Viktoria Thur: The Dream-Hunter behind the Smart Mirror
Top 10 Most Inspiring Businesswomen of Influence in 2021
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Failure is not an option for the founder and CEO of Mues-Tec, Viktoria Thur. And she never gives up. She has the drive and killer instinct to keep going regardless of tough times. “I’m a hunter, not Bambi or Peppa Pig,” she says. “I hunt for my dreams. I’m confident, patient, goal-oriented, got a killer instinct, and sometimes I just got the necessary luck to go big!”
Viktoria has gone through a lot of ups and
downs in her career and personal life. And it is her steely determination,
focus, and persistence that have enabled her to build a successful company from
scratch. She started Mues-Tec with just four people in 2016. “We came on the
market with a company no one knew, a brand no one identified with, and a
product no one knew existed,” Viktoria says.
And it is at the ISH Frankfurt, the world’s
leading trade fair for HVAC + Water, that Mues-Tec’s product Smart Mirror made
a big splash for the first time. Everyone in the media started talking about
them. Viktoria says that they were overrun by the press – television news
channels, radio, and the national newspaper were reporting about them.
“I remember falling in bed every night, and
mind you, it was not in a fancy hotel room but in a tiny Airbnb studio, too
exhausted to eat and so happy to have taken this step,” Viktoria says. “Well,
that tradeshow was followed by about 30 more in the coming years, up until the
Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to it all.”
Mues-Tec: Developer
of Smart Mirrors
Mues-Tec develops and
produces Smart Mirrors. They are no ordinary mirrors but interactive,
futuristic mirrors with touchscreen and voice control. They can be used for
smart home control and entertainment – users can watch YouTube, CNN, TikTok
videos on the screen. And, it also connects with other smart products such as a
smartwatch, smart scale, or similar Bluetooth devices.
“Imagine standing in
front of your mirror – any mirror, your bathroom mirror, your wardrobe mirror,
your beauty mirror – and having next to your own reflection a smart monitor
which provides you any information your heart desires, simply by voice command,”
Viktoria says. “Play your favorite music, watch the news, get the weather
information, traffic, stocks, read your emails if you wish.”
The smart mirror also
enables users to start their coffee machine, answer the front door while
brushing their teeth, and if they are using a smart toothbrush, they can even
get dental hygiene advice on the screen, Viktoria adds.
At present, Mues-Tec’s
customers include private end-users and hotels. Viktoria says that their Smart
Mirrors are intuitive and easy to use. “We believe users should have many
options and possibilities to customize their user interface, choose their
favorite daily apps and attach as many smart devices as their heart desires,”
she says. “And our Smart Mirrors are developed with and for the user.”
Mues-Tec works closely
with the local university in Fulda, Germany to do case studies and user
experiments.
Life before
Founding the Company
Viktoria grew up in
Germany. And at the age of 17, she moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. When she
was studying finance at Florida Atlantic University, she dreamed of climbing
the corporate ladder. And everything was going as Viktoria had planned. She
graduated with Magna Cum Laude and Business Honors, obtained an internship at
the prestigious Morgan Stanley at Las Olas Boulevard, which according to her,
was certainly a good step in the direction of realizing her dream.
“But then, as it
sometimes happens, things changed, and by the end of my Bachelor’s degree
program, I was a young single mom of a gorgeous baby son living in Abidjan,
Ivory Coast,” Viktoria says. And when she was applying for a position at the
World Bank, the African country plunged into a civil war. She had to move
again, and this time, she had to look after her son as well. They could only
leave the country after France sent in their troops to secure the way to the
airport, which fighting forces had taken over.
After leaving Ivory
Coast, Viktoria worked for a brief time in Germany, and then she returned to
Fort Lauderdale. “Young, single, broke, I soon found an opportunity in Finance
and worked in the Mortgage Industry until 2011,” she says. “So yes, I lived and
worked through the financial crisis, and it certainly wasn’t fun.” And, then
she made an entry into the consumer electronics industry by chance.
In 2011, Viktoria
decided to quit financial services and look for a new challenge. On Craigslist,
she saw a small job ad and answered it. It was looking for a German native who
could do some translation work. “Little did I know that this job was with a
multi-national consumer electronics firm, and what can I say, I quickly moved
on from translator to manager, then key accounts Europe & Mena,” Viktoria
says.
She enjoyed her work
and working with her colleagues. But she longed to be self-employed once again.
“In 2016, I founded Mues-Tec. And it has been quite a ride since then,” she
says.
Success is
Important
Viktoria says that
success is “very important” to her. And it is also like a ladder, as
after every accomplishment, one needs to think about the next challenge, the
next goal, and the next step. “Sometimes, that also can be tiresome,” Viktoria
says. “I am barely reaching the feeling of satisfaction when I have to begin
climbing once more the next step. It is an inner drive, a fire if you will, which
keeps me going.”
Once, Viktoria was
invited to give a speech to aspiring women entrepreneurs. And, after her
speech, an attendee asked her about her driving force and what made her push
forward. “I think when failure just isn’t an option, you keep going,” Viktoria
says.
When she was growing
up, Viktoria says that her family was very poor at one point. “When I say poor,
I mean so poor that our electricity was cut off,” she says, adding that her
mother would get up every morning, go to work, come back home and take care of
her, and she would light candles when it got dark outside. “She didn’t give up.
And neither do I.”
Viktoria believes that
when one door closes, another one opens. “Focusing on the present and the
future and not dwelling too much about the past also helps,” she adds. And for
her, challenges are something that comes and go. The Covid-19 pandemic has been
a challenge for her and her company. Most of their resellers were forced to
stay closed over several months in Germany and Austria. And her business too
came to an abrupt halt. “Large projects were canceled or postponed,” Viktoria says.
“We used that time to re-launch our websites www.mues-tec.de and www.smartmirror.de .”
Competition in the
Industry
“Marktbegleiter” is
the word Germans use for competitors. It means “market companions.” Viktoria
says that it sounds friendlier compared to the English word competitors. And a
mentor of hers once told me, “if you have no competitor, the market is
dead.”
“Well, by the sheer
number of competitors coming to the market, Smart Mirrors certainly is not a
dead market,” Viktoria points out. MarketWatch’s report estimates the Smart
Mirror market to reach 1,22 Billion USD in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 14.4
percent.
By being one of the
first Smart Mirror producers in Germany, Mues-Tec got a head start in the game.
“That continues to give us leverage,” Viktoria says. She also does not worry
about the new market companions, as she believes that the market is big enough
and competition ignites the spark for new ideas and innovations.
She, however, does not
like competitors when they try to copy their products. “Too often, we must
write cease and desist letters due to copyright infringements. That is
something I don’t like. I want an even playing field. Mine is mine, yours do
yourself,” she says.
Proud Moments as
Founder and CEO
Mues-Tec is a highly specialized
entity that focuses its entire resources on mirrored displays and interactive
smart mirrors. Hence, many large corporations want to rope in the company as their
technology partner. “They want technology similar to ours but do not have the
in-house capacity to focus on it,” Viktoria says. “Those are generally cool
projects, with various requirements, and not seldom did we create entire new
mirrors, hardware, and software, to meet the project demands,” Viktoria
says. She feels that it is exhilarating sitting with those name brands one
knows from any electronics store on one table and helping develop their mirror.
“It is with partners like those that our multimedia mirrors are presently in
the Connected City located in Pasco County, Florida,” she says.
Viktoria also always
feels very proud when they are featured in the media. She remembers that once
when she appeared on National TV to demonstrate their Smart Mirror, her uncle
saw it in the morning news. “He called me super excited and proud,” Viktoria
says.
She also felt proud
when she discovered that their products got featured at three different stands
at the IFA, one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany. And her
personal proudest moment is: “When I was able to take my two children to Paris
and visit our customer on the Champs-Élysées, there is just something about
seeing your products in a 5-star hotel,” Viktoria says.
Always Tries to
Lead by Example
Viktoria believes that
the role and responsibilities of the CEO include being sometimes a coach and
sometimes a therapist. A demanding leader, she expects no less from her team
than she expects of herself. But at the same time, she is very compassionate as
well. “I try to lead by example. I am tough, but also compassionate. I have
cried before in a job interview,” Viktoria says.
The Mues-Tec team
consists of individuals belonging to diverse ethnic backgrounds. It also has a
healthy age mix, nearly 50 percent male/females, and international colleagues
as far away as China.
“Everyone supports one
another, believing in the company and our amazing products,” Viktoria says. And
she would not accept it any other way. “I will not allow a blame game, everyone
is responsible for their own action and the actions of their team. One for all
and all for one,” she adds.
Viktoria also says
that good employees are key to the success of a company, and the team is only
as good as its leader. “We have an amazing young colleague who never got a
real chance to shine in business due to his handicap and his terminal illness,”
she says. “He is such an inspiring young man and a sheer wizard in MS excel.
And when we met for the interview, he told me his story, he finished with ‘and
I wouldn’t want my life to be any different – because this is who I am and I am
ok with it’.”
“Having the
opportunity to have hired him is a true gift of being a CEO,” Viktoria adds.
Vision for Future
of Mues-Tec
Viktoria’s vision for
Mues-Tec is simple. It is to provide the most fun and useful Smart Mirror
solution, and thus gain the largest global market share. And, along with that,
she is also planning to build an engaging community in a new ecosystem.
Message to Aspiring
Businesswomen
Viktoria believes that
it is not the one that wins the sprint, but it’s the one that has the
perseverance that ultimately will bring home the big win. So her message to
aspiring businesswomen is that they need to stay focused and not be
narrow-minded. “Keep on the path, but allow for detours,” Viktoria adds. “Life
is never a straight road. Setbacks shape and form you. Have patience.”