Images, scripts, and stories
Every storyteller knows: a good plot rarely runs in a straight line. For Matthias Neumayer, the chapters of his life read like a series of bold rewrites - lawyer, filmmaker, programmer, founder. But each time he turned the page, he chose passion over certainty.
The first act began in law. Neumayer studied, won Vienna’s Civil Law Moot Court, and worked briefly as a trainee lawyer. A secure career was waiting. But his heart pulled elsewhere - to images, scripts, and stories. He founded a film production company and spent six years directing commercials for clients like Red Bull and Verbund.
Ideas over money
In parallel, he taught himself to code. During Covid, that hidden skill became his main script. Together with his best friend Dima, he co-founded Oscar Stories, an AI app that creates personalized bedtime stories to improve literacy and strengthen family bonds. The app offers tailored adventures with educational value, child-friendly content, and AI-generated audiobooks - and now has over 100,000 users. Building on this success, the team released Lora, a STEM learning app that makes scientific concepts playful and accessible, as well as a child-appropriate large language model called Lorastral. Other projects include fragdaspdf.de and branding5.com.
Believing in ideas is more fulfilling than believing in the concept of money
Matthias Neumayer
For Neumayer, ideas matter more than money. “Believing in ideas is more fulfilling than believing in the concept of money,” he explains. “This is guiding me to pursue projects and initiatives that are innovative and meaningful, rather than solely financially driven.” That belief also shapes his leadership style: give people room to act on their ideas, let them try, and treat mistakes as drafts for the next version. “A creative mind looks different for every individual. We don’t need radical ideas. A lot of small steps can make a huge impact.”
The BOLD Community reinforces that spirit of collaboration. “Everyone of any color, race, gender, or religion is important and valuable - no one is left behind. I want my work and projects to have the same positive impact,” says Neumayer. Already, he has started working with other BOLD Minds on new projects.
The best we can
“The most valuable lesson life has taught me thus far is that everyone, including myself, is doing their best in any given circumstance. Embracing this perspective has truly enriched my interactions with those around me.” His view of the future of work is direct: fair pay first. “Work, any kind of work, has to be compensated in a way that makes it possible to live.” Beyond that, he sees trust, responsibility, and freedom as essential - humans, he reminds us, are not machines.
His inspirations reveal the storyteller within: Rutger Bregman’s Humankind, the podcast Geschichten aus der Geschichte, and even a wish to digest lactose with superhuman ease. He admires Anton Zeilinger’s breakthroughs in quantum information, values AI transformers for their impact, and has no patience for “misogynist tech bros.” Yet his grounding remains personal. Friends remind him to balance work and life, sometimes by dragging him to dinner. His mornings start with coffee and a kiss from his girlfriend. And when asked what he’s most grateful for, he doesn’t hesitate: “Working with my best friend.”