Mr Beam: A startup’s journey with SUSE and open source

“Some scripts I’d written in 2012 are still working on SUSE. I’ve written scripts like automatically switching the DNS servers, because if I need to connect to Wi-Fi on a German train, for example, these things still work, even though the network stack has changed again. There is a consistency in the SUSE architecture, which is something I highly appreciate.” Teja Philipp, Founder, Mr Beam.

Laser cutting is a growing market serving a host of industries and is the field in which founder and open source enthusiast Teja Phillip has made a name for his company, Mr Beam. Laser cutting is most commonly used in the automotive, die, mold, tool, jewelry, and medical industries. Materials that are difficult or impossible to cut using other methods make excellent candidates for laser cutting.

Mr Beam has rapidly become a leader in desktop laser cutters. The German startup, founded by open source enthusiast Teja Philipp, recognized that the market was lacking a web based, easy to use and platform agnostic laser cutter. In filling this niche Mr Beam was created. By embracing open source and SUSE from the beginning of its journey, Mr Beam afforded itself unrivalled flexibility – and major cost savings. SUSE powers all aspects of the business from design, programming, marketing, analytics, financial planning and is used across the entire product development cycle, from engineering and testing to product support.

Mr Beam has seen system deployment time reduced to just 20 minutes, whilst benefitting from a “Swiss-knife” like versatility that Teja Philipp attributes much of the startup’s success to.

Mr Beam’s path to category creation

By embracing SUSE Linux, Mr Beam has enjoyed much faster time to market than others in the laser cutter industry. Mr Beam was able to create its first prototype in just three months, whereas companies battling with proprietary software and legacy technology would likely spend years attempting to reach the same milestone. Philipp contends that, “It’s a stupid approach to build your own stuff alone if it doesn’t give you a true competitive advantage. For all the standard things, which everyone needs to have, open source is the best and most efficient thing you can use.”

This open source ethos has not only helped Philipp to exploit new opportunities and more rapidly get products to market, but has also empowered the company’s development teams, increasing their productivity and motivation.

Mr Beam benefits from uninterrupted availability and enhanced stability, which was especially important during the pandemic, due to increased reliance on online demos and marketing activities.

As Mr Beam prepares for future growth community support has also been crucial for Philipp and his team. As a long-time member of the open source community, he is very aware that this support and feedback will be key in helping Mr Beam to develop – and troubleshoot – entirely new solutions.

Click here to find out more about how SUSE is helping Mr Beam to develop new categories in the laser cutter market.