epap reports on the path to a successful finance app

As a former accelerator startup, we are of course particularly pleased to see that you are continuing to develop so positively! What else has happened at your company since we last saw you?

We have managed to build a larger team and have completed both the first formal incorporation with several people and the first round of financing. We have also managed to further grow our product—our app, for example, is much more comprehensive and is used much more than before.

What has particularly helped you in this further development?

Well, on the one hand, we participated in another accelerator program, VentureVilla, here in Hanover, and on the other hand, there was a lot of media attention in our field at the beginning of last year. At the beginning of 2020, a new law on receipt requirements was passed that could not be avoided. This means that all receipts must be printed since the beginning of 2020, unless they can be provided digitally in some way. This circumstance drew a lot of attention to us, as we had developed exactly this digital solution.

How did you end up receiving so much media attention? Just because a new law is passed doesn't mean that the media will find you and your solution.

That's true. It's often said that Germany lacks digitalization. That's why we thought we'd present our proposed solution ourselves, along the lines of “Hey, there's a digital solution to this problem.” So we took a proactive approach and tried to get the press's attention. Among other things, we actively wrote to Gründerszene and asked, “We've got something cool here, would you like to report on it?” And it worked! We got an interview.

This conversation with the start-up scene ... was the catalyst that set everything in motion. An article was written about us, which then led to many other newspapers also becoming interested in reporting on us.

What originally inspired you to come up with the idea for epap?

It was actually my own annoyance at going into a store and paying—which is actually quite modern these days, for example, when I pay with my watch or cell phone—and then still getting a receipt printed out that is 40 cm long. Since I come from an IT background, I asked myself what a solution to this problem might look like. Once I started looking into the issue, I quickly realized that it wasn't rocket science.

All it needed was a solution that was cool and worked well for both retailers and end consumers. So we did a lot of research and looked to see if there was anything that met these requirements. Since there wasn't, we said to ourselves, “Okay, let's just build it ourselves.”

I know that there were two of you at the beginning and that the founding team has changed again. How did that happen and how did you find your new co-founders?

A good friend of mine, Stefan, and I started epap together in Münster. Stefan launched epap with me alongside his job. Starting a business on the side is difficult to reconcile with a startup, so we realized that it was no longer working on the scale that epap had grown to. So I continued with epap on my own full-time for the time being.

The four of us decided to start a real company—now there are 12 of us.

Since I wrote my master's thesis in Hanover, I also moved to Hanover and took epap with me, so to speak. Funnily enough, the university's start-up advisory service put me in touch with Sebastian, who had contacted the university because he had been working on the same idea for six months and had built an app for digital receipts.

The university connected us, and we quickly realized that we were a great fit and had similar ideas about where the company should go. Then, in typical startup fashion, we found our two other co-founders, Gerd and Jannis, at a startup event, who completed our team, also in terms of skills.

You mention that Gerd and Jannis have completed your team. We are all familiar with the famous hacker, hipster, and hustler model for founding teams. In your opinion, what soft skills should be represented in every startup, in addition to the well-known distribution of hard skills?

We realized relatively quickly that everyone needs to have a strong ability to learn and accept criticism. In the beginning, you pivot yourself and your product very quickly, explore many possibilities, and if something doesn't work, you change your approach and possibly do things completely differently than before. As a founder, you can't get stuck on your old idea and should be able to take feedback without taking it personally. That definitely helps.

What difficulties did you have to overcome as a team and in general?

As a team, I have to say that everything worked out wonderfully, considering that we hadn't known each other for very long. However, we noticed that we were sometimes a little too naive when it came to assessing the speed of other companies. As a startup, you always want everything to happen extremely quickly, preferably yesterday.

When you talk to a retailer with several hundred stores, you quickly realize that they are much slower. There, one person cannot decide overnight to work with a startup. It's a lengthy process involving a large number of people on the retailer's side. Accordingly, we have noticed that the distribution of our product on the market is definitely taking longer than planned, and we are still noticing this.

In such a case, what would you want to see changed? Or, to put it another way, what would you like to see for the start-up landscape in Münster and Germany as a whole?

It would be cool if corporations and companies had provided a little more information, for example: What does a start-up do? What defines a start-up? What are the risks? This would create greater awareness that solutions are available and that support can be sought, rather than viewing them as competition. But I think that's a long-term process.

In addition, it would be nice if the startup centers did more to raise awareness of the funding opportunities available. As a founder, it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees at the beginning. This awareness-raising work is particularly important because some funding opportunities are mutually exclusive.

Perhaps this could be solved with a kind of overview that shows which subsidies are available depending on the stage of the startup, so that you have all the information you need to decide on the best way forward.

You have already raised your first round of financing following these funding opportunities. How did you approach this?

We made a long list of potential investors and looked not only at business angels but also at VCs active in the retail sector. For us, such VCs are of course particularly interesting because of their contacts. Since there are not so many VCs in the early-stage area in which we operate, it quickly became clear to us that we would approach business angels in the first step. This worked very well. In the coming round, we are a good deal further along with epap, so we will now also approach VCs.

How did you approach the business angels? You said you had a list full of names: What then?

What helped us most were warm introductions through contacts. They give you an entry point into the conversation and allow you to approach it very differently. Even more impactful back then were pitch events. Especially for early-stage startups, they offer countless opportunities to present yourself and put your idea in front of the right people.

Do you have any tips for pitch beginners?

What helped me most was aiming for four minutes in a five-minute pitch. That gives you some buffer and keeps you from rushing — especially since at the beginning you usually feel the urge to explain everything you do. It’s important to understand that a pitch is just a teaser to open the door for later conversations, where you can really explain and show everything.

What advice would you give to potential founders in the Münsterland region?

I’d advise them to just get started: attend different events—including those organized by the Hub—reach out to clarify any questions, make use of the Accelerator as well, and take in as much feedback as possible in the early stages.

Our app is increasingly moving towards finance: I can track my finances using receipts, or, starting with our next update, connect my own online banking to have receipts and banking transactions in one place.

What is your current vision for epap? As you mentioned at the beginning, you have developed significantly, so I would be interested to hear what your next steps are.

We started out with a very narrow focus: digitizing receipts directly at the checkout for retailers. Over time, we’ve learned a lot about what retailers are actually interested in—and what they want to achieve beyond simple digitization.

The same applies on the user side. We’ve seen, for example, that digital receipts are useful for tracking personal finances or managing warranties.

For retailers, digital receipts unlock even more potential: reaching customers more effectively, collecting feedback, and ultimately getting much more value than just replacing paper with digital.