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Why did you found your start-up, what problem are you addressing and how are you solving it?

We believe that personal care needs to be reinvented: less clutter, less waste, more sustainability - and with full convenience.

Customers love their liquid personal care products. And although most people want to live a more sustainable life and produce less waste - they don't like solid soap, combo or syndet bars for their personal care routine. So - it's time for a solution that is less wasteful and more environmentally friendly, but still offers "the liquid experience".

Unlike traditional shower gel, shampoo or hand wash, our product manages to be the all in. WASH. 4-in-1., manages to save up to 90% of CO2 emissions and 95% of plastic packaging - all thanks to our "powder-to-liquid" formula.

How did you come up with the idea of founding your startup?

We founded HEIMATHAUFEN in 2018 to realize our own product and service ideas. One of them is the all in. WASH. And the idea for it was actually born in the shower back in 2015, but we felt that the time for it had yet to come and so it disappeared back into the drawer. Until February 2019, when it just wouldn't let go and we quickly realized: NOW is the time! And so soap & precede saw the light of day.

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

The obvious advantage of "powder-to-liquid" products is that if you leave out the water, you are left with a highly concentrated and light powder - this saves weight and volume and therefore leads to lower CO2 emissions. In addition, less packaging is needed compared to "traditional" products.

But that's not all: by designing the primary packaging of our powder according to the required dimensions and shelf life in order to also use the primary packaging as shipping packaging, we can save even more resources while still maintaining 100% recyclable packaging. Thanks to our flat packaging, the all in. WASH. powder fits in normal letterboxes and is delivered together with your daily mail.

What's more, our product is vegan and cruelty-free, free from microplastics, sulphates, PEGs, parabens, silicones or added fillers/drip aids and only requires cold tap water to mix. The active ingredients used, such as aloe vera or hydrolyzed wheat protein, are found in higher concentrations than in comparable products.

All this is available as a standard purchase or convenient subscription model.

What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome at the beginning?

When we came up with the idea for soap & precede, we didn't really know what to expect. Above all, we had imagined the development of our first product would be a little easier. And once we had familiarized ourselves with the subject matter and gained a better understanding of what we do to our bodies, hair, hands and faces on a daily basis, we realized that it wasn't enough to develop a water-free product - personal care products had to be completely rethought.

What was the most valuable piece of advice someone gave you during the start-up phase?

Don't try to have the perfect product right from the start - it's almost impossible. Make a great product, learn from your customers' feedback and grow together.

What has been your biggest success so far?

Of course, our participation in the German inventor show "Das Ding des Jahres" was a great experience and we are grateful that we were able to launch our product together with the broadcast of the show. But what makes us most proud are the customers who write to us saying that they have replaced most of their personal care products with our all-in WASH. Indeed, positive feedback from the people we make these products for - that's the greatest success you can have.

What is your next challenge?

After the complete redesign of our online store - with a shopping cart, customer account, convenient subscription management, more payment options, Europe-wide shipping (all in German and English) - we have a lot more planned: Our goal is to make the "powder-to-liquid" formula and the soap & precede brand better known, reach a wider audience, create additional fragrances and, of course, sell our products in brick-and-mortar stores.

What would you recommend to other founders?

Try to find other like-minded people with whom you can discuss your ideas. Nothing is more valuable than useful feedback from outside.

How did you come together as a team?

Since we are already partners in real life and both come from professional backgrounds that complement each other well, we had the perfect foundation to become a business team. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to learn to stop discussing business matters during our free time together.

What has really gone wrong since you founded the company?

There's nothing that's really gone wrong - but after changing the formula over and over again until we were finally happy with it, we thought: that's it. But then we had to realize that the hard work had only just begun.

What was the hardest rejection you ever got in a pitch?

Once we were told that a 4-in-1 solution wouldn't work at all - because this person's hair had "special needs". Of course, we tried to dig deeper and understand what this need really is, where this assumption comes from. Well, it was all about a catchy marketing statement on the packaging of their favorite shampoo. That's the sad thing about it and that's how the industry mainly works: attracting customers by putting promises on the outside - without even fulfilling them with what's inside.

Where do you see your startup in 3 years?

We believe that personal care needs to be reinvented, so we are sure that in a few years many personal care products will be water-based and delivered as a powder or concrete tablet. By reducing packaging and CO2 emissions, this is not only an important step towards a sustainable future, but also enables many more business models and solutions with new approaches.

In three years, when the way the personal care industry and its products have changed, soap & precede's products will still be available and we will start to realize some other projects we have in mind.

Do you still have a real social life since you founded the company?

We are trying to. However, there are times when you have more time for your social life and times when you have no time. At the moment we're kind of in between.

Do you have a role model and if so, who is it?

Not specifically. Everyone has the chance to inspire you, but we admire people who put the planet before profit and therefore focus on impact. Right now, that's a really important mindset. But you don't have to be the CEO of a big company to do that. It's really touching what "normal" people achieve in their daily lives.

Let's say you were the governing mayor of Hamburg for a day, what would you change?

We would offer every citizen the chance to be heard - to really be heard. There are a lot of great ideas out there - to move us forward as a city, as a society and as Europe for a sustainable and liveable future. But there are too few people who really listen.