Doors are difficult to close, hallways are too small, rooms disappoint: you often only notice what you could have done better after moving into the new building. The start-up “Life-size floor plan” has developed a clever solution for this – and now wants to get started with the help of Judith Williams and Carsten Maschmeyer. In an interview, they reveal what drives the founders.

Lucas: We had our own brokerage company and sold a lot of new buildings. We found again and again that people had a hard time imagining what the house or apartment really felt like just by looking at the floor plan on paper. We tried everything to solve the problem and, for example, marked out the floor plans on properties with red and white tape. But of course that didn't create a sense of space.

Gissou: We then found a video on the Internet in which someone, very shirtless, projected their kitchen onto the floor with a projector. We were immediately fascinated! We wanted to offer this to our customers and were sure that someone must have invented it already. But that wasn't the case. So we had to take matters into our own hands!

Lucas: It starts with overestimating pure square meter figures and undervaluing the average. 15 square meters can feel much larger than 20 if it is divided more poorly. But you only notice something like this when you can actually walk through the rooms. And it's often the little things that are completely overlooked in a normal floor plan. But it's exactly these details that get annoying later: for example, when doors open in the wrong direction or corners are planned stupidly. The little things will later determine the future, how long we will live in the new home!

Gissou: We noticed that ourselves. We also rented our house using a paper floor plan. And it's only now that it's finished that we notice all the things we actually wanted to avoid: Because of the door hinges, you can't close the door properly when you sit in the guest toilet and the entrance area is super narrow. When you come home with your dog and shopping, things pile up.

Gissou: Absolutely! We have had more than 500 customers - and each of them has changed something in their floor plan! And a dozen didn't even buy the apartment because they realized: It doesn't fit front or back. So we saved them a lot of money and trouble!

Lucas: Many people also saw that they had planned far too big. The dimensions were simply misjudged. It's really an eye opener for everyone. And it's not uncommon for tears to flow because it's so emotional. People ponder their floor plans for months and then suddenly they find themselves in their own home. That's always touching to see. After all, building a house like this is the biggest investment in your life.

Lucas: We are both passionate "The Lion's Den" fans and have seen every season, some episodes even twice and three times. Our biggest dream was to be part of the show ourselves, but of course that wasn't possible with the brokerage business we had before. When our idea for a “life-size floor plan” was born, we were immediately hooked: we had to apply!

Gissou: We had only been live with our business for three weeks when we pitched in the cave. The question about the last annual turnover was a bit funny. (laughs). We didn't even have any numbers to show yet!

Gissou: Every lion knew the pain that we solve with our idea. I think that was the key to success. When the offers came from all sides, it became very emotional. This absolutely overwhelmed us!

Lucas: When an offer came from our dream suit, it was of course even more incredible. Judith Williams and Carsten Maschmeyer were our dream lions from the start. Having them on board together now is just crazy.

Lucas: People usually come to us with their first draft, because after that you can change a lot and get everything in the right direction. We now have our own planning office with architects at each location and also plan ourselves. Two of our customer advisors will then be there to provide advice. We always tell clients to come without their own architect. Because architects are artists and don't like to be talked into. Additionally, they sometimes plan for themselves rather than responding to the customer's needs. With us you get a neutral view from the outside. Most of the time they are no longer so happy with their architect afterward because they see how things can be improved. (laughs)

Gissou: Property developers aren't our biggest fans either. (laughs) They are professionals at covering up problem areas in an apartment, for example by not drawing furniture to scale. Instead of a double bed, a child's bed is added in the parents' bedroom to make the room appear larger. The great awakening will then come for us.

Gissou: Buyers usually stay one to two hours for an apartment and two to three hours for a house. When the customers come, everything is of course already set up and they can walk straight into their home.

Lucas: No, not at all! We agree with Ralf Dümmel, who once said the beautiful sentence: It is not the big ones that eat the small ones, but the fast ones that eat the slow ones. We have now opened eight locations in Germany in just six months. Nobody dares to imitate our business anymore. The first one simply wins! 25 halls will be open by 2024, and we have already put out feelers in Canada, Gissou's homeland!

Gissou: In the future, we can also imagine expanding our business model. We now also offer architectural services and kitchen planning, so thanks to our lions we have gotten great contacts and can pass on 100 percent of our kitchen purchasing profits to our customers.