in the “Young Entrepreneur” category.
In this episode, she tells our hosts Isabell Butterwegge and Tino Propp how she manages it all, how her business runs without her thanks to a sophisticated company structure and dedicated employees, and why she sells dead bees to the crime scene.
**Important Links**
Carolin: Whether you send a pig or a bee by post in Germany these days, there’s hardly any difference anymore in terms of the legal situation.
Isabell: Hello dear listeners, and welcome to our new podcast episode for our sellers and, of course, for everyone who wants to become one. Today we again have an eBay seller as a guest on our podcast for our eBay sellers in conversation format.
Tino: Here are a few more insights into why we’re especially looking forward to today’s visitor in our studio. We keep hearing it: small and medium-sized businesses are the engine of the German economy. That includes brave founders. However, we are seeing a downward trend in new business startups in Germany. From 2004 to 2021, there were still 1.35 million new startups in 2004, but in 2021 there were only 607,000. Fun fact at this point: in 2021, 82% of respondents said their startups were based solely on a business opportunity that somehow came up. Not so with Carolin, but she’ll definitely tell us a bit more about that in a moment. The share of women among founders is still lagging at 42%; in e-commerce, it’s even only 15% of startups founded by women. What is encouraging, though, is that many young people are starting businesses. 42.7% of founders are between 25 and 34 years old. But if anyone wants to read up on all this in more detail, the data and facts can also be found in our show notes.
Isabell: And today, as Tino just revealed, we have one of these young and courageous founders with us. We invited Carolin Langer from LaCaTho. Last year, Carolin won the eBay Award in the Young Entrepreneur category. As this episode goes on, we’ll hear that Carolin is really a workaholic, a natural organizer, and constantly on the move. She’s traveled here במיוחד from Öhringen in Baden-Württemberg to talk with us about founding her company and the insect-friendly seeds she sells. So, a warm welcome, Carolin!
Carolin: Hello, good morning.
Tino: Hi Carolin, tell us a bit about who you are and how LaCaTho was founded in the first place.
Carolin: Exactly. My name is Carolin, I’m 27 years old, and I’m the founder of LaCaTho. I grew up in nature; my father is a beekeeper and my grandparents are farmers. And yes, because I grew up in nature and in a very rural area, I’ve always had a connection to insects and also to flowers. And yes, my parents have a very rare tree in the garden that’s very good for insects and blooms in autumn. While I was studying, I started selling its seeds and made a bit of extra money alongside my studies that way. But at some point the seeds sold out, and then I bought seed stock myself, and that’s basically how the whole thing started with my flower business.
Isabell: What kind of tree is it?
Carolin: The tree is called the bee tree. What’s special about it is that it blooms in autumn, when it’s a time when few flowers bloom or even trees bloom that have nectar and pollen for bees. And that tree is still relatively rare. It’s very well known among beekeepers, but not really in ordinary gardens yet.
Tino: And what does LaCaTho stand for?
Carolin: So LaCaTho is made up of my name, so “La” for “Langer” and “Ca” for “Carolin,” and the “Tho” stands for “Thomas,” that was my first husband. Back when I founded the company, I wanted a name that wouldn’t immediately reveal what I was selling, because I still hadn’t fully decided whether it would be flowers, seeds, or something else in that direction. So I first chose a pretty meaningless name. Exactly. And now, under that name, it’s registered as a brand. And now I sell everything under it that fits that direction.
Isabell: You’re not just the managing director, you also have several other roles, I’d say. Would you like to tell us a bit about that too?
Carolin: Exactly. So my company is a side business, and my main job is a completely normal 9-to-5 as a development engineer in a medium-sized company for mass flow controllers. I work there in the department, and my specialty is dosing liquid quantities. Specifically, for example, something people know from everyday life are those laundry pods you put into washing machines or dishwashers. Those are liquid portions sealed in a film. And I co-developed the device where that liquid is portioned and can be sealed into the film, exactly. And my specialty is dosing the amount of liquid correctly, at the right speed, in the right quantity, and with the right accuracy. That’s basically what I spend most of my day doing, exactly.
Tino: Interesting. Next time I do laundry, I’ll probably think of you when I put one of those pods into the drum. Super cool.
Isabell: Besides your job and your role as managing director, you’re also studying, right?
Carolin: Yes, exactly. I’m currently doing a master’s degree in “Integrated Engineering,” exactly, to keep developing myself and learn new things.
Isabell: How do you manage to juggle all that? That’s basically three full-time jobs.
Carolin: Yes, organization is, I think, everything, and the processes have to be clear. In my main job I’m also away a lot, and that’s why everything in my own company is clearly structured into processes. The employees I have need to know exactly what to do and what the tasks are. And if a mistake happens, like if the warehouse is empty or they don’t know which shipping envelope something goes in, then it has to be clear who knows the solution, where the mistake needs to be reported, for example, and that they can basically help themselves. And often I’m abroad with a time difference and can’t help directly and immediately. That’s why I’m actually not involved in day-to-day business at all right now. So shipping and everything, and customer service, all of that runs directly without me, and I basically have full time for growth and can take care of things like that. And everything that’s part of day-to-day business is actually self-organized into processes, and the employees are very independent. And if something does come up, of course someone can message me on WhatsApp. Then I’m naturally reachable, but often via WhatsApp video, exactly. And I mean, these days you can work from anywhere, whether you’re sitting at the airport or on the train. You can use your time effectively if you want to. That’s how I do it too. And of course, when I’m abroad, sometimes there’s a lecture in the middle of the night and I have to get up at three in the morning. But that’s not the whole year, of course, and you do need a lot of willpower to get through it. But sure, if this weren’t my passion, I obviously wouldn’t manage to work 60 hours all the time. So yes, the seed business on the side is also a hobby and a passion. And when it’s so much fun, it doesn’t feel like work at all.
Tino: Carolin, how did you find your employees? Are they all trained in the field?
Carolin: Um, yes, we got many of the employees, or I got them, during Corona, basically. During Corona, gardening at home became very big, and we experienced strong growth and needed many employees. But during Corona, many people were also at home working from home and just wanted to do something because there wasn’t much else to do, and that’s how I got many skilled workers who weren’t trained in the field. So I hired nurses, IT security consultants, or pharmacists. So we’ve got a very colorful mix of everything. But if employees are motivated and willing to learn something new, then you can actually learn quite a lot of things you otherwise wouldn’t have done, and you can be very open. And some also come and say, hey, in my main job I’ve always wanted to try that, but I can’t do it. Can’t we do it with you? We’re much freer there, and then I can offer people a bit of freedom with me to just try something they may have dreamed of for a long time but that simply doesn’t fit into their actual main job. Exactly. And now after Corona, actually all of my employees have stayed; they feel very comfortable. I offer all the amenities one could wish for. Basically a fridge with drinks or a candy machine where you can help yourself for free. Exactly, everything I would want as an employee in my main job, etc. That would be so cool to have. I can implement that at home and say, hey, my employees, you can have all this, that’s just totally cool. And when you create amenities like that, it creates a really relaxed atmosphere, and then people are very happy to come because it’s also free time they enjoy spending there and being productive in.
Isabell: That definitely sounds like a pretty great work environment. Where do you find your employees?
Carolin: We advertise the positions. So if I’m looking for younger employees, for example, who are very good with social media or YouTube, then I like to post the ads at secondary schools, for example. I also have many young employees who are still studying themselves and have a side job, but who are very comfortable with new media, new advertising, and marketing. So I advertise at schools, for example. But for the warehouse we do it the classic way, with notices in the local area, or I put it in the municipal newsletter, and that’s how I find them. Also through word of mouth. If one of my employees has an acquaintance who’s also looking for something, then they’ll talk about it, like, hey, I’ve got such a great side job, and then actually we get — we have a waiting list of employees who would love to start with us, exactly. And then we can draw on that and say, yes, maybe I need your skills for a few months, exactly. So if you create a relaxed atmosphere, you actually get a lot of growth.
Tino: How many employees do you have?
Carolin: Right now I have 13 employees, most of them part-time or paid by the hour. They work as much as there is work to do at the time, exactly.
Tino: Cool. Carolin, founding a company is often closely tied to a lot of strategy too. How exactly did you approach founding LaCaTho?
Carolin: Well, my company first emerged from my hobby alongside my studies, and after I finished my studies and got my bachelor’s degree, honestly my main job was getting a bit boring. And I thought, yes, what I do on the side is already fun. But now it’s becoming a lot, and I thought, okay, now it’s a company, and then I thought, okay, let’s found a company, and I wasn’t really in the mood for a master’s yet anyway. So let’s go full speed and build a company, exactly. And I had looked around beforehand, and seed stock is rather traditional and very old. So there wasn’t much momentum for something new, or the niche could be filled really well. Especially in the area of pets or native species, which I focused on, there was very little new stuff, and I saw a lot of potential there. Also, for example, in mixes for tortoise enclosures, there are no providers or almost no providers in Germany. And my passion is insect protection, and I thought, okay, that’s really close to my heart, and with my company I can really do a lot of good. And then I just started. I founded the company, we sat at home in the living room with my family and bagged the seeds. Yes, very small and in the garage. You have to know, I live in a building with 22 apartments and we have a single garage. And from that single garage we shipped up to 600 orders a day. So we started very traditionally in the garage of an apartment building, and it was just fun. And then, yes, that’s how I founded it, exactly.
Isabell: You also just said that it’s an industry where not much new, not much momentum has happened, but at the same time you’re specifically looking for young people who also know their way around social media and so on. Are you very active there too?
Carolin: Yes, we’re more active on social media than the other traditional seed companies because there’s naturally a lot of potential there. But you do have to say that the target group is rather older. So you don’t garden when you’re a student living in an apartment; you’re more likely to do it when you build a house and start a family. Then many people create a garden for themselves, or then it becomes important. Especially when families keep rabbits again for the children or something like that, they start thinking about what to feed these rabbits or how they can grow the feed themselves at home. And you can say that the target group for seed stock starts at around 35+. Yes, that’s more for TikTok or Instagram, but then it’s the children who are out there looking for Mother’s Day gifts for their parents, or the unimaginative students we can also recruit to give it to their parents, exactly. Otherwise, of course, we advertise traditionally in newspapers and at markets, but even in that target group word of mouth is very important. A lot gets passed on and gossiped about there. Exactly, whatever goes on there.
Isabell: Did the pandemics have a big impact on you and your company and maybe also on your target groups?
Carolin: Yes, the pandemic had a strong impact on us. We grew a lot during the pandemic. But you also have to say, I only founded the company shortly before the pandemic, in January 2020. So I have very little comparison to how it was before. But you can definitely say that people have become more price-conscious. So instead of buying an expensive plant, they may be more likely to buy the seeds and grow the plants themselves, and we definitely notice that. And also that people were at home a lot and invested in their gardens and sowed a lot of seed stock there. We definitely noticed that in the sales figures, which rose significantly.
Isabell: In Germany, entrepreneurship and especially e-commerce always have a lot to do with regulations. You probably have to pay attention to quite a lot when selling seeds, right?
Carolin: Yes, exactly. I don’t think there’s any area in Germany that isn’t covered by laws, and of course that includes the seed sector too. Fortunately, there are EU laws there, though. That means not every country in Europe has its own seed laws, but there are EU-wide laws tied to agriculture. So seed stock is part of agriculture and agronomy underneath that. And yes, in Germany there are basically seed approval offices. Ours is in Karlsruhe, for example; there we’re registered as a company that trades in seed or stores seed. We have an employee who is basically a state-certified seed sampler. You have to attend training and pass state exams so that you can take seed samples properly. And of course there also have to be special labels on the bag, with identification numbers and everything is monitored very strictly by the state, and at any time an inspection or inspector can come by and basically check the company and make sure everything is running properly.
Isabell: Tino, if you ever want to change careers, I think we’ve just discovered a new profession.
Tino: I was just about to say, you really learn so much here too. Carolin, I took a little look at your web shop, or rather the eBay listings. What’s your personal favorite product?
Carolin: Exactly, my personal favorite product is actually the dead bees. At first that sounds totally bizarre. What do you do with dead bees? But yes, that also came out of my student days, because my father is a beekeeper and in spring the winter bees always die. Normally you’d throw them away or they’d be burned. And I thought, you can still use them because you can still look at them. And we basically developed a method to preserve the dead bee and make it last. And for example, they go into film and television, so they’ve already been on Tatort and in other TV shows as film props, because they don’t run away, they’re already dead, but they still look like real bees. But a lot also goes into school lessons as educational material, basically for biology classes, so the children can look at the bees. And we also offer sets where you can compare a queen, a worker bee, and a throne, which you’d otherwise almost never see. But it’s really good for teachers: they can order them from us and the children can look at them safely. And yes, it’s actually a very profitable business, and we’re also the only ones in Europe offering it like this and having the authorization for it. Because of course there are laws there too, since bees count as livestock because they provide the benefit of producing honey. And whether you send a pig by post in Germany or a bee, there’s hardly any difference anymore in terms of the legal situation. But we got through all the paperwork and are basically certified to sell dead bees.
Tino: And what’s your absolute bestseller?
Carolin: One of our bestsellers is the weed seed mix. It’s a mix I created myself from fine seeds that you actually wouldn’t want in your garden, like nettles or dandelions. And you can buy that from us to annoy your neighbors a little. Because in Germany, neighborhood disputes are already the number one issue. And there’s huge potential for weed seeds that you can secretly toss over the fence to your neighbor. And yes, I came up with that product myself. And when you see that big companies that also sell seed are copying you, it feels really good. Because if you’re copying, you can never be the first. So I’m very happy that the big companies now also offer “fiese Wiese” or weed seeds.
Isabell: Yes, Tino is happy right now that he doesn’t have a garden.
Tino: I’m happy right now because I know someone who has a garden. Let’s come back once more to the living bees, because we do actually need them for the sake of the environment. Do you have any tips for our listeners who want to make their garden bee-friendly this year? So which seeds are a good place to start, for example?
Carolin: Exactly, for beginners, for example, a native meadow sage or a native true oregano works very well. Those are two plants that you can use in the kitchen for cooking, but they also need very little water, so you don’t have to water them in summer. That’s becoming more and more important too because summers are getting drier, and they’re actually very easy to care for and perennial, and suitable for both balconies and gardens. And they’re basically absolute beginner plants where you can’t really go wrong.
Tino: Yes, I definitely need plants that don’t need watering very often, because I always forget that quite happily.
Isabell: I was just about to say, beginner-friendly might already be difficult for me.
Tino: Mhm...
Isabell: Yes Carolin, let’s talk once more at the end about LaCaTho on eBay. How exactly did you come to eBay and what importance does our marketplace have for you?
Carolin: Exactly, I started on eBay. I already knew eBay privately, where you naturally keep selling used items, and even during my studies I cleared out basements to earn a bit extra, and I already knew how it works with using the platform and creating listings. Back then I started directly on eBay. It’s a very important channel for us, also because our target group is older and because they are quite active on eBay too. It’s a very old, well-established marketplace. We enjoy the proximity and support from the staff there, and we actually wouldn’t want to do without it. So, not selling on eBay anymore. For us, it’s a very good channel to promote our products.
Isabell: You also applied for the eBay Awards last year. How did that come about?
Carolin: Yes, the eBay Awards thing was actually very spontaneous. I always check daily, of course, what’s been going on, and you can see the news on the dashboard. And then the “eBay Awards application” was there, and I looked at it and thought, oh, this sounds really great, because what you could win was really appealing to me. Because you could win a professional review of your eBay profile, and that was actually what made me think, oh yes, that will definitely help me a lot if someone goes through it with me, and you get professional advice like that, so I’ll just apply. And then, out of curiosity and completely spontaneously, really without thinking much about it, I sent off the application and then of course waited curiously to see what would happen. Because in my private circle, people are always very amazed at what you manage to achieve in such a short time. And then I thought, let’s see what happens with the application, whether I really am as good as everyone thinks. When the confirmation came that I had won, the surprise was naturally huge. You really don’t expect that. But I was very happy about what came next.
Tino: Exactly, and you won in the “Young Entrepreneur” category. Congratulations again on that. And Carolin, would you come back for an eBay event?
Carolin: Yes, definitely. For me it was very worthwhile coming to eBay Open, meeting all the other sellers, networking a bit, but also listening to the very interesting talks and getting to know the employees from the different areas and talking with them. That was very valuable for me, and I would definitely recommend everyone come to the eBay events. It’s really very worthwhile and you get a very, very good exchange.
Tino: And what plans do you have for your company in the future?
Carolin: So in the future we’re trying to become completely plastic-free. Right now we still have a few labels where we haven’t quite managed to switch to paper labels yet. We’re currently working on laser labeling so that we can really deliver our seed stock to customers 100% plastic-free. And of course, with the expertise I bring from my passion for insect protection and plant knowledge, we’ll expand our range in a targeted way in order to give plants that aren’t so well known a platform and make them more familiar, and basically bring them into German gardens. But of course the company also has to grow. We bought a plot of land and planning for the building is coming up so that we can move into our own premises. But that naturally takes a lot of time, because until you’ve figured out all the grants for small businesses in Germany, that’s also a lot of paperwork.
Isabell: Since you just mentioned grants for sole proprietors and small business owners, what would you pass on to aspiring young entrepreneurs? Are there any lessons from your early days that you’d like to share?
Carolin: Yes, one thing you can definitely pass on is that with motivation and hard work you can really achieve a lot. If you use your time effectively and approach things with a lot of motivation and it’s your passion, then something very positive always comes out of it, or you get positive feedback in return. And you also shouldn’t be intimidated by competitors who may have been on the market for 50 years and be worth millions. If you come in with youthful fresh energy, you can definitely snatch one or two spots away from them. Yes, and especially for the other young women who are now about to found a company: just be brave and get started, and basically move forward with your idea in a visionary way. And then it will really turn out well.
Isabell: Yes, great. I hope one or the other now feels motivated to take that step after all. Now we’re already at the very last question, which is what you last bought on eBay?
Carolin: The last thing I bought was used wine crates as props for our market stall. We go to markets regularly throughout the year so that the employees who write product descriptions also get to stand face to face with customers and develop a sense of what questions customers ask when they first see our product. Yes, and to make the market stall look better and more attractive, I bought those used wine crates.
Isabell: You just said you regularly go to markets. How often does that happen, and do you go yourself too?
Carolin: Exactly, regularly—we try to manage it about 3 to 4 times a year now after Corona. We’re still figuring out which markets are of course suitable for us in our region, where one also takes place in spring, because in spring we already have a very big sales peak, and I try to go myself. Yes, but of course the organization happens without me. I have a very good marketing assistant who handles that organization, and if it fits into my schedule and I’m not abroad, then I’m very happy to go along, because I actually do enjoy that quite a bit.
Isabell: And what did you last sell?
Carolin: The last thing I sold was a wildflower meadow mix, exactly.
Tino: And I actually have one last question now: what’s your favorite flower?
Carolin: I don’t think I really have a favorite flower, but I do think that our red sunflower, if there’s a flower that’s very unusual or special, it’s our red sunflower.
Isabell: What’s your favorite flower, Tino?
Tino: The chrysanthemum, because I can’t spell it. No, actually that’s the challenge in every crossword puzzle: spelling chrysanthemum. Of course you know it... K,R,Ü.. no.
Isabell: I’d say with that we’ll also say goodbye to you, Carolin. Thank you so much for being here today. It was a lot of fun. I think we both learned a lot, and I think your story is super motivating.
Carolin: Thank you.
Tino: Many thanks. We’re definitely looking forward to your feedback. What did you like most about Carolin’s business story, or what maybe surprised you? And will you be applying for the eBay Awards 2023?
Isabell: And of course, as always, we’d be very happy if you subscribe or leave us a like wherever you’re listening to us right now, if you can. And dear Carolin, thank you again for being here and goodbye until next time!
Tino: Goodbye!
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1 comment
hunderiknrw
·3 years agoVery nice and interesting contribution, with lots of info and also takes good care of your people.