epap

Why did you start your start-up, which problem do you address and how do you solve it?

Our vision is the reinvention of receipts. In general we see four main problems:

• More than 20 million printed receipts in German retail alone
• Current expenditure in the form of materials, printing and staff
• Unused touchpoints for customers
• Disruptive storage and lack of control for the customer

We aim to solve these problems by providing free digital receipts, establishing dealer-to-customer links and offering an intuitive and easy-to-use household budget book.

How did you come up with the idea to found epap?

Two of our founders recognized the redundancy of printed receipts in the middle of a digitalized world. Independently of each other, they started to develop an app for digital receipts. When they met, they worked together to achieve epap's corporate goal.

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

Our USP is the free use of our product. No matter if it is a bakery, clothing store or food retailer - nobody has to pay for digital receipts. Costs only arise if the retailer wants to use brand receipts, touchpoints etc.

The same applies to the B2C site. Our app with all its main functions is free of charge, monetization is only possible by offering Premium Business and Family Tools.

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

Especially the market entry is very time consuming, because you have to work on important components that occur on different levels.

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

Take part in networking events to find like-minded people and make new contacts.

What has been your greatest success so far?

We recently passed the 10,000 user mark and are now being implemented in 15,000 systems. This is certainly a great moment for us.

What is your next challenge?

The next big step that needs to be taken in the near future is the implementation in as many systems as possible to achieve social relevance. We also aim to have 40,000 users by the end of the year.

What would you recommend to other founders?

Concentrate on the needs of the market, even if the market itself does not yet know them. Don't just build something that you think is really cool, but react quickly and be flexible.

Where did you meet?

Our programmers Fabian and Sebastian got to know each other through the start-up consultancy at Leibniz University in Hanover. They brought their joint idea to a start-up event where they met Jannis and Gerd. That was the starting signal for the foundation of epap.

Where do you see your start-up in three years?

In three years epap will be represented in most German stores. We are striving to integrate epap into the daily life of our customers, basically everywhere where you can go shopping.

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

We would like to see an expansion of sustainable projects. That would possibly include cycle paths and subsidising public transport. We would also like to see support for the local economy, especially start-ups, to be more competitive compared to other hotspots.