Inventiveness + entrepreneurial spirit = startup? This equation has worked for many successful founders. However, behind the successful entrepreneurial stories we see today, there is often an arduous journey, full of unexpected twists and turns and the odd setback. Here, four Hamburg founders share what they have learned on their startup journey.
Jan Rabe, co-founder of RABOT Charge
"My most important advice for aspiring founders is to just get started and try things out. Especially if you're young and unattached, it's hardly a risk and offers the chance to gain valuable experience."
The co-founder of the sustainable energy startup RABOT Charge no longer wanted to accept the status quo on the energy market and sees the opportunities to actively shape the future as the driving force behind his desire to found a company. However, Jan also knows that things always go wrong in the startup process and that prospective founders should equip themselves with a certain degree of resilience. After all, the ability to learn is essential for success. RABOT Charge concluded a Series A financing round totalling EUR 17.5 million at the beginning of the year.
Frank Hoffmann, Nadja King und Anna Breidt, founders of OYESS
"Talking to each other a lot - also about how you're feeling. (...) You can only do healthy business with healthy people."
OYESS produces care products that are good for people and nature. The sustainable cosmetics startup is a real coronavirus baby. Frank, Nadja and Anna founded the company as a result of a wave of pandemic-related redundancies. After all three were made redundant by their employer in 2020, they pooled their many years of expertise from the beauty industry and together realised their desire for self-determined work. Last year, OYESS completed a Series A financing round totalling 3 million euros.
Matteo Kreidler, founder of STACEY
"The path of a startup is full of ups and downs, and it's important to be happy about the small steps forward. You should also remember why you started and use this motivation as a driving force."
Mattheo Kreidler founded STACEY in 2019. The company offers fully equipped co-living spaces in several German cities as part of a STACEY membership. Mattheo enjoys being his own boss and creating added value for society with his company. In return, it is also worth enduring setbacks in the startup process.
Mirko Schedlbauer and Tobias Bohnhoff, founding team of shipzero:
"Humour is a very underestimated component in the business life of a founder. Founding is never straightforward and predictable, so it's important to just keep going and put some distance between yourself and what's happening. Humour is an excellent tool for this."
With shipzero, Mirko and Tobias are pursuing the goal of reducing emissions in the logistics industry. With a data platform, they enable transport companies to analyse and optimise their carbon footprint. The startup recently received a Series A financing round of 8 million euros from the London-based environmental technology fund ETF Partners. The two have known each other since their school days. They see their familiarity as a major advantage in their startup phase. Because if you know each other well, you know exactly what you are getting into as a team.
